King Crimson's "Beat": syncopation, and the compleA repeating of the Beat Generation of the Fifties, guitar figures that one associates withJack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. An Unbeatable Combination Fripp are bent to the service of some Two of the songs here-the grimThe surprisingly lyrical music. Howlerand the bizarre, surrealistic Of Poetic Words and King Crimson has a new. -softer"Neurotica-areabout as romantic as a edge here, and its source is Belew's sen- cold bath, but that there areonlytwo Strong, Rhythmic Music sitive, resourceful, even romantic lyrics.such songs in an album from a band as Themusic'snot soft-as the album ti-eclectic as King Crimson underscores tle suggests, there is a very powerfulthe album's romanticism. "Beat" re- IFyou thought that the reconstituted rhythmic underpinning. But half thetains much of the flavor of its immedi- King Crimson was going to be pri- songs-Nealand Jack and Me, Heart-ate predecessor, "Discipline," butit marily a commercial outlet for Robert beat, Waiting Man,andTwo Hands-seems less frenzied. Belew, Fripp, and Fripp'savant-gardeguitarexperi- have such a strongly poetic quality thatCo. have taken the distinctive sound de- ments, the group's new Warner Bros. their power derives as much from the velopedforthe more experimental album, "Beat," should dispel that no- words as from the intricate musical set- "Discipline" and applied it successfully tion, at least for the time being. There tings.Two Hands,a sensual meditation here to more conventional subjects. The is, to be sure, some technically formida- on a painting of two lovers. clearly be- excellent results suggest that the new ble playing here, particularly in Sartori gan as a poem (the lyrics arc by Belew's King Crimson may be set for a long in Tangier-abrilliant fusion of Afri- wife, Margaret). All four deal with ro- reign. -Mark Peel can polyrhythms, "Frippertronics," and mantic themes: the longings of the Adrian Belew's amazing guitaref- heart, the pain of separation, the inten- fects-and in Requiem, an excursion sity of moments of intimacy. Even the KING CRIMSON: Beat. King Crimson (vo- cals and instrumentals).Neal and Jack and into the outer reaches of accessibility. hard -drivingNeal and Jack and Me,a But for the most part on "Beat," the Me; Heartbeat; Sartori in Tangier; Waiting piece of latter-day beat poetry that setsMan; Neurotica; Two Hands; The Howler; exotic,oftengnarledmelodies, the the tone for the whole album, isin- Requiem.WARNER Bnos./EG1-23692 dense, shifting layers of harmony, the spired by those central romantic figures $8.98, © 4-23692 $8.98.
King Crimson's Robert Fripp: applying a distinctive sound to relatively conventional subjects
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