Music Reviews

King Crimson

Vrooom Vrooom

Discipline Global Mobile

Vrooom! Thrak! B’boom! Albums, or episodes of Batman? You decide, but this double live CD set won’t make it easy. Both plow through the dark urban conduits with great precision and stealth. They know right where they’re headed and why, and the most effective way to get there. The Dynamic Duo meets the Double Trio.

Concentrating largely on the last two decades of Crimson material, Vrooom Vrooom consists of two shows – New York City in November 1995, and Mexico City in August 1996 – with the “double trio” lineup of six players. That includes Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, of course, Adrian Belew, and Robert Fripp.

Right away, they chunka-chunka-chomp their way through the special, strong, insistent heavy metal alloy that only flows from the Crimson smelts. They can’t stop plundering their way straight at you like a corps of synchronized tanks or ice-skating figure-eights around each other inside your head. No messing around like the esoterically unattainable over-indulgent live experiments from Thrak or the like. This is the one if you’re looking for live KC at their best. Sprinkled about are a few sonicscapes, and some very alluring drum “interlude” passages with ever evolving percussive palettes, plus the occasionally slithery segue. Even a lighthearted, stripped down aim at The Beatles recent “Free as a Bird.” Padding for the boulders.

Discipline. Vision. Victory. Carpé Vrooom.

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