King Crimson's music has always been more than the sum of its individual musicians, as its new incarnation showed. Odd time signatures, superior musicianship, innovative instrumentation, complex jams and a fusion of modern rock, jazz and classical styles are what make the band unique. Crimson's musicians have always been willing to experiment with new instruments, from the first guitar synths in the 1980s to today's custom-made instruments and effects.

Trey Gunn gave me an insight into King Crimson's use of unusual instruments such as the Chapman Stick and Warr Guitar as alternatives to the usual guitar/bass/drums set-up. "I haven't touched a guitar for 5 years. I also haven't touched a bass in over 10, but it still seems to stick (?) to me.

"I've been playing the Stick for 8 years now. When I first began with the Stick nobody wanted to hear about it. Now that there is finally some real interest in the instrument, I am actually working with a newer instrument - the Warr Guitar. The Warr Guitar is a touch-style instrument like the Stick. I have two models - one that is configured just like my Stick (tunings and # of strings) and another that is a simple mono 8-string. The 8-string is what I have been playing on the current Crimson tour and seems to be becoming my real instrument. The main difference between the Stick and the Warr is that the Warr can be played like a Stick and like a conventional guitar (picking and plucking in addition to just tapping).

"My touch-style playing evolves through the contexts that I am working in. For a while I'm a bass, then I'm a clavichord, then I'm a soloist, now I'm texture. It all adds up to a huge amount of sound. Sometimes I even get quite confused as to what I do!"

Vrooom Vrooom Vrooom

Some of the Vrooom EP material later turned up in a reworked form on Thrak (1994), described by Fripp in a press release as "56:39' of songs about love, dying, redemption and mature guys that get erections." The album displayed some of Fripp's characteristic dry humour, such as the track "Coda: Marine 475" which refers to the Lloyds collapse and litigation with E.G. Management. It also featured experiments with Frippertronics, now dubbed Soundscapes, and various band improvisations. Belew continued experimenting with cut-up techniques to write lyrics, whilst his vocals had matured from David Byrne impersonations into his own voice: a warped White Album-era John Lennon. Belew himself acknowledged Fripp's role as "a kind of damage control . . . someone very much in tune with the band's ideas." You get the impression from watching Crimson's live shows that the usually seated Fripp is the band's stable foundation, the eye in a raging aural hurricane.

Depth Psychology of the Double Trio

Unofficial indications suggest that the "double trio" concept is yet to mature, with only the tracks "Vrooom" and "Vrooom Vrooom" showing the band's full potential. Trey Gunn contends that despite some criticism, "the double trio is workable, because it does work. It is not the easiest way of playing. For instance Tony Levin and I have to be very careful. In some venues it is nearly impossible for us on stage to tell what it really sounds like out front. So, in an improvising context in can be devastatingly hard. but, it can also be a huge and wonderful assault on the senses.

"Our current approach to the double-trio has been based on our first two weeks of writing together (we really haven't done anymore writing than that). Our aim for the next period of material is to take the concept further."

Interestingly the "double trio" Crimson configuration appears to have been formed with the interplay of two different musical approaches - a Guitar Craft axis (Fripp, Gunn & Mastellotto), with the remaining members of the 1980s incarnation (Belew, Levin and Bruford) forming the second trio. Another factor that makes the double trio formation different is that tracks like "Vrooom Vrooom" showed an awareness of King Crimson's past, with Fripp integrating an unused portion of the song "Red" into the track's middle section. Many other tracks referred subtly to the band's back catalogue, whilst live versions of "The Talking Drum" and "Indiscipline" were reinterpreted to accommodate the extra musicians.

Throughout late 1994 and most of 1995 the band toured Europe, the US, Japan and the UK, after initial rehearsals and dates in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fripp had long argued against live bootlegs, as he believed that they failed to capture the atmosphere of a unique event, but when an Italian bootleg company released a poor bootleg of the band's early Argentinian concerts, Crimson retaliated with B'Boom (1995), a double CD album recorded to DAT straight from the soundboard of the early concerts. This strategy later gave birth to the King Crimson Collector's Club, an ongoing series of 'authorized' live and studio bootlegs, featuring archival photographs, rare tracks and specially written essays for each release.

This release pleased the global network of hardcore Crimson fans (Fripp dubbed them 'Crimheads'). According to Gavin, "Fripp views the pressures of fame and hero worship as necessary suffering . . . When we were touring Europe in 1991, fans often tried to interrupt performances or try to meet him . . ." Many fans now network through Elephant Talk, a dedicated Internet-based discussion list for all things Crimson.

Fripp also conducted solo Soundscapes concerts in Argentina and the US, releasing the next phase of his ambient experiments with several albums due over 1995-96. His use of new equipment and digital recording techniques has brought a new subtlety to a field that Fripp has been at the forefront of.

Future Tour Plans

King Crimson toured North America and Japan throughout 1995 and Trey Gunn told me that "we are breaking from live work until next summer (June '96), though we will be working on new material in various configurations between now and then. We have no present studio album plans." Trey also confirmed the rumour of a live video - "we did record two shows in Japan on film, which we hope (?) to release in 1996." The long-awaited release of archival footage is also rumoured.

When Crimson's management were asked if the band planned to venture into the Pacific Rim soon, they replied that they were looking at possible venues, but also referred to the high instrument/equipment transport costs required and the band's preference for playing smaller venues to ensure a greater rapport with the audience. But according to Gunn, "it's just a matter of how we choose to organize our time. We'd love to tour deep into the Pacific Rim. Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand would all be great."

Paradise Regained: The Rise-to-Globalism of Discipline Global Mobile

The final piece in the jigsaw was the formation of Discipline Global Mobile (DGM) in 1994. Since its inception, DGM has distributed with both major and independent labels worldwide. It works with "friendly dinosaurs" like Virgin Records, as well as other labels such as the New Zealand based Rattle Records, whom released the early Gitbox Rebellion material.

DGM can be seen as another stage in a trend that has created companies such as Henry Rollins' 2.13.61, Madonna's Maverick label or Frank Zappa's Barking Pumpkin, in protecting the copyright of its artists. An allied firm, Possible Productions, briefly served as mail-order distributor for merchandise and albums recorded by Crimson, the Guitar Craft ensembles and solo works. These companies allow greater artistic control and direct marketing/networking to the legions of hardcore fans, whilst avoiding the costly promotions/recording costs that burden musicians contracted to major labels.

"DGM is amazing . . . they basically function as a non profit company," Nigel Gavin told me. "It operates very much along Guitar Craft philosophy - when we recorded the Gitbox material, we sent them the artwork and master tapes, and they did the rest. Once the costs are covered, the artists receive most of the profit, whilst retaining artistic control and freedom over their product." DGM continued its string of independent releases in 1996 with albums by Gitbox Rebellion and the Europa String Choir in early 1996.

The formation of DGM and the return of King Crimson is just another phase in the continuing careers of its respective musicians. King Crimson has served as the blueprint of survival for a new generation of artists, but also as a vehicle for a higher, spiritual mission - to reintroduce in a new form the concept of sacred music to Western Civilization. The guerilla tactics and philosophies of the Mephistophelian Fripp and his colleagues are a timely reminder of the constant battle between commerce and art, serving ultimately as the reconciliation between the two: proof that musicians can survive economic pressures of the capitalist system and its conformist tendencies with their integrity and creativity intact.

Endnotes:

[1] Guitar Player (February 1996). 91.