1972-October-13 + 1972-November-13 King Crimson 72-Oct-13: Live At The Zoom Club (KC Collectors' Club 20) The Zoom Club - Frankfurt, Germany 72-Nov-13: Live In Guildford (KC Collectors' Club 24) Civic Hall - Guildford, England Disc 1 - 78.31 1 Larks' Tongues 1 8.22 72-Oct-13 2 Book Of Saturday 3.16 3 Zoom 22.03 4 Improv: Zoom Zoom 44.48 Disc 2 - 79.17 1 Easy Money 4.08 72-Oct-13 2 Improv: Fallen Angel 4.12 3 Improv: Z'Zoom 4.48 4 Exiles 8.36 5 The Talking Drum 6.13 6 Larks' Tongues 2 8.37 7 Larks' Tongues 1 8.58 72-Nov-13 8 Book Of Saturday 4.23 " 9 Improv 25.38 " 10 Exiles 3.40 " Bill Bruford Drums David Cross Violin, Flute, Mellotron Robert Fripp Guitar, Mellotron Jamie Muir Percussion John Wetton Bass, Vocals Notes that came with the 72-Oct-13 recording: Mastered audience recording. ProgArchives reviews: Perhaps two stars might be more proper rating for this strange artifact from the dusty vaults of King Crimson (for collectors and fans only), but I'm personally so interested about this material, that I'll go for three stars. But it's a tough decision... This double CD has maybe the longest improvisations this line-up ever did, one of them runs over 44 minutes and it's faded out as the tape probably ran out before the jam ended! The sound quality is quite poor, but you can hear all of the instruments. Most versions of their basic repertoire are not very good performances, but it interesting to listen how some of their future numbers have evolved. There are some very familiar riffs and rhythms heard in some of the jams, which were later matured to complete songs (like "Fallen Angel", "Lament" and "Dr. Diamond"). I would suggest this double CD for fans of King Crimson's line-up with Jamie Muir and for those who are interested of chaotic improvisational music. As this is a KCCC release (and there's also the "original" bootleg moving around), a casual consumer probably won't buy this by mistake from the shop. Elephant Talk reviews: Out of all the Collectors Club discs, this is the one that I was most anxiously awaiting,especially after my appetite for the Larks Tongues lineup was wet by the Bremen, Beat Club release. In my opinion KC wasn't the same without Muir even though Bruford truly did expand his playing after Muir's exit, something that might have never happened had Muir never been in the band in the first place. Bruford may have remained a "Yes" (rock) drummer for life without his influence. It's sad that Muir was only a member for a short time, and there are so few listenable live recordings with him as a member. A box set of this lineup's shows would be worth the money. Although sonically, Beat Club is superior,we don't get a full show from this lineup on that release. A marvelous job was done here taking an audience bootleg and mastering it to be listenable. We hear great examples of the 20 and 40 minute improvs this lineup was capable of. On the composed pieces the only thing really lacking is the fact that the vocals are not very clear. On "Book Of Saturday" though the audio is good enough to decipher the early alternate lyrics when this tune was known as "Daily Games". In general the arrangements of "Book Of Saturday". "Exiles", and "Easy Money" are quite different from how they ended up on Larks Tongues. At one point in "LTIA Pt 2" it appears that Fripp's guitar cuts out, and Wetton covers the part, if I'm hearing correctly. Despite claims to the contrary, the sound on this disc is not all that bad; I expected worse. The music is presented more as a straight-ahead rock jam record for the most part. The improvs are very long takes and feature blistering performances by all band members. This being the first live set for the Muir period band, one wonders why his performance here seems much more muted than say the Bremen CD, particularly on the improvs - compare The Rich Tapestry of Life and say Zoom Zoom--the former has much more nuisance in terms of the background sort of little madnesses that Muir was noted for - one could claim some of the nuisance is lost due to the sound quality of Zoom Club as a whole. But these are for the record comments only. The playing of the band is phenomenal and seem quite tight considering the short time they were together up to that point. The band must have been running on pure adrenaline to keep up the pace on the longer pieces. Other highlights: Easy Money sounds downright pastoral, LTIA2 is a bit extended and includes a pleasant coda on mellotron to end the show, and the Fallen Agent riff is welcome. I have been listening to this record over and over as I'm sure others have who love this period of the band. Thanks to Fripp and Co. for another interesting blast from the past. ============================================================= Notes that came with the 72-Nov-13 recording: ProgArchive review: Among with now officially released 1972 live records "The Beat Club, Bremen" and "Live At The Zoom Club", this album "Live in Guildford, 1972" presents us the concerts which established the Wetton / Cross / Muir line-up of King Crimson, and also show up the birth process of their classic "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" album. When comparing to the two albums mentioned first, this album has maybe the best quality of sound of them. The show opens with a very aggressive version of "Larks' Tongues 1", and that distorted tone of Fripp's guitar is just a pure killer. The two second movements after the violent main theme are here quite similar, later the bass and drum patterns evolved separating these moments as more different from each other. The number is also here longer than in the Beat Club performance, having the violin "Larks' Ascension" solo part, missing only the nightmarish coda, which ends the studio version and later performances of this brilliant avant-garde number. The violin tunes are followed with "Book of Saturday", creating a nice contrast and a calm moment to the more violent and chaotic moments here. Here the song has some tambourine backing it up, usually it doesn't have much percussions played over it. The name of the song is also yet "Daily Games" according to Fripp's following polite and disciplined speech (these are fun as they sound so different when compared to the passionate and impulsive music of the concerts in my opinion). The speech also reveals that the set should end up with "Larks' Tongues in Aspic - part two", which sadly didn't got on this recording, as the tape ran out too quickly. The next "attack towards culture" is a freeform collective improvisation which is built up by the same principles as the long improvisation "The Rich Tapestry Of Life" from the Beat Club concert; It opens up with really loud and violent communal crashing of the instruments, and then stage is free, players presenting themes and demanding reactions from others. If you like interactive jamming and old rock sounds with Mellotrons, here's a gourmet dish of this for you! All of the moments aren't most the successful, and the longer similar jam referred on the Beat Club set is maybe little more better, but this is good too. The record ends to the beginning of the harmonic "Exiles" rising up from the "Mantra" theme, which was used also in the 1969 concerts as an opener for other musical ideas. The version here is incomplete, and the tape runs out after three minutes, which is a really sad thing, and it's not very much worth of several listening, but from the documentary point of view it's good to have it here, as it's nice to hear how Muir coloured the beginning with his bird whistles, and the last track of the CD is easy to skip. For me it's difficult to say which would be best of the three official live albums with Muir, but this and "The Beat Club, Bremen" are clearly better than the 2CD Zoom Club, which has lots of interesting long improvisations, but has partially very poor sound quality. If you are fond of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" album, I would recommend to try listening this one or the Beat Club CD, as they bring an interesting deeper insight to these magical moments of this band, which often succeeded better on the live stage than in the studio (though they often succeeded there too). Also hunting down all of these interesting concert recordings is a fun collecting hobby which could be compared to the collecting of stamps. These records are only more funnier than old stamps as they have violent, neurotic, passionate and beautiful music in them, beating up the silent posting marks at least for me! Elephant Talk review: I just received the newest club release from November 1972. Let me first say that I’m disappointed that the CD runs for only 40 minutes or so. Other than that caveat, I quite enjoyed the music within. I should add that the quality is much better than I expected it would be—better than Bremen, better than the double CD Zoom Club release. I think the band sounds a lot more focused this time around. (tis wonder a month or so makes to get everyone in sync to some extent) Larks Pt 1 is fresh and we get more sardonic quips from Mr F about nicotine addiction. The crowning piece is the 25 minute improv—quite reminiscent of the the Bremen Improv but, imho, much better work from Fripp and Cross. Bruford’s drums are more pronounced, too. Muir’s allsorts is a bit muted which I find agreeable—he’s there just no bag of leaves and whistles and such. I shouldn’t forget to say that Wetton’s playing is strong as ever.