King Crimson - Earthbound (Live 1972) (@256)

King Crimson - Earthbound (Live 1972) (@256)

(Review from progarchives.com, progreviews.com)

The recording quality of King Crimson's first live album is little better than that of a bootleg with distortion aplenty, indeed, the sleeve notes actually state that the recordings were captured on a stereo cassette! To be fair, the cassette recorder was plugged into the mixer (sound board), this is not a microphone recording.

Looking through the mist, we find five tracks in total. An 11 minute rendition of "21st century schizoid man" kicks things off, the substantial lengthening of the song being due to improvisations on guitar by Robert Fripp, and sax by Mel Collins. It comes off in many ways more gloriously snaggle-toothed and mind-melting than ever.

As is clearly evident in listening to "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Sailors Tale"; Fripp, Collins, and Wallace as a unit were none the want for instrumental earthshaking. The title track really doesn't sound that far off from Miles Davis from the Black Beauty or Live-Evil era, the bass line at one point virtually duplicating that of his "It's About That Time."

The album shines an interesting flashlight on this short-lived line-up, with some of the material on here standing entirely at odds from anything any other line-up in King Crimson ever tackled. The general folklore about this line-up pursued a path devoted to more down-to-earth jamming of the blues-funk variety.

Though it has some locatable charms for the interested, the album stands very much alone in the Crimson canon.

Line-up :
- Robert Fripp / guitar
- Boz Burrell / bass, vocals
- Mel Collins / alto, baritone & tenor, saxophones, mellotron
- Ian Wallace / drums

Track List :
01. 21st Century Schizoid Man - 11:38
02. Peoria - 7:22
03. The Sailor's Tale - 4:49
04. Earthbound - 6:14
05. Groon - 15:32