[.ca] Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal 1984

Great live recording from an underrated lineup:
I've heard it said that this live album makes the 80s King Crimson studio albums superfluous. Well, don't throw away your copies of Discipline, Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair quite yet -- there are several great tunes that the band didn't perform at this concert. Nevertheless, this is one of the best King Crimson archival releases thus far; the band really burns through the bulk of their 80s tunes, as well as two 70s warhorses ("Red" and "Larks' Tongues pt. 2"). "Entry of the Crims" is pretty intense, with a dissonant guitar duet. "Industry", "Waiting Man", "Dig Me", and "Larks Tongues pt. 3" are all given outstanding performances that completely outstrip the originals. "Discipline" is performed without a hitch, while "Indiscipline" opens with an entertaining drum duet (Belew & Bruford). It's unfortunate that "Neal & Jack & Me", "Neurotica" and "The Sheltering Sky" aren't here in place of inconsequential filler like "Man with Open Heart" and "Heartbeat", but those are minor details. If you like the 1980s King Crimson, you need this; and if you don't, Absent Lovers might change your mind.

Wonderous Document of a Great Band:
This version of King Crimson made tremendous music, particularly on 1981's "Discipline". Nearly all of that material is played here in versions that equal the studio versions for power, precision, and fidelity. Their next two albums, "Beat" and "Three of a Perfect Pair", contained some repetition of ideas and some abstract filler, but also some brilliant music. The brilliant stuff is played here, in versions generally superior to the studio versions. The fidelity is pristine and the music powerful, astonishing in places. It's an astonishing cross of world music style, hard rock aggression, funkiness, diverse rhythms, and flat-out guitar and drum virtuosity ... This band has been criminally underappreciated. This release is a potential antidote, as it presents them at their best, and it sounds undeniably great.

The 80s Bunch Live (4.5 Stars more like):
People did not expect the 80s lineup of King Crimson, which features about as many exquisite musicians in one band as you could ever hope for, to compose stuff that sounded so much like pop music. Appearances can be deceiving, though, and the music is anything but pop. What it is, compared to old Crimson, is much more conventionally song-like in terms of structure, while going millions of light years in every direction with sound, texture and atmospherics. As such, this document of King Crimson live is equally unlike what one had come to expect from King Crimson. Specifically, except for the opening "Entry of the Crims", there is not a single monster improvisation to be found through the whole of both disks. Put more simply, this is simply a concert of already recorded music. Newbies might say, "So what?" to this; established fans might already be turning away in disappointment. As with most live albums, their main interest consists in song selection and performance. Given that there are two disks here, the three albums this lineup originally recorded are almost fully represented--16 out of 25 songs to be specific. All of the versions here are variously more energetic than their originals, and well worth hearing for that reason alone. Aside from this, there are five reasons to buy this album. First, the chance to listen to Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp play their instruments is always worth a listen, even when the band is risking far less than earlier Crimson ever did. Second, as heavier versions of their studio counterparts, the songs also will reward one who listens for subtle variations, both in sound and texture, and naturally Belew's wigged out soundfests. This is a somewhat refined pleasure and the variations are, indeed, perhaps not really appreciable enough to make it a must-buy. Third, two tracks from older Crimson are included, namely "Red" and "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 2", the latter of which is the true concert signature piece for King Crimson it seems. Needless to say, the distance of the orchestration of these songs relative to their originals is immense, and the main interest in them both lies in getting to hear the present band play the older band's material. (Fripp and Bruford, actually, are common to both versions.) Fourth, the opening "Entry of the Crims", which in some ways does a disservice to the album, since it demonstrates what the band on that evening might have been capable of had it launched into improvisation anyway. The piece, actually, is an almost scary marriage of the sonic crushing sensibility of older Crimson wedded to the modern instrumentation of the 80s lineup. Fifth, special mention really has to go to the versions of "Thela Hun Ginjeet", "Three of a Perfect Pair" (which features a totally different, and yet still totally right solo from Belew), and "Industry" (which you wouldn't expect a live version of in the first place, and which is ever so much more menacing than the original...it's just marvelous how this creepy song creeps along and builds). A terrific set of terrific music terrifically played, there's still a sense of the desire on the part of the band to start totally thrakking (which can most easily be heard in "Industry"), but that would have to wait another half-decade to happen.

Great apart from Simmons Drums and some silliness from Belew:
In general terms, this album is a success. Most of the songs are well-performed and there is an infectious energy about the concert. I have a couple of niggling complaints, though. The first is an inevitable consequence of the album's having been recorded in 1984, an era when Simmons drumkits reigned supreme. Such a kit consisted of flat, hexagonal electronic pads that give off a distinctive, non-acoustic sound. Here, Crim drummer Bill Bruford's tom-toms are all Simmons pads. And while there's no doubting the brilliance of his percussives, his choice of kit is the thing that most instantly dates the album. The other drawback is Adrian Belew's ridiculous rendering of the spoken section of "Indiscipline". On the studio version, his crazy little monologue is compact and effective; here, for reasons best known to himself, he plays absolute silly buggers with it, drawing the words and phrases out ludicrously. He sounds like a drunk man, which, given the brilliance of his guitar playing, he clearly wasn't. Overall though, this is a smashing live album.

Amazing:
I'm fairly new to King Crimson, and didn't quite know what to think of them until I heard this live set. This is absolutely the best live set I've heard in a long time. These guys (configuration 4) are amazing musicians, especially Levin and Bruford. My two favorite tracks from this set are Sartori in Tangier and Sleepless. I'm recommending this to my friends and anyone who likes awesome live music!

• Entry of the Crims
• Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 3
• Thela Hun Ginjeet
• Red
• Matte Kudasai
• Industry
• Dig Me
• Three of a Perfect Pair
• Indiscipline
• Sartori in Tangier
• Frame by Frame
• Man with an Open Heart
• Waiting Man
• Sleepless
• Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2
• Discipline
• Heartbeat
• Elephant Talk
• \oCD-Rom Track\c