Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Papus79]

I know we've got some big King Crimson fans here. Looks like Adrian Belew and Toni Levin are getting out with Steve Vai and Danny Carey (Tool) to cover Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair.

[Sy Borg]

Where's the Like button? :)

Robert Fripp is incredibly difficult to replace and Steve Vai would be one of the few capable f filling his shoes. Danny Carey is a good choice too, as Crimson drummer Bill Bruford was a major influence on young Danny when he was coming up.

[Pattern-chaser]

They will come together this fall for an extensive tour across North America performing repertoire from these three KING CRIMSON iconic albums.

The BEAT tour will begin in San Jose, California on September 12 at San Jose Civic, with the final show planned for November 8 at Las Vegas, Nevada's The Theater at Virgin Hotels.

Bah! They're only touring in some foreign country. Why not include the UK, the country where King Crimson was born?

[Pattern-chaser]

Where's the Like button?

Robert Fripp is incredibly difficult to replace and Steve Vai would be one of the few capable of filling his shoes.

Years ago, I saw a "G3" concert featuring the Fripp, with Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. It was a pretty amazing concert. And Joe Satriani, maybe the least technically-proficient of the three, was the *nicest*. He offered genuine thanks to the audience for the chance to perform extended versions of pieces, with lengthy solos, and so forth. He told us that such indulgence is not normal for rock audiences, and thanked us for the opportunity to let rip. I was more than happy for them to do just that, as were the rest of the assembled throng. Incredible night.

Mr Vai had a dreadful cold that night, as I remember. He looked really ill, but his playing was as it always is. Remember when Zappa, on the sleeve notes for "Jazz from hell" (?), credited Mr Vai with the "impossible guitar bits". And Zappa, who penned those words, was a guitar virtuoso in his own right.

[Sy Borg]

Steve, of course, will be acutely aware that there is a quality about Fripp's playing that is purely his own and unrepeatable. Like Andy Summers, a lot of Fripp's best work is in his accompaniment rather than his solos. Those subtle textures and flourishes, or those relentless ostinatos.

[Pattern-chaser]

Ooo! "Ostinatos"!

[baker]

Self-explanatory.

[Papus79]

[Papus79]

Really getting the warm fuzzies from JLM Production's recent releases. Spatial in general is super-proggy dnb, I wouldn't compare it to Bukem's Good Looking, way more atmospheric and immersive - ie. the kind of stuff that's great for earbuds on a morning hike.

[Papus79]

[Pattern-chaser]

I played this album yesterday, the first time for a while. They have an amazing bassist. He plays chords on his bass. He may not be Jaco, but he's one of the most interesting bass players I've ever encountered.

Back when giant carnivorous bass players ruled the Earth, Back Door were the hungriest of them all. They formed in 1971 as a jazz-rock trio, with Colin Hodgkinson (bass, vocals), Ron Aspery (keyboards, sax), and Tony Hicks (drums). Later Adrian Tilbrook took over on drums. What sets Back Door apart is the bass playing. While a few bassists -- such as Chris Squire, John Entwistle, and Jack Bruce -- have tried exploiting the bass' potential as a lead instrument, they were confined by bands where the guitar or keyboards were the usual lead. Not Colin Hodgkinson; he dispenses with these instruments altogether, allowing the bass to be the sole lead instrument. He strums chords on it the way you'd expect someone to with a six-string. Later bands like Ruins and Sadhappy have taken up this challenge, but many of Back Door's achievements remain unsurpassed.

After releasing four albums on Warner between 1973 and 1976, and touring with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, they broke up in 1977. Hodgkinson went on to play with Jan Hammer, Alexis Korner, and the Spencer Davis Group. He even had his moment of crotch-grabbing fame as the bassist on the UK version of Whitesnake's massive-selling album Slide It In. After a move to Germany, he recorded for the Inakustik label, with the Electric Blues Duo and with the Spencer Davis Group.

[Papus79]

[Papus79]

[baker]

I've never been quite able to relate to DNB, but couldn't figure out how come. So the other day I googled "DNB played with drums and a bass" and found drummers who play DNB (and jungle) manually. This is when DNB started to make sense to me, and it's the kind of music I can listen to with interest.
There is something about understanding the physicality of a sound that makes it relatable to me.

(Esp. the first piece in this session)

[Papus79]

I've never been quite able to relate to DNB, but couldn't figure out how come. So the other day I googled "DNB played with drums and a bass" and found drummers who play DNB (and jungle) manually. This is when DNB started to make sense to me, and it's the kind of music I can listen to with interest.
There is something about understanding the physicality of a sound that makes it relatable to me.

(Esp. the first piece in this session)

For me it's the craftsmanship and the rare quality of the energy (it's part of why I don't really care for the pop side of dnb - it loses what I came for). I came up playing guitar (got a cheap Peavy Predator from my parents with an amp for my birthday). I had the chance to noodle around, figure out what I liked and didn't like, got to hear a lot of great rock bands just by way of having a slightly older friend of the family where his bedroom and basement was this massive library of everything from grung, punk, thrash metal, etc. to trip hop and related stuff. I think that's where, for me, music's always been more of a magical incantation than a concern specifically about the physicality (or even lack of it).

Like this for example - really nice generative / creative space and it feels like the space speaks it's own volumes:

The above comes from a 1996 Metalheadz record label compilation called 'Platinum Breakz I'. The whole first side from Dillinja's 'The Angels Fell' onward is amazing. The second 'disc' has a lot of great tracks that get deeper and more abstract until the end. A lot of those tunes on the first side feel especially 'sentient', like the author is dropping you off inside their head and you're floating in that abstract space. That last part doesn't bother me at all because, for me that's always been the 'spiritual' aspect of music - like you can close your eyes, start with a flat gray Blendr X/Y/Z graph, and just let your mind fill that space with whatever the music brings in.

To put a point on something though - this is very much 'headphone music'. If you're just listening to it from $20 stereo or a phone with no earbuds it won't really transmit much. You don't need $100 plus audio but just something that can wrap the environment around your head.

And then getting to 'dark rolling techstep', the stuff I really fell in love with initially and still love when I can find it done right, it's the closest thing to real life Harry Potter magic that I can think of in a lot of cases.