King Crimson - THRAK (Live At The Warfield Theatre, 1995)

You and I? We should sit down in a pub together with a glass of our favourite, and I’ll tell you about this performance of Thrak. It’s a powerful instrumental thing from six people on stage. There’s a lot going on, so I’ll try and explain some of it. This is largely improvised music, begun and ended with a 40” written theme. There are two meters running: 5/8 (5/4) and 7/8 (7/4). They are stated clearly at the beginning (head) from 0’09” to 0’49”, with single hits from Pat Mastelotto in his 5 meter, and myself in my 7 meter. After that we’re off the prepared material, and we’re propelled into space to see what happens. From this emerges the ghost of pianist Keith Tippett, conjured up at 1’24” courtesy of Adrian’s MIDI-enabled guitar. Keith was a King Crimson visitor in the early 1970s, rather than a full time member, with the same volcanic power to change things as, say, Jamie Muir. Hear for example his playing on the group’s ‘Cat Food’. The repeated and rapid running figure that the ‘pianist’