In the Court of the Crimson King, 40th Anniversary Series

For the musically curious from a later generation who don't know much about King Crimson but want to know where to start, ItCotCK was the band's first album, released in November 1969. Its release had a big impact on the sound of contemporary music at the time: it's considered to be one of the founding cornerstones of what became the genre `progressive rock', a definitively British phenomenon in its heyday in the 1970s which combined not just rock & blues but jazz & classical music, unorthodox combinations of instruments & sounds with longer crossover-style musical pieces.The musicians on ItCotCK were Robert Fripp (electric & acoustic guitars), Greg Lake (bass & vocals), Ian McDonald (a multi-instrumentalist here playing flute, woodwind & keyboards), Michael Giles (drums), and Peter Sinfield (song lyrics, stage lighting, conceptualist). Robert Fripp was later to assume the mantle of band leader and spokesman, and KC eventually became `his' band. However on ItCotCK Fripp did almost none of the writing; most of the compositional work was done by Ian McDonald, with input from Michael Giles and all the song lyrics written by Peter Sinfield.The blistering full-on opener `21st Century Schizoid Man' is an apocalyptic-themed cry against the impersonal machine-age and all its devilry, a dark vision of the future (this was 1969 & horrific images from the Vietnam War such as napalm-burned children filled the world's TV screens every evening). `Schizoid man' is the song everyone identifies with KC, even if they have never heard it. Most of the piece is loud & intentionally harsh: with a powerful driving main theme & vocals distorted through a VCS synthesizer, it moves quickly through different dynamics & time signatures to a crescendo conclusion.In contrast, the rest of the album is mellow, with a quiet woodwind-led ballad `I talk to the wind', a long lounge-jazz improvisation `Moonchild' (Greg Lake later reprised this song structure with `Take a Pebble' when working with ELP) and 2 musically lush majestic pieces, `Epitaph' & the superb title-track which closes the album. The juxtaposition of the orchestral-sounding mellotron (a new hi-tech instrument at the time), acoustic guitar and woodwind produces a rich & satisfying sound. The excellent solo vocal from Greg Lake over a time-skipping rhythm, choral-singing and the mellotron gives the album (and to some extent its follow-up `In the Wake of Poseidon') its special character: it sounds like nothing else before or since. Sinfield's lyrics sound a touch pretentious now but hey, these guys were in their 20s, this was the 1960s and at least it was original.The 40th Anniversary offering:Released in 2009, CD plus audio DVD are presented in a gatefold sleeve decorated throughout with the striking original album cover artwork. A 16-page colour booklet containing all the song lyrics, history of the band, the music and its various releases over the years penned by Sid Smith completes the package.The CD is great for playing in the car for example, but the (lossless & PCM stereo) DVD is the star of the show. The menu is easy to navigate, the sound fabulous. There is a brief monochrome clip of the band playing `21st Century Schizoid man' in Hyde Park in July 1969 to an estimated 500,000 people at the free open-air concert headlined by The Rolling Stones, to an audience looking in equal measure shocked and astounded - presumably at the revolutionary and never-heard-before music assaulting their ears.The original album sounds superb, with a slightly truncated `Moonchild' plus the full version as one of the extras. The package contains a lot of extra material from the archives, lovingly restored to near-perfection by the skill of sound wizard Steven Wilson: alternate takes of `Moonchild' & `I talk to the wind', a purely instrumental version of `Epitaph' & a curious recording of the band discussing how to make certain sounds for `Schizoid man' in the studio.Overall this is probably the best ItCotCK you're likely to hear, offered in a generous package oozing the quality befitting this true classic from the golden age of British prog.BTW Robert Fripp is from Dorset in the West Country, as were several other members of the original line-up. The Crimson King is a type of cider apple, and you can see the apple iconography in the album's distinctive artwork.

The CD disc is great to have for the car or portable player, but in this case it is really very much the "bonus disc".The designers of the DVD-Video/DVD-Audio disc deserve huge praise, as much as do the audio producers. This is the first DVD-Audio disc that I've bought over the years which works faultlessly in my Panasonic DVD-Audio/DVD-Video player as well as in full DVD-Audio mode on my PC when using PowerDVD 7 Deluxe (and DVD-Audio as a feature was the reason I bought that software in the first place).The menus are stylish and easy to navigate, and the content options for high fidelity stereo and surround will completely satisfy listeners with simple stereos right through to those with true high definition multi-channel systems.Before I actually got my hands on this version I'd been thinking they should have gone the Blu-Ray route, but I'm convinced that this is the perfect format for both accessibility and compatibility.The 2009 remix of In The Court Of The Crimson King sounds better than ever, but for old time's sake it's great to also have high definition (PCM and DVD-Audio) versions of the original stereo mix. The "alternative" versions are worthy bonuses - and it's a real treat to hear the full luxury length version of Moonchild. The brief video snippet of the Hyde Park show is amusing.Unparalleled skill, passion and devotion are evident in every aspect of this package (including the artwork and booklet). A stunning start to the 40th anniversary series - and what a mammoth task! I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest (especially Larks Tongues, Discipline and Three Of A Perfect Pair).

For those wondering whether there are any sonic differences between this release - the CD stereo remaster and the 30th Anniversary and subsequent improved 2004 editions - there is indeed improvement on this 2009 release over the ones from 5 & 10 years ago; these improvements are not as obvious as those on the new Lizard edition, where such differences are noticed straight away, but this 2009 edition of 'ItCotCK' does sound better, with all instruments - guitars & drums in particular - sounding fuller/ clearer, with even better instrument separation.You will notice/ discover new sounds which did not 'seem to be there before', making this album sound even more remarkable than it already had.Unlike other remastered albums by other artists, here the quiet bits remain quiet, and the loud ones remain loud, i.e. this is not (only) aimed at the mp3 generation, though this new edition converted to mp3 files sounds superb.The bonus tracks/ takes are also quite good & very interesting, though the final takes that made it to the official release remain the best ones, IMO. Moonchild has been edited/ shortened but you do get the full (unedited) original version - also remastered - as a bonus track.Haven't had a chance to listen to the DVD-A yet, but if the stereo CD version is this good, then the DVD-A will very likely be even better sounding.

Even without the bonus tracks this would be 5 star. Will anyone ever do anything this different and this good again?

This was my very first Progressive Album when it first came out in 1969 on vinyl, I suppose I was attracted to the picture on the cover,I never seen anything like it on a Album cover before.Anyway back to CD in my eyes this was their best CD by far,I just love Greg Lakes voice on the Album especially on Epitaph & The Court of The Crimson King,soon afterwards he left the group to join Emerson Lake & Palmer. This 40th Anniversary CD has bonus tracks on it,as well as a DVD.The CD sound quality is superb and sounds so clean compared to other earlier issues on CD.The whole Album is absolutely brilliant . SO GET THIS CD, IT'S A BLAST FROM THE PAST![ROCK]

Bonne production et qualité du son….impressionnant

Mucho me han molestado las mezclas de Giles Martin para los últimos 5.1 de The Beatles. Me arriesgué con esta edición y debo admitir que el trabajo de Steven Wilson es sencillamente genial. Además los tracks extras del cd no tienen desperdicio. Compra obligada si eres fan.

È un capolavoro. Punto. Questa edizione, poi, è stupenda. Amazon affidabile come sempre.

Sehr gut

El vinilo venía con arañazos en la zona baja del disco uno. Es una pena que un artículo tan caro y tan delicado se haya tratado tan mal en su período de embalaje-.