Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
Kim writes: >So how's this: at the time, I had only listened to one of their albums >years before, when I had borrowed it from a friend for a week. So I could >hardly be described as a fan. So in addition to being totally unfamiliar >with their music, I knew practically nothing about Robert Fripp, aside >>from little tidbits I had picked up here and there from reading Guitar >Player. If there was some magnitude to the event, it was certainly wasted >on me! I, too had an interesting Crimson backstage experience, though I didn't meet up with Mr. Fripp. I had a great time chatting with Tony and Bill, and later Pat (who had gotten the passes), and when I found Adirian, he was talking with Reeves Gabrels (with whom I had been hanging two nights previous after the PJ Harvey concert with Joe Gore on guitar). Anyway, Adrian looks at me, and says "I know you" and of course I re-introduce myself (for the 3rd time) as Jon Durant, Lexicon. To which he says, rather unpleasantly, "oh yeah, right. How'd you get back here?" Gee, Adrian, everyone in the band uses our gear (including yourself), is it so surprising that a couple of 'em offered me tickets, etc? What a dick. Also re: Fripp and Frippertronics/Soundscapes. Earlier, our friend Paolo made reference to the need to go beyond Fripp in this loopage arena, and I heartily applaud him for his words and vision. Last year I bought "Blessing of Tears" with some trepidation. I thought it would blow me away, and I'd feel like an idiot trying to make loop-based music in the face of his maginitude. So I put it on, and immediately begin to feel like I was right. Then, several things happend: 1. the music didn't progress. It built to a level, and stayed there. 2. There were no dynamic shifts, nor were there any moments of absolute release. Just this (beautiful) wash of sound. 3. Then track 2 comes on, and it's the same thing (essentially) as track 1. No textural change, same harmonic structure, no difference from where I sat. As the record wore on, I had to turn it off. Then someone gave me a copy of Radiophonics. It begins with some wild atonal stuff, and I thought "yeah, OK, here we go". But it didn't go anywhere. Just a whole CD's worth of this stuff. Long way of saying, Fripp has great ideas, and is doing interesting work, but it's not enough on its own. I walked away from those two CDs thinking, "He's left the door wide open for the rest of us". Anyway, my $0.02 worth.