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Track Listings
| 1. A Scarcity of Miracles |
| 2. The Price We Pay |
| 3. Secrets |
| 4. This House |
| 5. The Other Man |
| 6. The Light of Day |
Product Description
Review
Yet the ProjeKct experiments weren’t ever about a single given style, but more to do with evolving beyond a creative impasse. The catalysing force this time is guitarist/vocalist Jakko Jakszyk (the only non-Crimson member present here), whose extrapolations of the initial improvised guitar duets with Fripp into ornate full-scale songs is a stunning achievement.
Whilst Fripp is hailed for his acerbic, angular playing whether with King Crimson or via his ‘wild card’ appearances with Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Brian Eno et al, there’s always been a yearning streak in his work which he gives full rein throughout. His clean and sparse lines carve a heartbreaking melodicism and aching melancholy on the title-track and undulating waves of The Price We Pay. As ever, Fripp’s incisive fretwork is devastating.
Mel Collins, playing with Fripp for the first time since 1974’s Red, was always every bit the equal of the feted guitarist. Here he focuses on concise but telling sax commentaries rather than any obvious soloing. Across the rumbling grooves of Secrets, he turns in mocking soliloquies and some spectacular soaring choruses that nag and push at the prowling gravity of bassist Tony Levin and drummer Gavin Harrison.
The sombre mood hanging over the album is matched by a terse sense of restraint which only breaks cover for the explosive paranoia of The Other Man and the discursive atonalities of The Light of Day which closes the album. An especially bleak Fripp/Jakszyk improvisation is disconsolately adorned by multi-tracked voices and gouging scrawls of acidic sax. It’s dark and powerful stuff.
A Scarcity of Miracles is a branching of the Crimson family tree with the co-option of an external member, and as unprecedented as it is unexpected. Whether it continues to grow further is anyone’s guess. On the basis of what’s here, let’s hope it does.
--Sid Smith
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Customer Reviews
Islands is my favourite KC album and this reminds me so much of that masterpiece.
If you like KC just buy this and give your ears a treat.
One slight flaw in the overal effect is the over use of the soundscapes by Mr.Fripp, but that is just my personal opinion.
May I also point you in the direction of a new album called The Meanderings Of A Tormented Mind, this debut insrumental prog album has a lot to offer, have a listen on Amazon, you might be pleasantly surprised.The Meanderings Of A Tormented Mind
Overall, the King Crimson gene is definitely alive and well, sometimes more obviously than others. This album has the feel of another Krim resurgence about it in my humble opinion.
It ticks a lot of boxes. The playing is first class, all musicians working together so well that they sound like they have been doing this for decades. Mel Collins playing reminds me of Dave Leibman(Miles Davis, Panagaea for example) and Andy Mackays on Avalon. It is fluid, free flowing and the album would be a lesser experience without it. Tony Levin plays, well Tony Levin style bass. I doubt if he broke sweat during the recording of the album, but again adds a distinctive feel and subterranean hue to the proceedings that someone else might have missed(John Wettons monster growling Fender would not have been appropriate here). Gavin Harrison, another worthy sticks man, having proven his Crimson chops during the very last tour the band did, here shows a more sensitive side, never over egging the pudding, just coercing the rhythm along with a gentle hand. Jakko Jakysyk, great guitar player, great singer, but not my cup of tea lyrically. Too navel gazing for my taste. Robert Fripp is, as one would expect, well up to the mark, although somewhat subdued in the mix. This is not the Robt Fripp showcase, rather the Robt Fripp masterclass in applied sonic tapestry.
Overall a superb sounding album. I however miss Ade Belews lyrics(stunning, when he was on the rev. Significantly more hits than misses), or Robert Palmer-James'.
Let us consider some facts:
1) It has the glorious lyrical (if slightly fuzzy) Fripp on guitar
2) There... Read more
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