Beat

Artist: King Crimson
Label: Caroline
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording reissued
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 724381011621
EAN: 0724381011621
ASIN: B00005AFMS

Release Date: 2001-05-15

Beat

Related Categories:

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock

| Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Psychedelic Rock

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Classic Rock

| Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Progressive

| Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

Neal and Jack and Me
Heartbeat
Sartori in Tangier
Waiting Man
Neurotica
Two Hands
Howler
Requiem

Similar Items:

Three of Perfect Pair
Discipline
Discipline
Starless And Bible Black
Larks' Tongues in Aspic

Album Description

Beat is an album filled with varied guitar textures, highlighting Robert Fripp's Frippertronic tape techniques, explorations and Bill Bruford's uncommon drum rhythms. 8 tracks. 2001 reissue. Standard Jewelcase.

Album Details

LP sleeve packaging.

Customer Reviews:

After a giant leap, a small (but interesting) step backward for Crimson.......2005-09-03

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the "Beat: 30th Anniversary" edition arrive just a little early? "Beat" was originally released in 1982, so its 30th anniversary won't occur until 2012. Anyway...

"Beat" has a rough, unfinished quality to it, evidenced by the stingy running time and meandering nature of Adrian Belew's lyrics. Indeed, Sid Smith's authorized biography of the band (the excellent "In the Court of King Crimson") confirms that recording "Beat" was a bit of ordeal for the Crims. Apparently, the river of inspiration that resulted in 1981's masterful, groundbreaking "Discipline" had slowed to a trickle. Where "Discipline" reveled in the excitement of discovery, "Beat" struggles within Crimson's self-defined, insular milieu.

"Beat" begins promisingly enough. The intro of "Neal and Jack and Me" recapitulates Crimson's "Discipline" sound - a tangle of intertwining, Gamelan-style guitars - before Belew jumps in with a typically idiosyncratic rant, based loosely on the experiences of Beat poets Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac (hence the album's title). "Heartbeat" is a catchy, tastefully written, flawlessly executed four-minute gem, perhaps the closest Crimson ever came to writing a pop song. Other standout tracks include the percussive, atmospheric "Two Hands" and the gently percolating "Waiting Man," both of which feature Belew's voice at its melodic best.

Unfortunately, several tracks invite unfavorable comparisons to earlier Crimson efforts. The frenetic, slam/beat poetry of "Neurotica" pales in the wake of Belew's more inspired spiels on "Discipline's" "Elephant Talk" and "Indiscipline." The intro of "Sartori in Tangier" evokes the haunting electric violin of 1974's "Fallen Angel," before segueing into a slightly cheesy funk rhythm evocative of low-budget 1980s film soundtracks (this is one of the few times Crimson has dated themselves). "Requiem" harks back to the jazzy, improvisational style of Crimson's mid-70's era. But where earlier Crimson instrumentals such as "Fracture" and "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" achieved catharsis through a disciplined approach, "Requiem" aimlessly meanders toward an anticlimactic conclusion.

"Beat" only intermittently succeeds in achieving Crimson's self-defined standard of excellence. Listening to this record will remind you how great "Discipline" was - and that's not such a good thing for "Beat."

Great followup to "Discipline"-- KC keeps moving........2005-03-29

An unfairly lamented album, "Beat" had the incredible misfortune of being the followup to one of the truly great records of its era. Tension abounded as the band sought new directions, and while stories of Fripp storming out of the studio at one point abound, through all this, the most difficult of the three 80s Crimson albums was born.

Named "Beat" as it took its inspiration from the beat poets, nothing shows this quite as clearly as "Neal and Jack and Me"-- an overt reference to Neal Cassidy and Jack Kerouac, filled with a driving beat, guitar pyrotechnics, and a great half shouted vocal from Belew, wrapped in interlocking guitars, its clear things have changed. This is about it for interlocking guitars-- there's a couple funky songs, with driving sort of beats, the instrumental "Sartori in Tangiers" and the frantic paced and crazed "Neurotica", which features a great break that takes the pace down before popping back up in intensity.

This one has no less than three ballads, two of which succeed and one of which ("Two Hands") is pretty much throwaway in my book. Hoewever, "Heartbeat" is a great love song, far and away the most straightforward the band has ever done-- it is however responsible for the opinion that Belew was putting a pop spin on the band, and I suspect if they did it over again, this one may not have made it. "Waiting Man" however is brilliant, featuring syncopated rhythms, a wonderful vocal from Belew, may be the best track on the album.

The album closes on a bizarre note, leaning towards the future in a way-- "The Howler", with its twisted guitars and the instrumental and brutal "Requiem". Full of angst ridden guitars and darkness, this one feels older, timeless in a way, full of the sort of darkness Crimson has been known for over the years-- almost out of place on this one, but one of the great moments of the '80s Crimson.

Its not as good as "Discipline", but "Beat" is a unique and interesting record. Definitely worth checking out.

A Slightly More Accessible Twin to "Discipline".......2003-11-28

If "In the Wake Of Poseidon" was the carbon copy of "In the Court Of the Crimson King," then "Beat" is the identical twin of "Discipline." It carries most of the same elaborate musical and studio techniques, and the same amazingly complex structures. However, the songs on this 1982 release are often more easily accessible than those on "Discipline"; for instance a song like 'Heartbeat' is a much more easily approached than other great songs that appeared on "Discipline," like 'Thela Hun Ginjeet.' However, this is still King Crimson, so the accessibility is at a minimum. "Beat" is also the first Crimson album to possess a sound that actually reflects its era--here, much of the music has a distinctively 80s flare. With most albums, the ring of the 80s would be a drawback, but with "Beat" is somehow sounds perfect.
The lineup of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford--arguably one of the band's best versions--soars as high as it did on their previous album together, and sometimes soars identically; the guitar of the opener 'Neal and Jack and Me' features a guitar noise that sounds almost exactly like 'Frame By Frame,' a past song. But elsewhere, "Beat" triumphs. Belew's vocals are as brilliantly loony as ever, especially on the never-dull 'Neurotica.' 'Waiting Man' meanwhile features a more subtle vocal, the heartache it induces matched only by Fripp's achieving guitar. This is also perfected on 'Heartbeat' and 'Two Hands,' the latter of which was lyricized by Margaret Belew in a less inspiring manner. The almost anthemic 'Requiem' closes the album suitably.
"Beat" is probably the closest the Crims ever came to actually sounding like something else that was being released at the time. And though it sounds much like an 80s album, "Beat" finds King Crimson throwing away any cliche associated with it and making it their own.

80s pop de la Crim == AWESOMENESS........2003-04-23

It has a share of detractors I guess, but I think _Beat_ earns a respectable place in the King Crimson catalogue. Perhaps the most consistently accessible they've ever sounded, _Beat_ is also important because it most successfully bridges the unique sound of Crimson's 80s rock language and the hook laden new wave influence. Catchy music is an art in itself, after all -- especially when you make no compromises with a song's complexity.

It's (almost) all quite ear-pleasing and accessible, yet complex enough to be consumed by it. Hard to believe any band could make such a catchy song out of "Neal and Jack and Me", with its scintillating interlocking guitar parts like every sparkle on a diamond in slow-motion, and weird-as-hell vocal lines. Nor would one expect 80s pop to feature the hair-raising backwards guitar solo or tricky rhythm interplay that appears on the hook-boasting anthem "Heartbeat". And leave it to Adrian Belew to make a catchy tune out of the complex "Waiting Man", with the guitars ostinati interweaving like little whirling galaxies and exotic pointillist rhythm work of the Mighty Levin-Bruford team. A mystical song.

_Three of a Perfect Pair_ doesn't really have a ballad, so "Two Hands" is the only other ballad track aside from "Matte Kudasai" that appeared in this King Crimson embodiment. It's a beauty: minimal and transparent and weightless, its hushed tones as light as the whisk of a little bird's wing. The creamy sustain of the guitar solo on this one is one of the sweetest examples of the delicious guitar sounds Belew and Fripp employed on these albums.

There's "Neurotica", about which I've heard a lot of people displeased or annoyed, but I think it is one of the BEST KING CRIMSON SONGS. It's so insane but twistedly sensible that listening to it is like every neuron in your brain suddenly being fired at once and you become a god. Okay, that's a little over the top but it's great -- probably the best "sound of insanity" song I've ever heard. It isn't even possible to describe it, except "Bloodcurdling." "The Howler" has a more disorienting gamelan arrangement that literally makes me dizzy (or maybe it was that poison hamburger...err, no, it's the song) Another facet of that experimental side appears in the doomful improv "Requiem" -- Fripp plays a stretched solo over some Frippertronics before the rest of the band appears and lays waste to the sepulchral calm. From here, it is divine anarchy, as musicians search for a common End, but reciprocally work with and against each other as if possessed by demons. A twisted monster with an ending that sounds like a sigh of defeat, even though I think they achieved their goal.

One of my favorite pieces is the instrumental "Sartori in Tangier", which sounds like a surreal, joyful parallel to the alien halcyon of "The Sheltering Sky"...stunning.

You might think this review is ridiculous but King Crimson is a pretty incredible experience, even at their "poppiest." If you like apples in vans and sandwiches, you should buy this album.

Music Album:

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Lucky So and So ~ Kenny Burrell Quartet

Blue Stompin' ~ Hal Singer

Chamblee Special ~ Eddie Chamblee

'Round About Midnight ~ Miles Davis

The Arrival ~ Richard Wyands Trio

Venusian Commute

Jesse Pabon

Ever Since You Went Away ~ Art N Soul

Rock It Go ~ Force Out

Gaijin Heaven ~ Kenji Ohmura