In the Wake of Poseidon

Artist: King Crimson
Label: Caroline
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

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

UPC: 017046150323
EAN: 0017046150323
ASIN: B000003S0B

Release Date: 2000-03-21

In the Wake of Poseidon

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Tracks:

Peace- A Beginning
Pictures Of A City
Cadence And Cascade
In The Wake Of Poseidon
Peace- A Theme
Cat Food
The Devil's Triangle
Peace-An End

Similar Items:

Islands
Starless And Bible Black
In the Court of the Crimson King
Larks' Tongues in Aspic
Red

Album Description

To celebrate King Crimson's 30th anniversary, Robert Fripp has remastered the catalog utilizing the latest in 24-bit technology. This follow-up to 'In The Court Of The Crimson King' continued to expand King Crimson's classical influences into a stunning rock format. Includes the tracks 'Piece-A Beginning' & 'Cadence And Cascade'.

Customer Reviews:

If the CD had been invented a generation earlier..........2005-12-15

...this album wouldn't really be a cutout today. It would be part of a sixty-something-minute "In the Court Of the Crimson King", consistent with the length of present-day Crim albums. The resulting expanded "Court" would contain the good stuff like "Pictures Of A City" (a hard-hitting piece that would make it so "21st Century Schizoid Man" wasn't the only hard-rocker), "Cadence and Cascade" (a good ballad in the style of "I Talk To the Wind"), "In the Wake Of Poseidon" (a decent emotive number that's not as much of an apocalyptic downer as "Epitaph") and "Cat Food" (a whimsical number whose like doesn't appear on "Court"). They could have left out the divided trilogy "Peace" because these interludes exist only to support "The Devil's Triangle", a takeoff on Holst's "Mars: Bringer Of War" that Tomita did a better job on with his Moogs, and Keith Emerson did about as well with years later with his mega-Yamaha. Really, the thing should have remained a live show excercise that never should have seen the studio. Fripp proves here that, not only is he not that good a keyboardist, but the Mellotron can be a horrible lead instrument. Fripp exposes about every flaw the instrument has here. The thing works well in songs like "Poseidon" and the earlier "Epitaph", where it isn't overexposed and can enrich the arrangement. But if you use it as a main instrument, you got your timbre problems caused by undersampling in the tape drum. You got your tracking lags because the thing is mechanical, not electronic. It is a mid-20th century instrument after all. And you got over 11 minutes of what sounds more like a broad parody of "Mars" than anything else. So here's a suggestion. If you buy it, treat it like the second disc of "Court" and program your player past this mishmosh of noise and its companion pieces. As other reviewers said, this is more a companion disc than an album in its own right. As far as where to get it besides the sellers here, maybe they offer it on Crim's own site Discipline Global Mobile.

One of their weakest efforts.......2005-01-16

King Crimson is one of my favorite bands ever, but this is not one of their stronger efforts. Band leader Robert Fripp was quite prolific during the 1969-1974 period, but in this case he wasn't about to let a lack of material, or worse yet the lack of an actual band, stop him from releasing a followup to the breakthrough debut album.

Greg Lake stuck around long enough to do most of the vocals, although he was already committed to Emerson Lake & Palmer. Drummer Michael Giles had one foot out the door too, and Ian McDonald had split. Fripp signed on woodwind phenomenon Mel Collins and singer/bassist Gordon Haskell, who made a brief appearance here.

This album is often accused of being a copy of the debut, and in my view it's two best tracks, "Pictures of a City" and "In the Wake of Poseidon" certainly bear this out. They happen to be my favorite tracks on here though, and pretty much are my only reason for playing this. "Pictures" and "Poseidon" are both kind of forgotten clssics in KC's vast canon, but I can't say the same for the rest of this CD.

"Devil's Triangle" is an overlong instrumental ripped off from Holst (Fripp gave himself writing credit!) that the band had been playing live. It holds my interest for about 2 of it's 11 minutes. "Cat Food" is an OK jazzy piece with Keith Tippet on piano. "Cadence and Cascade" has some unremarkable vocals from Haskell and embarrassingly bad, misogynist lyrics. Nice acoustic from Fripp though.

The overall production is pretty bad. Some of the "Peace" segments throughout the record are mixed so low you have to crank up the volume just to hear them, then turn it back down before the next song starts. On the rest of the album the production is kind of drab and lifeless, and the reissue doesn't do much to improve it.

Not the place to start with Crimson, but progheads should eventually get it just for "Pictures of a City" and the title track.

A Decent Rehash.......2004-10-30

I like this album, but I love the debut. Problem is, this one's basically a less impressive rehash of the debut. Not sure if they did it on purpose or what, but the fact of the matter remains that this album has very little to add to the debut. First off, the "Peace" themes are lame because they don't evoke any sort of compelling mood. "Pictures of a City" is kinda cool, but sounds kind of like "21st Schizoid Man" with less direction and more uncessesary noodling. "Cadence and Cascade" is a beautiful song and one of the better ones, bearing a slight resemblance to "I Talk to the Wind". The title track is slightly abysmal, but somehow succeeds nonetheless. Sure, they made a rehash, but you have to remember that King Crimson is an amazing band! They did it with some success; they pulled it off and made it still interesting. Not AS interesting, but how do you follow-up In the Court of the Crimson King??? The best songs on here are definatly "Cat Food" and the terrifying epic "The Devil's Triangle", which sound not-a-whit like the debut! I think 3 stars is fair, because honestly I don't really listen to this one, except for "Cat Food" and "The Devils Triangle". I'm a bigger fan of the Crimson's later work, but this is still good for the die-hard fan.

Is this really a rehash of In the Court of the Crimson King?.......2004-08-28

Well, I have to say, partially. Many people say that In the Wake of Poseidon is a pale rehash of their debut. Everyone knows how King Crimson was never known for a steady lineup. Here the band was already witnessing changes. Ian McDonald was now out of the picture. Greg Lake was now just doing vocals duties on all but one of the vocal cuts (he didn't play bass here, Peter Giles, brother of Michael did). Mellotron duty was now handled by Fripp himself, and sax was handled by Mel Collins (a guy who would find himself with numerous groups like Camel, The Alan Parsons Project, Clannad, and much more). Of course after this album, Lake was to team up with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake to form one of the big-name prog rock acts, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. About the accusations of this album being a copy of their debut, well, let's examine the songs. "Pictures of a City" does bear resemblance to "21st Century Schizoid Man". Similar jazzy sound, dominated by wind instruments. "Cadence & Cascade" is the mellow, laid-back piece that draws comparisons to "I Talk to the Wind". But there's a major difference here: Gordon Haskell is the guy providing the vocals here, who obviously sounds a lot different from Lake, and seems to fit in with the song just fine. The title track is the Mellotron epic in the vein of "Epitaph". But what King Crimson done on the second half of the album really sounds little what they already done on their debut. "Cat Food", for example, is a quirky little piece with humorous lyrics, with guest Keith Tippet on piano. Nothing like that was done on their debut. Then you have "Devil's Triangle", which is a sinister Mellotron experiment partially borrowed from Gustav Holst's The Planets. The music really goes off the experimental deep-end, and somewhere you get to hear a reprise of "The Court of the Crimson King" (the song) amongst all the noise. I love how the music ends all mellow and acoustic with the third and final "Peace", with just acoustic guitar and Greg Lake's vocals. Although their debut is the stronger album, this is still an album worth getting, after you get In the Court of the Crimson King.

Very cool!.......2004-05-02

This was the first King Crimson album I ever heard...probably when I was 13 or 14??? My dad played me his old vinyl of it because I'd been listening to a lot of Korn and he though the song "Porno Creep" sounded similar to "Cat Food." By god it does!! Well it's a similar feel anyway.

Anyway that was that, but I couldn't have been bothered playing the vinyl back then so I didn't listen to KC anymore. Until finally our friend Francois leant us copies of "In the Court of the Crimson King" and "Islands" and since then I've been hooked!! Well on the first four albums anyway...

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