Discipline

Description

WhenRobert Frippdeclared in 1974 thatKing Crimsonhad ceased to exist’ nobody could have foreseen that they would break their silence seven years later with an album that perhaps had more in common with the then current post-punk new wave than the band’s progressive rock past. Released in 1981,Discipline, was a startling reinvention with a new line-up performing radically different material that managed to delight fans, confound critics and pick up a substantial new audience along the way. 37 years laterDisciplineremains one of the key albums of the early-80s and one ofKing Crimson’smost popular.

As different from the ’70sKing Crimson, as the ’70s line-ups had been from the ’60s band, the new quartet ofRobert Fripp,Bill Bruford,Adrian Belew(Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads) andTony Levin(Peter Gabriel, John Lennon), rapidly established itself as a force on the live circuit. The longer songs of the ’60s and early-70s and the extended improvisations of the live performances from the earlier touring bands were replaced with a series of mostly short, taut songs imbued with a minimalist aesthetic that featured complex interwoven guitar lines, (coined rock gamelan’) Belew’s distinctive vocals, Bruford’s new armory of electronic percussion and Levin’s fluid bass and Chapman stick lines.

King Crimsonachieved a rare feat for a rock group becoming one of the very few acts to release a classic album in three separate decades. FromIn the Court of the Crimson Kingin 1969, viaRedin 1974 toDisciplinein 1981, with differing line-ups and radically different sounds the band’s reputation for innovation and progression (in the best sense of the word) was unassailable.In a change from otherKing Crimsonvinyl releases, the track-listing for the new reissue reflects the 30th anniversary edition CD with “Matte Kudasai” featuring Belew’s lead guitar as track 3 side A and with Fripp’s lead guitar version as a bonus track at the end of side B. The album wascut at Loud Mastering by Jason Mitchell from audio approved by Robert Fripp.

1. Elephant Talk
2. Frame By Frame
3. Matte Kudasai
4. Indiscipline
5. Thela Hun Ginjeet
6. The Sheltering Sky
7. Discipline
8. Matte Kudasai (Alternative Version)