Teaser that kills…

Well, yeah .. this EP was intended as teaser just before the full-fledge album “The Power To Believe” was released in 2003. I rate The Power To Believe album highly due to the fact that the band was quite successful in managing their new music direction starting with its Discipline album. The Power To Believe pushed the envelope harder by inserting much more heavy music with thick music riffs while maintaining the solid line King Crimson’s music. When this EP was released, I was not interested to buy as I thought that the music presented would be centered around the track(s) that were planned to be as the band’s hit(s) – in this case is “Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With”. But I was wrong as I found many great things about this EP, including wonderfully composed “Shoganai”.

The mini album opens energetically with its title “Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With” in edited version. I think this is an attractive track with stunning riffs and unique singing style. I always like this track whenever I play it, including this version. Adrian Belew sings at his best with great accentuation when he says “Happy with What You Have To Be Happy With”. The next is a great ambient instrument work with no drumming “Mie Gakure” (2:00) which continues brilliantly with “She Shudders” (0:35) – a very short but nice bridge.

“Eyes Wide Open” (4:08) is an acoustic exploration of the band using acoustic guitar as the main rhythm section. The most interesting components are the catchy melody line and natural music flow with excellent Belew vocal work. “Shoganai” (2:53) is my favorite unique track exploring percussion work with great arrangements. I truly enjoy this track. “I Ran” (0:40) is a nice acapella with effects. It flows wonderfully to “Potato Pie” (5:03) with blues tinge while maintaining key characteristics of Crimson sounds and stye. It’s really a masterpiece musical arrangement. Bravo!

“Larks' Tongues in Aspic” (10:26) is my top list favorite of King Crimson songs. It started with their album with same title. The reason I like the song was the combination of dark mellow and heavy prog style from their part one during 70s. This version takes mostly the heavier part and it flows brilliantly into my ears. The guitar riffs that characterize this song are also great. The EP closes nicely with another acapella: “Clouds” (4:10)

Overall, this is really an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin’ ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild – GW (i-Rock! Music Community)

by Gatot


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Though Robert Fripp thinks this is not such a good album, Lizard is another King Crimson album that i love, but unlike most King Crimson's albums, Lizard is clearly more influenced by classical and folk music than any other King Crimson album, though it still retain some of the jazz instruments, like the trumpet, the sax and oboe.

Lizard is also another rebirth album for the band and that is probably why the music is so different. After King Crimson disbanded for the first time, in 1970 after the release of In the Wake of Poseidon, Fripp though of leaving prog rock for good, but thanks to the Yes invitation (at that time Yes was searching for a new guitarist but things didn't worked out and then, thanked by the invitation, Fripp asked for Jon Anderson to do some vocals in Lizard), Fripp decided to keep King Crimson going. With a completely new band, things worked differently in studio than in the previous albums and eventually resulted in Lizard's great outcome.

About the songs, musicianship and other features, there are somethings i would like to state:

The album is basically divided in two parts: the Lizard epic and the rest of the album. The epic looks like more like a symphonic prog piece, with a big deal of classical music influence, than Crimson's jazzy experimentalism, but this does not means it is a bad song (in fact it is an awesome song). Lizard (the song) also is mostly driven by the piano / mellotron / keyboard instead of the usual guitar work.

The rest of the album strives for wider horizons than Lizard, since it is more experimental and diverse than the title song, but, unfortunately, it is not as good as the epic.

The highlights go the the epic side-long song Lizard. It is just beautifully amazing.

Like most (or maybe all) Crimson albums, Lizard (the album) has some quite complex song to play. Because of that, the musicianship of all musicians is quite good, though this album is not as demanding as Lark's Tongues or Red. On a sidenote, it is remarkable how Gordon Haskell's and John Wetton's voices look alike.

Grade and Final Thoughts

As always, King Crimson reappears as something completely different as before and blows my mind (at least until Discipline) and since, in my opinion (although Robert Fripp may disagree), Lizard is the fourth best Crimson album of the 70's, i think it does deserve the masterpiece grade.

by CCVP


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What makes this EP worth investing in if you already got the album is the two non-album tracks Cage and When I Say Stop, Continue. Cage is a fast and very short song ( 1:35 minutes). I enjoy this track and especially Adrian Belew´s fast spoken vocal parts but also his melodic ditto. It´s not essential in any way though. When I say stop, continue is an instrumental song. It´s not very interesting and not worth buying this EP for.

The musicianship and the production is excellent. Nothing to complain about there.

Vrooom is a fan release and allthough the music is generally great I´ll rate this EP 2 stars as I really don´t see anyone else but the diehard fans purchasing this one. You should purchase THRAK instead.

by UMUR


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In history, in musical context, in relevance - this album could be observed from many corners. But I won't be comparing it with other KING CRIMSON periods or nothing of the kind. I'll just stick to music.

At the very beginning, I must say this review will be pretty much useless, and I won't say much about the music itself (comparisons, descriptions) because I can't describe music with my own words. However, I'm still inclined enough to write a review..

Have you ever been wondering WHAT happened with music in the 80's? Why it changed so drastically? Why it embraced new values (both musical -- compositional and production ones; as well as a new zeitgeist) so quickly? Why the old spirit evaporated so quickly, and how the musicians and music fans of the 70's managed to be in 80's?

Take a typical 70's record and take a typical 80's record. (Eagles' 'Hotel California' and Paul Young's 'No Parlez'?)

Most likely, they would sound quite different. Of course, stripped down to the bones, they're both rock records comprising drums, bass, guitar, vocals and verse-chorus structure. But when I say 'differences', It's not necessary to explain; you know what I'm talking about.

In the case of KING CRIMSON's 'Discipline', the record is a good balance between both worlds. Of course, it's undeniably an 80's record sound-wise, but taking a lot of 70's heritage in structure and songwriting. I am aware of very few ones that are a perfect bridge between two decades; Tull's 'A' comes to my mind, and perhaps Tangerine Dream's song 'Rising Runner', Holger Czukay, and perhaps a few others.

'Discipline' contains no keyboards. Which is unusual for a band that came from 70's prog rock movement, especially in the decade of the emphasized cheesy electronics.

'Discipline' is not inclining towards any particular trend - it's unique, yes, and we can say it's out of time (and ahead of its time too), but despite all the unusual guitar sounds, despite the unconventional structure, it's timbres are not too far away TALKING HEADS (as in a context of an 80's band) or many other bands of the time.

Yet, it sounds natural, spontaneous and concrete in it's timbres.

So much for the timbre. What about the songwriting, structures, technique?

Some (perhaps many) will disagree with the statement those ''Discipline's'' attributes are natural and spontaneous. I won't blame anybody who can hear on 'Discipline' only math and, well, discipline.

But I don't think so. You see, all the members of the line-up are outstanding musicians. Outstanding technicians. Such a degree of experimentation or complexity -- and 'Discipline' is not THAT complex -- they would maintain with ease, without letting the music to sound forced or overbearing.

My point is: I think they had great time in studio recording this album, as well as writing songs for it, making ideas, accepting, rejecting, changing.

There are tricks such is, for example, polyrhythm. No one can convince me they were struggling with it, almost fanatically struggling to whisper the bars in time measure while trying to overlap 7/8 with 4/4 and so on. (unlike a number of modern day prog bands - unfortunately!) They did it with easy, tapping their toes while playing, and actually you can hear there is no strict math, subtracting or adding 8th notes a the end of the piece because it turned out it's out of sync at the end of a verse - no, they did it in free form, letting their fingers play and continue a second verse naturally - to our own joy.

The next thing is another component of good songwriting: the lyrics.

Lyrics here are above the level of entertainment in pop music, it's art in its contemporary poetry form. And it's incredible how they fit the music, or vice versa. I think the music was crafted around the poetry rather than other way round, but I'm not sure. The poetry is modern, urban, introspective, varying from dramatic to sad, sometimes stripped down to the sheer weight of bare words, sometimes ornamented with alliterations; a perfect thing for a new era in music, energetic, mature, without being naive but experienced from the past. Again, natural and not overbearing.

The musical amalgam will provide us a fantastic journey --no, that's so 70's-- a fantastic observation into ones inner self, while giving us clever, bouncy hooks in all that complexity.

Should we mention the influences of (and on) punk, progressive rock, world music or fusion? No. That's completely misleading. For heavens sake, if someone is intelligent songwriter with at least a bit of eclecticism in its taste - of course it will pick influences from everywhere!

The music of 'Discipline' had been so overanalyzed since its release, and so hard tried to be pinned down by many, while in it's essence is just an album of good music and lyrics - written by very intelligent individuals.

by clarke2001


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What else to say? Well ... How can we judge track to track 'Deception of the Thrush: A Beginners Guide to ProjeKcts'? it is impossible! As it impossible to make a correct rating!

by Mandrakeroot


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Also, thanks a lot to ProgArchives who has featured this excellent band on this site. That’s what I like about ProgArchives …it’s comprehensive and complete resources of progressive music in the world. One thing I like (as reviewer) about this site is the nature of reviewing which lets the reviewer to give his / her opinions freely about prog music with minimum rules. “The reviewer is the editor” that’s exactly what I have been feeling about the way PA has adopted the approach and it does suit me perfectly! Well, in prog world, people are required to have an open mind, willingness to accept differing – and sometimes “contradicting” – opinions from people around the globe with different background and musical tastes. The open mindedness of prog people I usually term it as “progressive mind”. People with a true progressive mind are those having open mind “and” prog attitudes. I was once a prog reviewer of THEN respected progressive site after I wrote many reviews at this ProgArchives. I wrote couple of reviews there and I did not know why – out of the blue – they then stopped the communication with me. Countless emails I sent to the Chief of the site with no reply from them. It’s probably they thought that I was promoted as “Honorary Collaborator” at ProgArchives so that I should not be there in their team. But, they never talked to me openly. Later I knew that my name was dismantled from the site as their team, but my reviews were still posted there. Those people who run that THEN respected website are probably having progressive mind but NO progressive attitudes at all! And this is not good. It was years ago and I tend to forget the bad experience. I truly believe that people with no prog attitudes would not survive and they would turn to dust. And now I can see that ProgArchives has grown tremendously bigger and better than that site with no prog attitudes. I still can have the joy of writing prog reviews at this wonderfully crafted site. Long live ProgArchives! (Please bear in my mind, my prog friends, I have no such thing having any financial relationship or whatsoever with this site).

Wow! Why do I write the above long paragraph for this review? It’s situational, my friends. It’s because Halloween is not featured in many sites including the site where I was a reviewer before. The point I want to raise is that as prog head we should have progressive mind AND progressive attitudes . This is important and let’s focus the discussion on Halloween ….

Violin-based Symphonic Prog

Yes, the band has been influenced by many prog legends like Genesis, King Crimson, Van der Graff or Gentle Giant …but ..one thing I love about Halloween is their own musical characteristics that differentiate themselves from any band. The use of violin extensively throughout the album is great example of how they compose the music. King Crimson’s David Cross had never made his violin work dominate any album of King Crimson during his tenure with the band. Halloween’s violin is basically like flute in Jethro Tull’s albums. Have you ever found any Tull album without extensive use of flute? There was ..probably “A” album. But bear in mind, “A” was initially intended as Ian Anderson solo, not Tull’s. Halloween music is probably comparable with After Crying in the way they use violin extensively. In addition, the use of French language with great accentuation has made the music powerful.

The album starts wonderfully with ‘Conseil des démons’ (4:30) through an ambient nuance with Geraldine vocal line. It then moves dynamically with powerful vocal accentuation of Geraldine in French that makes the vocal sounds truly powerful. Throughout the music flow, violin plays critical role in providing fills, augmented with keyboard / organ work that sometimes in Church organ style. Guitar is also quite dominant. At approx minute 3:27 the music changes the style nicely. It’s a great opener. AT the end of the track there are people doing hand clapping …it’s probably this album is a live record with excellent sound quality. The next “Le Procès” (8:00) starts off with male narration followed with another powerful female vocal line of Geraldine, backed with inventive violin and piano. Male vocal enters the music as well and it sounds like a dialogue in the music. The bass guitar also provides its tight work. I love the violin work here. In a way it reminds me to After Crying but it’s not the same musically. In the middle of the track, there is a jazz rock tinge featuring violin as soloist plus a bit of bass guitar solo. Geraldine performs her acrobatic vocal line. She is a great prog vocalist!

“Waltz” (5:35) is a brilliant follow-up with Geraldine demonstrates his consistent singing style, but this time in English, and it still sounds powerful. At the end of the track there is stunning electric guitar solo, augmented with violin work. “Arthur contre Morgane” (5:55) brings the music energetically with keyboard and violin as the main instruments followed with guitar. The drumwork is also quite dynamics. Vocal only enters in the middle of the track. “Iron Mickey” (5:40) starts symphonic with music riffs using violin and other electric equipment. I love the violin solo performed in this track, followed with electric guitar solo. The album contains also the interpretation of VdGG “House with no Door” (4:15) that starts nicely with soft piano touch and nice vocal line. “Beginning” (6:25) is a great track with wonderful intro using combined piano work and violin followed nicely with violin solo. What I also enjoy is the mellow melodic song with great piano and vocal line at intro “What's in” (4:45). It flows nicely with catchy and memorable melody line supported by great singing of Geraldine. It’s an accessible track and it’s my favorite. As the music flows, there is also stunning guitar work in addition to violin.

Overall, this is truly an excellent symphonic progressive album with violin-based composition. The guitar solo portion is also quite extensive. I personally think this is a masterpiece work but I want to clear myself from the “halo effect” as I’ve just known the music recently. But for sure, this is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin’ ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild – GW (i-Rock! Music Community)

by Gatot


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The songs are all good. I prefer: KING CRIMSON: 'In The Court Of The Crimson King (including The Return Of The Fire Witch and The Dance Of The Puppets)', ROXY MUSIC: 'Love Is The Drug', 801: 'Miss Shapiro', U.K.: 'In The Dead Of Night', ROXY MUSIC: 'Dance Away', BRYAN FERRY: 'Is your Love Strong Enough' and PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA: 'Perpetuum Mobile' but in truth all songs are extreme good. Rob Fripp, Eno, Bryan Ferry, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Palmer, T Rex, Bill Bruford, cited at random are great musician that have recorded or that have a management with EG. And this is an important part of 70's heroes!

This compilation is moderately Progressive in music but the musicians are extreme Progressive (with the exception of Killing Joke) and for this motive I recommended this EG's 'The 20th Anniversary Album'.

by Mandrakeroot


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The opening number Canto V is as tortured as it can be (I have to say that Mathew on the vocals is quite good) and the sax is definitely heading towards VDGG. As its glorious predecessor, there will be quieter and more melodic passages; but there is the great addition of a fantastic guitar solo: full of passion and emotion. It ends as a very bombastic manner: an explosion of keys and crying guitar. This is an excellent start.

The shorter song of this album is Crutches. It clocks at over thirteen minutes…This song is leading us more in the Crimson / Graaf territories. The music is less accessible. But once you have been listening to this track a few times, the magic operates and you get hooked at these hectic and passionate vocals, which are again a highlight on this track. The finale, as during the opener, is again on the symphonic mood.

When I reached the third song (and epic), I have to admit that the band is maybe too close from these sounds we all love. A bit like the very good Araknamés this band is stuck with their models although the addition of some enjoyable mellotron breaks this feeling somehow. With Into The Dream, Discipline fully switched to ITCOTCK, which is fine with me. The closing part is a jewel of symphony (for the third time).

The closing track (Before The Storm) has this cold beauty of some solo work from Peter (Hammill). It is delicate, subtle and poignant. It still will evolve towards a fully Graaf inspired song after some four minutes and it turns into a very dark atmosphere (you know like …). The loop has been looped I guess. For the fourth time in a row, Discipline will provide a brilliant closing part to this song.

Since I have to refer so much to some great old bands, you might understand that this album is not very original per se, but it combines lots of great elements of the heydays of prog music. Each fan that is willing to remind this period should be highly interested in such a recording. As I am.

I couldn't find a weak track, not even a weak part during this album. Four stars is the rate.

by ZowieZiggy


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