Los Angeles, CA 9/14/24 - BEAT (2024)
King Crimson took a major left turn at the dawn of the 80s by paring down to a quartet and recording 3 albums of lean, calculated, modern-sounding music that was mostly–but not entirely–distinct from its previous decade of work.
Beat comprises half of that original quartet: lyricist / singer / guitarist Adrian Belew and bassist / Chapman Stick(ist?) Tony Levin. Stepping in on drums is Tool’s Danny Carey, and replacing mastermind / mad genius Robert Fripp is substitute guitar god Steve Vai.
It’s an interesting experiment, for sure. Belew seems to have worn out his welcome in King Crimson proper, despite being responsible for quite a few of the band’s best moments. So it’s fun to hear him play this older music in the modern day. Carey does a convincing job of replacing Bill Bruford, if not exactly sounding like him.
I don’t mean to dump on Vai here. He is an excellent guitarist and he has a very different, more free-wheeling style than Fripp by default. Hearing him cut loose with a solo is great, but he doesn’t have patience or precision for the interlocking arpeggios of the rhythm work. He does his own approximation of it, which sounds different but not necessarily worse. If anything, it underscores how unusually hard Fripp was working to create a smooth, even rhythm pattern.
