The Power to Believe - 18 Years On

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

TPTB is, for me, the conclusion of the experiment that began with THRaK, in slabs of "metal nuovo". I'm unusual in that I really, really like TCoL, but I agree that it was much better lie - Heavy ConstruKction may be my favorite KC album, studio or live.

I haven't heard The ReconstruKction of Light yet. Is it really better?

[mozo-pg]

TPTB is, for me, the conclusion of the experiment that began with THRaK, in slabs of "metal nuovo". I'm unusual in that I really, really like TCoL, but I agree that it was much better lie - Heavy ConstruKction may be my favorite KC album, studio or live.

I haven't heard The ReconstruKction of Light yet. Is it really better?

You've got the right spelling.
I'm glad you're among the few that really likes TCoL. I love it. I have the Reconstrukction that comes with a CD and DVD, and nice packaging, but I haven't played it yet. I'll remedy that today.

[mozo-pg]

I should add, Coda: I Have A Dream, is highly evocative, strikes me on an emotional level. One of my favourite modern day KC tunes.

[Vic2012]

Listened to TCOL on YT. Not the biggest KC fan but I like it. Larks Pt. IV is loud, metallic, kinda sludgey, but I dig it.

[polmico]

I haven't heard The ReconstruKction of Light yet. Is it really better?

Yes. By leaps and bounds. It’s much closer to the road-tested, live songs.

[Sputnik]

I haven't heard The ReconstruKction of Light yet. Is it really better?

As I mentioned above, I'm a huge fan of TCoL. I have sampled ReconstruKction in the past, but for me, something is just "off." It's terribly distracting.

Here's a Youtube example of Frying Pan. What the hell is up when the vocals come in? That just sounds awful to me. Maybe I'm so used to the original now I can't hear it any other way. But this just does nothing for me. There's a few other videos you can sample, and if it floats your boat... go for it! But I hate it. I'm perfectly happy with the original CD.

Bill

[3LockBox]

I honestly never saw what was so great about this or any other post-80s KC albums. I have tried. But considering how adamant Fripp has always been about not repeating himself, and always moving forward, I find this era of KC to be shockingly non-innovative. TPTB is simply a collection of KC tropes collected from the 70s and 80s, and presented with a bit more guitar crunch and a lot less dynamics and elegance. But they're all the same ideas from decades past.
I am glad for people who are as enthusiastic about this as Red, but for me this doesn't come close to either the visceral power and searing beauty of Red, or the incredible elegance, invention and grooves of Discipline - although it clearly tries to ape both those albums.

This pretty much sums up my feelings as well. I liked TPtB better than TCoL but I agree, nothing at all innovative and it wouldn't have taken much to top TCoL anyway, IMO.

[Splicer]

I honestly feel KC lost something without Adrian. A certain edginess, wildness and whimsical feel to the harder tracks and a kind of loneliness and melancholy on the quieter tracks. Then again, I live a life of constant melancholy so I might just hear that because I want to hear it. Bygones.

I will say that Adrian's crazed solo on "Level Five" is one of the best he did aside from his work on Discipline and with Talking Heads.

[NogbadTheBad]

My favourite post Discipline album by them. Saw this tour in NYC, terrific stuff.

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

This pretty much sums up my feelings as well. I liked TPtB better than TCoL but I agree, nothing at all innovative and it wouldn't have taken much to top TCoL anyway, IMO.

Glad to see there's one person, at least, who sees it the way I see it. I find all the accolades puzzling. And for all that they are obviously a great live band still, in any of their recent incarnations, I find it odd that KC has been reduced to just another legacy band, and their studio albums little more than mimicry of the KC of old. And I am not saying albums like TPTB are bad. Especially that particular album definitely has its moments. But the point of KC is not to have "its moments", raising memories of old glories. The point of KC is to be shockingly innovative, to provide musical lateral thinking. They haven't, since the 80s. Fusing Discipline guitar tapestries with Red-era riffing turbo-boosted by Tool-like aggression is not lateral, at all. It's fairly obvious, and Tool actually did that, already.

One album I did enjoy somewhat, not because it was innovative, but because it at least had some elegance and poetry, was A Scarcity of Miracles. Which I find kind of ironic, that it requred the absence of Fripp to do something more in the true spirit of KC. But hey, this is all my highly personal and subjective take on the situation.

[Mister Triscuits]

One album I did enjoy somewhat, not because it was innovative, but because it at least had some elegance and poetry, was A Scarcity of Miracles. Which I find kind of ironic, that it requred the absence of Fripp to do something more in the true spirit of KC.

How is Fripp absent from that album?

[NogbadTheBad]

He's not

[mozo-pg]

The Scarcity Of Miracles is boring.

[Mister Triscuits]

The Scarcity Of Miracles is boring.

I dunno about that, but I've always thought that the presence of a large fish on the cover suggests that the true title is A Scarcity of Mackerels.

[mozo-pg]

I dunno about that, but I've always thought that the presence of a large fish on the cover suggests that the true title is A Scarcity of Mackerels.

Maybe I was a bit harsh, I played it 2 or 3 times, didn't like it, and moved on to so much better Crim music.

[NogbadTheBad]

Well its not Crimson, and that is apparent, its a Jakko album

[mozo-pg]

I know. On the other hand, Jakko's, Bruised Romantic Glee Club is excellent!

[Splicer]

The Scarcity Of Miracles is boring.

I agree with this. There is no there there. For me it was something I wanted to like because it existed.

[Jmac]

I’m in the “love it” camp. Need to give it a spin again very soon. Been a while.

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

How is Fripp absent from that album?

Obviously not absent from the recording, but absent as the Big Boss.

[Sputnik]

The Scarcity Of Miracles is boring.

Took the words out of my mouth. This one just wasn't for me.

Bill

[NogbadTheBad]

I agree, I very rarely feel the need to play Scarcity.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Here's a Youtube example of Frying Pan. What the hell is up when the vocals come in? That just sounds awful to me. Maybe I'm so used to the original now I can't hear it any other way. But this just does nothing for me. There's a few other videos you can sample, and if it floats your boat... go for it! But I hate it. I'm perfectly happy with the original CD.

I can see why you might not like it, but on this (and the other song I sampled, "Oyster Soup") the instrument separation is just so much better than the original that I think I'm going to order this soon...

[Dave (in MA)]

... Frying Pan. What the hell is up when the vocals come in? That just sounds awful to me.

The low-frequency pulsating effect in the background? Maybe a Gunn part that was mostly mixed out of the original, but made audible here.

[Sputnik]

I can see why you might not like it, but on this (and the other song I sampled, "Oyster Soup") the instrument separation is just so much better than the original that I think I'm going to order this soon...

Cool, hope you enjoy!

The low-frequency pulsating effect in the background? Maybe a Gunn part that was mostly mixed out of the original, but made audible here.

Exactly. I think it sounds horrible. Certainly for me it's tremendously distracting given how I'm used to hearing the song. It just felt like there were tons of moments like this. Hearing new things that I didn't want to hear, and not hearing what I wanted. It's just not for me. If others like it, that's fine. But I'm happy with the original release, warts (if that's what they are) and all.

Bill