King Crimson's catalog now available on Spotify

[Chuck Armstrong]

In case any of you didn't know...

https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/06/king-crimson-spotify/

King Crimson's catalog has finally landed on Spotify.

As part of the band's 50th anniversary celebration, their entire discography is available to stream online for the first time. After making their debut on Apple Music last month, King Crimson's various studio albums and live LPs have been added to Spotify's library.

"The reason we've been slow on Spotify is that, unlike apparently the whole of the rest of the industry that's been telling us that physical is dead, we've had rising physical sales for probably the last 10 years. But that argument was valid for a while, and it isn't anymore," King Crimson manager David Singleton previously explained of the UK group's decision to go digital.

"In the end, our prime function is to serve the music and make the music available," added Singleton, "and Spotify has now definitely become one of the places that people, particularly younger people, find music."

[phantom_power]

Great. Now when will we get Joanna Newsom and De La Soul stuff on there?

[alan nagsworth]

Ah focken YAS man, nice one for this

[bgmnts]

Fucking finally.

All I need now is Tool and i'm happy.

[thecuriousorange]

I don't have Spotify and didn't realise that neither Tool nor the Crimson, were on it. Do they have something against prog-rock nerds?

[Neville Chamberlain]

A good opportunity for me to try yet again to get into KC.

[earl_sleek]

I don't have Spotify and didn't realise that neither Tool nor the Crimson, were on it. Do they have something against prog-rock nerds?

Both bands (or possibly their management / label) have chosen too - KC because until recently their physical sales were growing. No one knows why exactly why Tool aren't, but Maynard has said it's nothing to do with him (both Puscifer and APC are on streaming services), and they did create a profile on Spotify recently. I suspect they will appear on Spotify after the upcoming album is released.

[mrpupkin]

Anyone going to the RAH shows next week?

[a duncandisorderly]

Both bands (or possibly their management / label) have chosen too - KC because until recently their physical sales were growing. No one knows why exactly why Tool aren't, but Maynard has said it's nothing to do with him (both Puscifer and APC are on streaming services), and they did create a profile on Spotify recently. I suspect they will appear on Spotify after the upcoming album is released.

fripp's got a thing about being paid what he's owed. I'm remembering a statement about KC & streaming services.... apparently they've now saturated the physical media market with their endless boxed sets & maybe touring the triple-drummer line-up has prompted him to stop being such a luddite. or maybe they've now got an arrangement that gets them more of the income from spotify, without the label (whoever it is that owns KC's back catalogue) skimming too much. dunno. also it's their 50th anniversary, & there's the toby amies doc imminent. so.... PR.

I didn't know tool had been withheld too, though- that's interesting.

I wrote to spotify & asked them to remove all my band's stuff (there's one or two things left, because the recordings in question were made for & licensed to a radio show); I had asked them about revenue, & their response was unsatisfactory to me. they asked 'what label?' & when I said that most of the stuff in question was self-published, they told me that the admin overhead of dealing with every tiny label like ours was more than the revenue earned. so much for computers, eh? I mean, I know we'd be lucky to get a tenner a year out of it, but surely that can all be automated....

bandcamp, on the other hand, is a good earner, even for us.

[Misspent Boners]

Hah brill news.

When I first got spotify premium with my contract in 2016 my housemate was with me as I set the phone up, and i said "what so I can just search for anything and theyll have it?" "More or less yeah" he replied. Of all the bands in the world the first one I searched for was King Crimson and they werent on there.

Loved the 1st album growing up but have.never really explored them extensively so this is a treat. Weird that they dont really publicise things like this on actual Spotty-fi. Looking forward to it for sure

[alan nagsworth]

Weird that they dont really publicise things like this on actual Spotty-fi.

Spotify's way too concerned with mining your emotions and activities and selling the data to other corporations for targeted advertising. Now, if King Crimson could somehow be utilised into a "Big Exercise Mood" playlist, I'm sure they'd be plugging the fuck out of it. But I don't think anyone's working on their glutes whilst listening to "Fallen Angel" so it's not really the company's primary concern.

Red is an excellent album, by the way, if you're looking for another one to jump into after the debut.

[idunnosomename]

well certainly didn't expect that to ever happen. were a few I never bought on CD (islands, lizard and construkction of light?)

what about all the projekcts tho

[Dirty Boy]

About time.

After Zappa, KC might have been the first proggy music i heard and even though i'm less into the symphonic thing since i discovered wonkier and punkier strains of prog, i always go back to Red, Larks Tongue and Bible Black. It's hard to argue with behemoths like Fracture and Starless innit.

Spotify is still missing Henry Cow/Art Bears and This Heat last i checked, which is annoying as i've been struggling to find Deceit at a reasonable price.

[idunnosomename]

Anyone going to the RAH shows next week?

fuckin wish

[NoSleep]

Loved the 1st album growing up but have.never really explored them extensively so this is a treat. Weird that they dont really publicise things like this on actual Spotty-fi. Looking forward to it for sure

Agree with Nagger's recommendation of Red, and add the two preceding albums; Larks Tongues In Aspic and Starless And Bible Black, especially the latter (and especially "side two"). Never really liked the singing/song bits of KC and would have loved for them to have been a purely instrumental band (I love instrumentals generally).

[BlodwynPig]

Ive had their digital discography on a hard drive for years. Happy to send for free. Or you can register at Blodify to stream.

[NoSleep]

Spotify is still missing Henry Cow/Art Bears and This Heat last i checked, which is annoying as i've been struggling to find Deceit at a reasonable price.

Is the Light In The Attic remaster (by the surviving band and Tony Cousins) too expensive? Says $19 on their website. It does sound much better than the 2006 box set version (likewise the first album). EDIT: those prices are just for the vinyl; don't see a digital option.

[a duncandisorderly]

Never really liked the singing/song bits of KC and would have loved for them to have been a purely instrumental band (I love instrumentals generally).

what?!?!

two of the greatest vocalists ever to be in rock bands.... & some other decent singers too- gordon haskill, adrian belew, boz burrell....

but greg lake. john wetton.

I could do without the showy instrumental sections, personally, & I find bruford's efforts to fill in for the departed jamie muir particularly irksome. it's always struck me as odd that after the mid 70s split, both fripp & wetton went on to more traditional song structures for their next published outings, & oh how I wish wetton had stayed on board for the recording of 'exposure' (you can hear levin striving to channel him on some of the tracks, presumably having heard the rehearsal recordings), but then I guess we wouldn't have had hammill/hall/gabriel/roche on that album.

[NoSleep]

I'm not even sure that there's any question of the quality of the singers (although they wouldn't be the first to come to my mind if I was talking about singers). There's a disconnect between the song and the instrumental sections; almost as if Fripp sees the two as completely different pursuits.

[thugler]

Yeah put me down as another one who's not into much of the singing. It just seems like an afterthought and doesn't match the intensity of the music. Also some of the singing is a little cheesy and they could've done with a different style of vocalist i think.

[Shit Good Nose]

Anyone going to the RAH shows next week?

Saw them in Cardiff (at a third empty St David's hall) last year.  Fucking amazing. 

I was surprised when the RAH shows were announced - Fripp found it to be an incredibly soulless venue on the double trio tour in 96 and considered it to be one of the worst shows in the band's history.

[idunnosomename]

I noticed quite a lot of poster advertising for it in London a few weeks ago. It's the best venue for them to pack out for their big 50 years since In The Court. They can hardly play Wembley or the O2. Fripp will just have to had to swallow his words and have another go: it is a crap venue for just about everything though (sorry Albert)

set:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/king-crimson/2019/royal-albert-hall-london-england-3b91c8a4.html

[LynnBenfield69]

The Great Deceiver live box set is the one you want, sadly not on spotify... yet. Proof that they were up there with Zeppelin as a live act, the version of Fracture on there is the most thrilling piece of music I can think of.

While I appreciate the significance of their debut, I never got into it anywhere near as much as Red or Larks Tongues. There's a reason that both KC and Yes hit their respective peaks while Bruford was with them.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Proof that they were up there with Zeppelin as a live act,

Songs that drag on a third longer than they should?

[a duncandisorderly]

There's a reason that both KC and Yes hit their respective peaks while Bruford was with them.

I don't agree with that appraisal, I'm sorry. bruford's starter-pistol snare* is just irritating &, as I've noted before, his mimicking of jaime muir is just embarrassing.
he did gigs with genesis & gong before starting his own band(s), & didn't even rein it in as a hired-hand. I think he did finally mature much later, in the 80s.
I ran into him at a gig his son was playing, & told him I'd recently watched his band's 1978 performance for BBC2 (rock goes to college or whatever), & he was embarrassed. he asked me to arrange a copy for him, which I duly did, & he wrote (a proper real letter) to my mate at the BBC, noting "how much I still had to learn as a musician" (& this was of the band with allan holdsworth, dave stewart & jeff berlin).

I think he was technically adept, but I don't think that what he did necessarily best-served the music.

(* he's said that he started doing these rimshots in order to be heard above the sound of squire's bi-amped rickenbacker)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX0hmpZRFPM

[Shit Good Nose]

Ramblings of a one man brainwrong

You're the only person I've ever come across to be negative about BB's capabilities.  It's true that plenty of Yes fans considered him too busy and feel that Alan White was a better fit, but "embarrassing" is a word I never thought I'd hear mentioned in the same breath.

Your opinion and that, but no words to describe how wrong it is.

Alien "4" indeed (laughs and shakes head)......

[a duncandisorderly]

You're the only person I've ever come across to be negative about BB's capabilities.  It's true that plenty of Yes fans considered him too busy and feel that Alan White was a better fit, but "embarrassing" is a word I never thought I'd hear mentioned in the same breath.

Your opinion and that, but no words to describe how wrong it is.

Alien "4" indeed (laughs and shakes head)......

ah, go fuck y'rself. & take mr starter-pistol with you. :-)

have you read his book?

[Shit Good Nose]

have you read his book?

Yes.


EDIT - No.  I was trying to go meta-comedy there with Yes the band, but then realised it wouldn't really work in the context of the conversation.  I intend to, though.