ProjeKct Two

Space Groove (Discipline Global Mobile)
by Paul Lee

Wow, this disc oozes incredible musical virtuosity! Frankly, I’d expect no less from a subsection of King Crimson (version 5) that features musical geniuses Robert Fripp (guitars), Adrian Belew (V Drums) and Trey Gunn (touch guitar and guitar synth). Sure, it’s self-indulgent, but they do it so damned well. Though Space Groove doesn’t fully satisfy my craving for a new Crimson studio album, it is a double disc full of fascinating jams and transcendental vibes that manages to mesmerize as only Fripp and company can. If you’re a fan of King Crimson version 4 (Fripp, Belew, Bill Bruford, and Tony Levin) and version 5 (Fripp, Belew, Gunn, Bruford, Levin, and Pat Mastelotto) and you like the instrumental songs and jams that they’re famous for, you’ll be into Space Groove. Those looking for complete songs with great Belew lyrics and Crim melodies with be sorely disappointed as Space Groove meanders throughout the Milky Way with experimental grooving and tripping.

The first disc, entitled “Space Groove,” lasts about fifty minutes and contains three “songs.” Fripp, Gunn, and Belew let loose with their noodling and follow a loose pattern with a strangely cohesive course. Disc two, entitled “Planet Patrol,” is over fifty minutes and contains fourteen “songs” that flow into each other with no breaks. They run the gamut from Crimsonesque jams to meandering soundscapes. According to the fully loaded liner notes, Projekt Two and more forthcoming Crimson side projects have “already loosened up the band’s view of itself and our sense of possible futures,” according to the mighty Robert Fripp. Considering they recorded Space Groove‘s hundred-plus minutes of music in three days in November of 1997, I’d say that there will be plenty more great music from the “fractionalization” of King Crimson. And, when that new studio disc of the entire entity of Crimson comes, the world will surely be a better place.
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