03 May 2007

Follow Up to A Different Blog's Word of the Day

A few days ago Pastor Jeff's "word of the day" was discipline.

I quipped in the comments that it was "one fine album".

Not being familiar with the album he asked if I recommended it. I'll just YouTube my answer.



Above is a performance (with interview interspersed) of the title track Discipline. Sheer instrumental mastery and compositional sophistication fully displayed. Amazing stuff.



Next, the beautiful Matte Kudasai, a lush and wonderful song captured in a performance of a more recent vintage. Adrian Belew has a perfect voice to accompany this soundscape.

Another track off of Discipline is Elephant Talk. That freaky thing Tony Levin is playing is called a Chapman Stick. It's used extensively throughout this album and lends the whole project a unique sound.



I love this stuff, I guess I can understand not loving this stuff, but only barely. It is a little too smart for its own good at times, and prog rock can be pretentious. King Crimson didn't avoid some pretentiousness on this album, but it's still such a fantastic document of a group of musicians at the top of their game, that a little sefl-seriousness is forgivable.

So if those three songs aren't a recommendation to buy this album (there are more tracks as amazing as those on that album), then I don't know what else to say.

1 comment:

P_J said...

Prog rock is not my cup of tea, exactly, but I can see the attraction. It is very creative and expressive.