"Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With / Level Five / EleKtriK” will premiere on King Crimson's YouTube tomorrow, Friday November 3rd, at 11:00 CET. Click here to set a reminder
The album draws together a collection of studio and live recordings of King Crimson as a double duo: The song-centred mini-album Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With (2002) acted as an appetiser for The Power To Believe (2003) in much the same way that the mini-album VROOOM preceded and anticipated THRAK in the mid-1990s.
Recorded a year earlier, Level Five (2001) was a powerful live album consisting of three lengthy previously unrecorded instrumentals, alongside The ConstruKction Of Light and Deception Of The Thrush plus Improv: ProjeKct X (originally, a hidden bonus track). A further example of the band's live power came with EleKtriK (2003), filmed and recorded at a Japanese concert for DVD release. Crimson delivered in abundance on The Power To Believe tour with John Bungey of The Times calling it “.. their best live set” since the band had re-emerged in 1994. Japanese fans demanded a live CD release of the DVD concert recording and the stereo audio mix of the material was issued exclusively for that market initially prior to a wider release.
[Notes by Sid Smith]
