Power To Believe, The - King Crimson > Reviews > Harken to me for I HAVE THE POWER TO BELIEVE

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Advantages:	One of the most AMAZING albums you'll ever hear
Disadvantages:	Almost none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

To describe The Power to Believe is not going to be a simple thing I feel. Robert Fripp described the album as their most powerful since their classic Red (1974). The Power to Believe is perhaps the closest a Crimson album has ever come to being as potent and exciting as one of their concerts. The Power to Believe is a stunning colossus of music, coming after their slightly hit-and-miss The ConstruKction of Light and Happy With What You Have to be Happy With (an EP of work in progress, asides, digressions and curiosities perhaps aimed more at the ardent fan than casual Crimson listener), The Power to Believe builds on their Live work after touring Europe in 2000. It features many of the songs featured on their Level 5 limited edition tour CD.

To those you think a band, in whatever permutation, after 30 odd years can only fail toprogress or lack cultural relevance should listen to this album. It is not the kind of music you put on in for a casual listen, a gentle bit of relaxation for going to bed (ok, you might but only if you’re out and out tense and require a battering ram to knock you into sleep). There is so much going on in the album that it is an absolute wonder to think that there are only four musicians playing; they manage to create a deeper, more polyphonic sound than on Thrak that also had the might of Tony Levin and Bill Bruford added to the ranks.

I came to The Power to Believe wondering quite how it was going to sound. After having heard almost half the album in live form on CD before hand I was dreading ripping back the cellophane to discover a slightly anaemic album unable to compete with their live greatness. I was not disappointed. Why? Because for though there is a great deal of similarities with their live work, and those tracks featured on Happy With What You Have to be Happy With, there are also detailed nuances that have been incorporated effortlessly. Also I feel that having worked on the material in the more organic live arena allowed them to crystallise certain ideas that took form in the studio. This is very much an album of two halves, not literally so, but it is a little schizophrenic as it is born of their ProjeKct work (which was 5 albums (4 live) which were written and performed by a mixture of members from the band. So ProjeKct 3 (my favourite) was only Fripp, Trey Gunn and Pat Mostelloto, instead of all 6), ProjeKct 4 had the same line-up but also included Tony Levin), which was more experimental and driven by improvisation and the more usual Crimson sound. This may sound awful but in fact it makes for a wonderfully powerful and varied album that is quite possibly their greatest studio album, topping their first: In the Court of the Crimson King, Red or Beat. Why? Because it’s just so original, so strong; for all the variation there is on the album it has a very clear, distinct sound. It is very clearly King Crimson but it is also something else entirely.

The album begins with an a cappella, called: The Power to Believe I: A Cappella. The album is glued together by The Power to Believe I, II, III and IV, they are like bridges between the other tracks (not songs, there are very few lyrics here) and are absolutely necessary, they provide an element of respite in between the crushingly powerful instrumentals. The first is simply Adrian Belew, singing, being an a cappella, his voice slightly distorted (no vocoder here) singing how “she gave me back the power to believe.” His wife again? One would hardly doubt that. Though you can also consider the album itself, or their previous touring, as after Thrak and the ProjeKcts the band was divided, unsure of its direction, which showed on the ConstruKction of Light, and suddenly touring and in the studio they found their direction again; they found a sound as potent as any of their previous. The band had regained the power to believe in itself.

The Power to Believe I is very gentle, a lullaby to edge us gently into the sudden all mighty wallop that is Level Five. It crashes unexpectedly out of the speakers with the force that only a band on form could ever do. This is not a wall of noise hitting us but a barrage of perfectly timed notes. Mastelotto for me has really come into his own on this album and his drumming, a mixture of traditional acoustic drumming, V-drumming and some slight elements of Drum ‘n Bass are just stunning. Especially on Level Five, the incredible myriad rhythms he sets beneath the three guitars is luxuriously exotic, utterly hypnotic musicking. The variation to it, the constant change between crashing symbols and thudding drums, with sudden quick, drill like v-drumming is glorious; drumming that makes you listen intently. Also it grounds the music played over it. Trey Gunn’s bass riffs that mirrors the rhythm of Mastelotto’s drumming. Then there are Fripp’s beautifully sustained guitar; metallic sounding, precise; each note carefully judged. Wailing beneath them, Belew’s strident dissonance, shrieking psychotically below the surface, each perfectly complementing the Gunn/Mastelotto rhythm section (though how I can call it a rhythm section I have idea; this is no rhythm section at all, it’s just as valid and organic a part of the music). This is just 7 minutes of powerful, perfectly controlled catharsis, quite beautiful though in a way seldom imagined.

More beautiful still is Eyes Wide Open, being one of Crimson’s ballads that defy description and made a mockery of the word ballad. This is gloriously beatific music, simple and complex at the same moment. Belew’s vocals have never sounded so crisp, his voice so perfect. The quiet emotion he issues is wonderful. Complementing Belew is Fripp delicate guitar, enunciating each note sublimely in that clear, delicate manner so characteristic of Fripp at his greatest and gentlest. But there are also some sublime Mastelotto moments, his swirling, sibilant drumming. All of which give way to Gunn’s distorted Warr (and yes that is what it’s called) guitaring; swishing sounds in the background adding texture and depth. Then polyrhythmia kicks in, the vocals are gone and Belew’s near pastoral guitar warps under the surface. There is much going on and yet it seems so quiet. The layered tapestry of music is so remarkably beguiling and exciting as I listen out for every delicate sound and nuance. Divine.

Elektrik was born out of Live shows and the first ever recording of it is on their Live in Nashville album. It begins with treated guitar that has the stridence of a trumpet and gives ways to Mastelotto again and Gunn’s distorted bass-line. Fripp picks at his guitar: delicate notes. Mastelotto is again for me the hero of the day, his sibilant Drum ‘n Bass is sublime; the drilling electronica sound to it is perfect and underpins the music. His rhythm and invention keeps the delicacy of music flowing; as does Gunn with his high bass sound. I like Elektrik but for me it is perhaps the weakest instrumental on the album. I love Mastelotto and Belew’s warped guitar towards the end (as well as his low, warped vocal sounds that emerge from time to time), but overall it hasn’t the richness or power of Level Five or Dangerous Curves. As a low point in an album it is certainly a high point, which for me says everything about the level of quality on The Power to Believe.

The Facts of Life, technically is two tracks, including an introduction. The beginning, the introduction is a Fripp soundscape: ambient guitar loops gently drawing us in, beckoning us closer, as always these are subtle affairs, shimmering beautifully, lulling into a sense of false security as suddenly crashing drums and “6 million ants, crawling on a plate.” Gunn’s bass riff is remorseless as is Fripp’s climbing guitar, echoing metallic crispness. Belew’s sustained, hollow guitar reverberations call shrilly beneath the percussion as Fripp goes into how-many-notes-can-I-play-at-a-single-time mode in his most brilliant and least extravagant way (if that is possible). There is a thudding, drill like remorselessness to the song. It crashes further on; Gunn deserves credit for his fantastic Warr guitaring, grounding the whole song, ululating beneath Fripp’s gloriousness. There are times when I despise Fripp and times when I just want to kiss him (though I guess he’d prefer I didn’t) and on The Facts of Life he is magnificent, all of his strengths are borne out and though exceedingly powerful are never obtrusive; Belew too lets loose as he drops the vocals and in trademark style stridently attack his guitar with vigour. Again this is a track that should be pure noise, utter, disgraceful pointless noise. It’s nothing of the sort, it’s perfectly controlled polyrhythmia. Pairs of musicians play around and over one another in such a way as only Crimson at their very best can do; it’s s if they are anticipating one another and their judgment is spot on. Frankly this is just stunning, incredible music that leaves you breathless and tired for all the energy you have to devote to it as a listener. I’m listening to it now and shaking!

The Power to believe II is another instrumental, made up of curious, almost Eno-esque sounds courtesy of Mr Mastelotto. Again he grounds the other musician’s. There are moments when it is almost only Mastelotto playing. Sometimes his percussion has a delicate, subtle Frippian soundscape layered gently over it, mirroring Belew’s vocals in The Power to Believe I. This is magnificent stuff from Mastelotto, no pathetic drum solo but a collage of sounds with occasional embellishments from the other musicians. His chiming bells, something that sounds like a xylophone and hollow reverberations, have a rhythmical entrancement to them. It’s quite beautiful for its delicacy and judgement. The embellishments begin again: Gunn’s subtle guitar that gently enters; Belew’s softly distorted vocals that appear; Fripp sustained, metallic guitar. Slowly this becomes a true instrumental including the entire band. The percussion gives way to Belew’s wonderful guitar and all is nigh perfect. It hasn’t the raucousness of Level Five or The Facts of Life but then it’s not meant to have. It’s simply a very controlled, carefully constructed piece of music created out of subtle nuances. This is not the kind of instrumental that just anyone could cobble together over a beer; this is close to genius.

Dangerous Curves lacks the vocal sampling used on the Level Five live album but it has the same slow introduction that begins quietly and builds incrementally. Gunn’s pulsing bass thumps beneath Fripp’s gently layered soundscapes and Mastelotto’s inventive drumming to create a sound that builds itself up slowly like a piece of musical architecture. At first it is gentle, the musical; textures, the nuances of sound, Mastelotto’s eternally varied styles of drumming, then Belew’s enigmatic and quite sublime distorted, treated guitar sounds that bounces over the music. You can feel the music building towards crescendo, even when it pauses and all that is left is Gunn’s pulsing, machine-gun (no pun intended) bass and Fripp’s soundscapes. There, there in the background are occasional Belew-ism, spots of tense guitar that presage the fact that any moment a surprise is about to appear. The tension become nigh unbearable, perhaps exemplified by Fripp’s soundscapes that are so gentle; then Belew’s guitar crashes through. This is music akin to Bach in level of tension, it pulses through the shoulder blades and down through my calves. It leaves me tingling.

Happy with You Have to be Happy With is a vocal lead song with the power of Level Five. It declaims the paucity of modern day song writing “We’re gonna have to have a chorus; we’re gonna have to write a chorus and this is as good a place to sing it till I’m blue in the face. You have to be happy with what you have to be happy with. I guess we’ll repeat the chorus; We’re gonna repeat the chorus.” His vocals are loud and brash. Gunn gets top marks for his bass as does Mastelotto for the sheer force of his drumming; Belew too for his distorted guitar. It’s difficult to say exactly what is going on in this song beyond the simple fact that it is so stunningly powerful. At a mere 3 minutes it leaves you feeling like you’ve run a marathon (in a good way). It is another remarkable instance of musician’s making something beautiful out of what would otherwise be a wall of noise. Somewhere in between metal, heavy rock, prog rock and just plain bombasticness they find a perfect middle ground. Sit back, and prepare for a heavy ride. This song reminds me of a quote regarding Crimson’s live Thrakattack album. “It is best approached after a stomach settling glass of milk.” Absolutely. Absolutely worth it.

The Power to Believe III reminds me of ProjeKct 2’s The Deception of the Thrush. It is definitely ProjeKct inspired. It is all Frippian soundscapes; occasional pounding drumming; sustained guitars; nuances of sound and occasional moments of silence. It is minimalist without being boring. It is somewhat like The Power to Believe II though it is lead by Fripp, sounding just as he does on so much of the ProjeKcts. His climbing, metallic guitar and Gunn’s low, rumbling bass. Mastelotto adds occasional bouts of rhythm to the fray. This is not a track I would envisage a lot of people would like. It’s very dissonant and sometimes Fripp nearly veers off into uncharted territory but because this is a Crimson and not a ProjeKct album he reigns it in. Really, for me, this track is a about Fripp and Gunn musicking together (I can’t identify Belew anywhere and possible he wasn’t involved in the track). I enjoy it but not as much as the rest of the album.

Finally we end with The Power to Believe IV: Coda. A shimmering soundscape similar to Fripp’s on a Blessing of Tears, for which anyone interesting in ambient, near symphonic, beautifully moving guitar loops should buy right now. Belew sings over the gentle soundscapes as he does in The Power to Believe I. We have come full circle. Finally the soundscapes disappear and we have Belew’s vocal’s only. It is the perfect ending as this is where we started. It wouldn’t have been right to have ended on something as powerful as Level Five or The Facts of Life. It is fitting as we were gently drawn in to the album; so we are gently laid to rest.

I find The Power to Believe an amazingly cathartic album and as I’ve mentioned so many times it’s simple potency, it’s raw power is beyond the power of words. The musical invention rises what is played to the level of poetry. The musicians, so used to working with each other, never allow themselves to fall into cliché or overpower one another. The balance that they managed to strike is remarkable for the fact that this album should be noise, a terrible clashing cacophony of pointless self-indulgence and when it is really an album of rare power and stunning musicality. I am in awe.

Sadly we shall never know where this band could have gone as Trey Gunn has resigned his position in King Crimson. Whether or not it shall continue in another guise is left to be seen. After the evidence of The Power to Believe I can but only hope that they continue and continue to make music like this as no one else seems capable of doing so.

A quick aside: The artwork courtesy of painter PJ Crook is fantastic too!

For those interested; for those that I have not yet scared away, for a mere £10.99 Amazon will give you access to this most remarkable of albums. I can assure you it is money exceptionally well spent.