King Crimson

condition (records/cover): NM / NM

A Japanese unofficial 2LP capturing the Three Of A Perfect Pair-era King Crimson quartet of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford live at Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo, on 3 May 1984, on the supporting tour for the album that would close the 1980s trilogy. The recording is excellent: a soundboard-quality capture of one of the last full performances of the Discipline-era Crimson before the band's mid-1980s dissolution.

The set list is the trilogy in concentrated form. Side A: "No Warnings", "Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part III", "Thela Hun Ginjeet", "Frame By Frame", "Matte Kudasai". Side B: "Industry", "Dig Me", "Three Of A Perfect Pair", "Indiscipline". Side C: "Sartori In Tangier", "Man With An Open Heart", "Waiting Man", "Sleepless", "Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part II". Side D: "Discipline", "Elephant Talk", "Heartbeat". The performances are extraordinarily tight. Belew's voice carries the songs. Fripp and Levin lock into their interlocking-pattern role. Bruford's electronic kit drives the whole forward.

The pressing on offer is the late-1980s Japanese unofficial 2LP on Haro Records, catalogued KC1181, in a printed sleeve with two different label designs (white "Day Side" with a sun, black "Night Side" with a moon), one of the more carefully produced bootleg objects of its decade. One of the few extensive documents of the 1984 Crimson live in soundboard-quality, and as ever with this category, DGM's official archival programme has since made similar material available through legitimate channels.