King Crimson on Streaming Services

lots of KC on Tidal.. which is great as many, many-ALL of the bands I listen to on Tidal I will never buy the disk or download. just where I am at these days. I don't want to mess with physical media. the live KC music is really captivating.

There are a lot of King Crimson releases on Qobuz for sure.
Already all of the so far available 2019 50 series singles are there.

@hodu I saw the 80's configuration 3 times.  They were very impressive.  Then I saw the 90's double trio 2-3 times, also very impressive.

But I would have to say, the current line-up, which I have seen twice and will again in September, is the best.  8 players, including three drummers in the front row is thunderous and precise.  

Here is some text from the .pdf that comes with the Live in Chicago download

Q: Where is this Formation in the series of King Crimson incarnations?
A: This sonic report is presented by King Crimson Formation 8.3.

My perspective on the wider context, of
forty-eight years active KC service, needs
a greater level of detailed commentary
and argument than available on this Friday
afternoon; when I have not yet strapped
on a guitar in preparation for KC’s return
to the US this Autumn; and hey! the sun
is shining and the garden is waiting!

Few former Crims are likely to holds views
close to my own, which does not obviate
the rightness of their views and perspectives.

There are four Definitive Formations of
King Crimson:

The First Definitive Formation: 1969.

The Second Definitive Formation: 1974 at
the last live performance in NYC and the
recording of Red.

The Third Definitive Formation: 1981.

The Double Trio (1994-1997) was a special
band, while not a defining band, and the
whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The Double Duo (1999-2003): the whole
was not greater than sum of the parts.

The King Crimson Quintet (2008): the
sum of the parts was greater than the
whole.

The Double Trio was not able to fulfill its
promise, for many good and valid reasons,
and a few not so good. Overall, my sense
of KC 1999-2003, and 2007-2008, was of
dis-satisfaction. Something was not quite
realized. This was not how I wished to let
go of Crimson. So, in 2013, in a flash before
my mind’s eye, a picture of the Seven
Headed Beast and its onstage configuration
presented itself (July 22nd. 2013).

The Seven-Headed Beast (2014) may be
considered KC Formation 8.1; Jeremy replacing
Bill (2016) as Formation 8.2; Bill
returning (2017) as Formation 8.3. But
please read on…

My two prime aims in the re-formation on
KC in 2013 were Redemption and Completion.
Acts of redemption took place during
2014, 2015 and 2016; at which point
completion was realized. A completion is
a new beginning, and the eight-piece KC
of 2017 constitutes a new beginning in
the process of King Crimson. This beginning-
again may be called Formation 8.3,
a formation becoming realized in Chicago
on June 28th. 2017; at which point the
process continued in motion.

The beginning-again-again of KC 8.3 as
Formation Nine took place at the Teatro
Metropolitan, Mexico City on the evening
of Friday, 14th. July 2017. The wonderful,
exceptional, generous audience enabled
the transition to take place. At the completion
of our performances in Mexico
City, on the evening of Wednesday 19th.
July, 2017, the band joined in champagne
with manager/minister David Singleton
and tour manager Dave Salt. I proposed
a toast: to King Crimson Formation Nine.

The present formation, returning to the
US in Autumn 2017, is King Crimson v. 9.1,
the Fourth Definitive Formation.

Q: What is a Definitive Formation?
A: Nothing is quite the same afterwards.

-Robert Fripp

Go on over to the DGMLive website where you can download each single for just short of a buck. They are releasing one new single each month throughout 2019.


@Hodu.  Current form of KC touring US this summer and fall.  I am tooling up to see them at the Paramount in Denver.  Mel Collins gonna be with them as well, he played on In the Wake of Poseidon

Rolling Stone article released on Monday.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/robert-fripp-interview-king-crimson-tour-david-bow...

I can't speak to the economics of streaming, but I can say this: I saw King Crimson way back in the early 1980s, on the "Discipline" tour, and still consider it the best show I ever had the privilege  of having witnessed. Also had the great pleasure of seeing Fripp on a solo gig at a little, tiny club and even got to ask him a question after the fabulous show. See, stream, spin, whatever -- Robert Fripp is King. There is no one like master Fripp!
-- Howard

"warming up" or relenting and beaten into submission?  I think I read somewhere that an artist makes more on the sale of a single CD/record than they do when customers stream the same content 5,000 times.