Fripp's Crimson vision impressive yet again - Levin

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Bassist Tony believes band's 8th lineup has secured 'truly progressive' prog sound

Tony Levin believes the current incarnation of King Crimson is delivering "truly progressive prog rock."

The bassist and multi-instrumentalist describes the band’s eighth lineup as “radical” and heaped praise on mainman Robert Fripp’s vision for the group.

He’d suspended his career as a live performer in 2009 after a legal battle with a former record label spiralled out of control. But it was finally resolved in 2013 – and Fripp announced he’d formed a new Crimson lineup featuring drummers Gavin Harrison, Bill Reiflin and Pat Mastelotto alongside Levin, saxophonist Mel Collins and Jakko Jakszyk on guitar. They recently completed a US tour.

Levin tells Something Else: “I am very impressed, yet again, with Robert’s musical vision. Some of his ideas for this lineup seemed like they’d be tough to translate into a successful show. But, as has happened before, I found that having faith in his vision of what King Crimson is paid off with music that’s not like the last lineup and a show that’s a bit radical in ways — truly ‘progressive’ progressive rock.”

He says of Collins’ contribution: “Mel’s feel gives flavour to the pieces. He’s a musical wildcard, doing different things on different nights, so that inspires me to follow him, and you get sections that are completely different night to night. I’d never played in Crimson with a sax, and to me it made it a completely different band.”

Levin can’t say for sure whether the band will record and release new music, but says he remains “hopeful.”

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.