Thrak
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2015}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Thrak
| type = studio
| artist = King Crimson
| cover = THRAK_-_Original_Album_Cover.jpeg
| alt =
| released = {{Start date|df=yes|1995|4|3}}{{cite magazine |date=1 April 1995 |title=New Albums |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1995/Music-Week-1995-04-01.pdf |magazine=Music Week |page=14 |access-date=27 May 2025 |via=World Radio History}}
| recorded = 24 October – 4 December 1994
| studio = Real World (Box, Wiltshire)
| genre = * Progressive rock
| length = 56:35
| label = Virgin
| producer = * King Crimson
- David Bottrill
| prev_title = Vrooom
| prev_year = 1994
| next_title = Thrakattak
| next_year = 1996
| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = King Crimson studio
| type = studio
| prev_title = Three of a Perfect Pair
| prev_year = 1984
| title = Thrak
| year = 1995
| next_title = The ConstruKction of Light
| next_year = 2000
}}{{Singles
| name = Thrak
| type = studio
| single1 = Dinosaur
| single1date = 1995 (US)
| single2 = Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream
| single2date = 1995 (US)
}}
}}
Thrak (stylised in all caps) is the eleventh studio album by the band King Crimson released in 1995 through Virgin Records.{{Citation |title=King Crimson - THRAK Album Reviews, Songs & More {{!}} AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/thrak-mw0000125655 |access-date=2023-10-29 |language=en}} It was preceded by the mini-album Vrooom in 1994, which contained early versions of some of the same material. It was the group's first full-length studio album since Three of a Perfect Pair eleven years earlier and their only full album to feature the "double trio" lineup of Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Trey Gunn, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto. It is the group's final studio album to feature either Bruford or Levin.
Recording
Thrak was recorded in late 1994 at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire, England, with producer David Bottrill.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Sid |date=3 April 2021|title=Thrak at 26|url=https://www.dgmlive.com/news/thrak-released-26-years-ago-on-this-day |access-date=28 February 2025|website=DGM Live}} Bottrill had previously produced Fripp and David Sylvian's 1993 album The First Day, which had featured Trey Gunn as a session player.{{Cite web |last=Smith|first=Sid|date=21 May 2022 |title=Ten great King Crimson songs from the 90s |url=https://www.loudersound.com/news/ten-great-king-crimson-songs-from-the-90s |access-date=28 February 2025 |website=Louder |language=en}} With the band consisting of two guitarists, two bassists and two drummers,{{Cite news |last=Simmons |first=Sylvie |date=1995 |title=King Crimson |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/king-crimson/ |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=Rolling Stone}} the opening track begins with all six musicians in the center of the audio mix; as the album progresses, they are split into two trios, with one in each stereo channel.
Bill Bruford assumed that this lineup would be a continuation from their work in the 1980s but instead found that the band had adopted a heavier sound that bore a greater resemblance to their 1974 Red album. The band wrote the compositions at Belew's home studio in Nashville, Tennessee and Fripp's house in Wiltshire. Fripp primarily composed the instrumental sections and Belew focused the lyrics and melodic ideas.
"Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" and "One Time" were developed at studio rehearsals for the 1994 mini-album Vrooom in Woodstock, New York, during the spring of 1994. Instrumental outtakes and improvisations from these sessions would later be released as The Vrooom Sessions in 1999. "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" developed from the instrumental outtake "No Questions Asked".
"Fashionable" was another instrumental from The Vrooom Sessions that was re-recorded at Real World during the sessions. It features a guitar line reminiscent of David Bowie's "Fashion", on which Fripp played. Despite being reworked with various additions and refinements by the band members, the piece was ultimately cut from the album.{{Cite web|last=Live|first=D. G. M.|date=10 October 2016|title=King Crimson, 30 October, 1994 Fashionable, 1994|url=https://www.dgmlive.com/albums/30-october-1994-fashionable|access-date=2020-06-15|website=DGM Live|language=en}} On "People", Tony Levin recorded the bass track by striking the strings with small drumsticks known as funk fingers, which he attached to his digits. Levin first used this technique in the 1980s while working with Peter Gabriel on the song "Big Time".{{Cite web |last=DeRiso |first=Nick |date=22 September 2011 |title=Tony Levin on "Big Time," "Thrak," "Late in the Evening" + others: Gimme Five |url=https://somethingelsereviews.com/2011/09/22/one-track-mind-tony-levin-on-big-time-thrak-late-in-the-evening-others/ |access-date=7 June 2025 |website=Something Else!}}
"Vrooom Vrooom" incorporates a middle section originally composed by Fripp in 1974 for Red’s instrumental title track.{{Cite web|last=Live|first=D. G. M.|date=2016-11-07|title=The Double Trio - Robert Fripp|url=https://www.dgmlive.com/in-depth/the-double-trio-robert-fripp|access-date=2020-06-15|website=DGM Live|language=en}} The band had also experimented with this material in 1983, while working on Three of a Perfect Pair; evidence of this is the track "Working on Sleepless" from the 2016 compilation Rehearsals & Blows.
Release
First released on 3 April 1995, Thrak reached number 58 in the UK Albums Chart, their most recent release to make the chart.{{cite web |url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/21481/king-crimson/ |title=King Crimson
Reception
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}Gioffre, Daniel. [https://www.allmusic.com/album/thrak-mw0000125655 King Crimson - THRAK (1995) album review, credits & releases] at AllMusic
| rev2 = Maxim
| rev2Score = {{rating|4|5}}
| rev3 = Q
| rev3Score = {{rating|4|5}}
| rev4 = Rolling Stone
| rev4Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite web|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kingcrimson/albums/album/199433/review/6067417/thrak|title=King Crimson - THRAK (1995) album review|first=Bradley |last=Bambarger |date=19 September 2008|work=Rolling Stone|access-date=19 May 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919084153/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kingcrimson/albums/album/199433/review/6067417/thrak|archive-date=19 September 2008|df=dmy-all}}
| rev5 = Trouser Press
| rev5score = favourable{{cite web |url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=king_crimson |title=TrouserPress.com :: King Crimson |last1=Grant |first1=Steven |last2=Fleischmann |first2=Mark |last3=Robbins |first3=Ira |website=TrouserPress.com |access-date=30 July 2016}}
}}
Trouser Press described Thrak as "an absolute monster, a cerebral sextet adventure stunning in its precisely controlled rock power."
In a retrospective review of the album, Daniel Gioffre of AllMusic called King Crimson "the only progressive rock band from the '60s to be making new, vital, progressive music in the '90s" and expressed high regard for the various ways they exploited the double trio format on the album. While noting the album often referenced previous King Crimson works, he felt that this was a subtle acknowledgment of King Crimson's established fan base rather than a preoccupation with their own past.
Track listing
All music written by Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Trey Gunn, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto; all lyrics written by Adrian Belew, except "Coda: Marine 475", written by Robert Fripp.
{{Tracklist
| title1 = VROOOM
| note1 = instrumental
| length1 = 4:38
| title2 = Coda: Marine 475
| length2 = 2:42
| title3 = Dinosaur
| length3 = 6:37
| title4 = Walking on Air
| length4 = 4:38
| title5 = B'Boom
| note5 = instrumental
| length5 = 4:11
| title6 = THRAK
| note6 = instrumental
| length6 = 3:59
| title7 = Inner Garden I
| length7 = 1:47
| title8 = People
| length8 = 5:53
| title9 = Radio I
| note9 = instrumental
| length9 = 0:44
| title10 = One Time
| length10 = 5:21
| title11 = Radio II
| note11 = instrumental
| length11 = 1:03
| title12 = Inner Garden II
| length12 = 1:16
| title13 = Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream
| length13 = 4:50
| title14 = VROOOM VROOOM
| note14 = instrumental
| length14 = 5:50
| title15 = VROOOM VROOOM: Coda
| note15 = instrumental
| length15 = 3:01
}}
;Notes
- "Vrooom", "Thrak" and "Vrooom Vrooom" are stylised in all caps.
Personnel
King Crimson
- Adrian Belew – electric and acoustic guitars, lead vocals
- Robert Fripp – electric guitar, Mellotron, soundscapes
- Trey Gunn – Chapman Stick, backing vocals
- Tony Levin – bass guitar, electric upright bass, backing vocals
- Bill Bruford – acoustic and electronic drums, percussion
- Pat Mastelotto – acoustic and electronic drums, percussion
Production personnel
- David Bottrill – production, engineering
- Russell Kearney – additional engineering
- David Singleton – production assistant, digital editing
- John Sinks – equipment, strategic liaison
- Richard Chadwick – coordinator
- Lewis Mulatero – photography
- Kevin Westenberg – additional photography
- Bill Smith Studio – design
Charts
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
! scope="col"| Chart (1995) ! scope="col"| Peak | |
| scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon){{cite book|title=Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005|publisher=Oricon Entertainment|location=Roppongi, Tokyo|year=2006|isbn=4-87131-077-9|language=ja}}
| align="center"| 24 | |
|---|---|
| {{album chart|Scotland|92|date=19950409|rowheader=true|access-date=23 September 2023}} | |
| {{album chart|UK2|58|date=19950409|rowheader=true|access-date=23 September 2023}} | |
| {{album chart|Billboard200|83|artist=King Crimson | rowheader=true|access-date=23 September 2023}} |
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
! scope="col"| Chart (2015) ! scope="col"| Peak |
| {{album chart|UKIndependent|28|date=20151106|rowheader=true|access-date=23 September 2023}} |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Discogs master|592}}
- [https://open.spotify.com/album/3qgsEHi1mqPubkwk8UA33Q King Crimson - THRAK] on Spotify
- [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lwE2L44NPzY6toEaacIVMbRmEYc-9ujME King Crimson - THRAK] on YouTube
{{King Crimson}}
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