King Crimson is an interesting animal, to say the least. Upon entering the scene in 1969 with the lush In the Court of the Crimson King, the band established itself as a sort of epitome of British progressive rock by way of arrangements and instrumentation that owed as much to classical music as rock music. This lasted for a couple of years and a couple of lineup changes, until the sound of the band took a heavier turn around 1973 with the Lark's Tongues in Aspic album, and then the landmark Red in 1975.

This, too, did not last, and Crimson went on what appeared to be a permanent hiatus in 1975. After several solo projects and collaborations with the likes of Brian Eno, Fripp conceived of a new group with former bandmate Bill Bruford and two Americans - bassist Tony Levin, who Fripp had worked with on Peter Gabriel's solo albums, and guitarist Adrian Belew, who had worked with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and Talking Heads. This band was steeped in the strict musical philosophies Fripp had been developing over time, and as such, was to be called Discipline. But then fate intervened, to hear Fripp tell the story, and the band became King Crimson again, of its own accord. Naming the resulting album Discipline instead, the group wove in and out of complex linear structures, bizarre lyrical turns, and random electronics from both percussion and guitar, all done to great effect.

When this version of the band started getting complacent in 1984, after three albums, Fripp sent them packing in what again looked like the end of the band. However, after recording and touring with David Sylvian in 1993, he had yet another vision for the band in the post-Nirvana, post-Nine Inch Nails musical landscape. In the words of drummer Bill Bruford, one of the six members of the new Crimson, "you will have to own a black t-shirt in order to listen to this music." The concept was that of a double trio: two drummers, two bassists, and two guitarists, with the eighties band augmented by drummer Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn on Chapman Stick and Warr Guitar. This Crimson recorded the EP VROOOM in 1994, followed by the full-length THRAK in 1995. The conventional wisdom on this version is that they combine elements from each of the three discrete bands before them. Rather than disband in the sextet's downtime, Fripp then split the band up into smaller "fractalizations," called ProjeKcts, which he described as a sort of research and development for the full band, which was supposed to reconvene. In actuality, the ProjeKcts served to pare the band back down to a quartet, with Tony Levin and Bill Bruford leaving the group, and the new unit being a bit more focused on power than the freewheeling spirit that marked most of the incarnations that involved Bruford.

Absent Lovers (recorded live in 1984)
A definitive look at the eighties band on the final night of what would be the last live Crimson show for eleven years.

Discipline (1981)
Robert Fripp set down a list of rules for this group, particularly for drummer Bill Bruford, that included not playing fill-ins, not playing cymbals, and for the most part, not doing any of the things drummers typically do. To say the least, Bruford met the challenge. There's also a recurring theme in the construction of guitar parts on this album, where Fripp and Belew start by playing the same pattern, then one of them chops a note off the end of it so that they go out of phase with each other. On headphones, that sounds mighty cool.

Red (1975)
Crimson gets down and dirty. This album, with its incendiary title track has been cited as an influence by both Henry Rollins and the late Kurt Cobain.

THRAK (1995)
The new double trio combines the precision of the eighties Crimson, the ferocity of the seventies version, and some of the melodic sensibility of the original group.

Three of a Perfect Pair (1984)
Schizophrenia sets in, with the first half of the album trying to approach the radio-friendly mainstream, and the second absolutely shredding the mainstream to pieces.

In an effort to free himself from the machinery of the music business, Robert Fripp started Discipline Global Mobile, allowing for Crimson and Crimson-related releases that would never see the light of day otherwise. Discipline also instituted a "Collector's Club," consisting of very limited runs of even more obscure recordings. However, the label has shifted its priorities as of late, becoming more focused on King Crimson than being a record label.

Elephant Talk is the unofficial King Crimson mailing list, in digest form, and the accompanying web site is pretty comprehensive.

Trey Gunn and Tony Levin both have their own web sites, where you can pick up information on current Crimson goings-on, at least to the degree they are involved.