Under The Influence #55: Nonvector on “Red” by King Crimson!

London England was the home of one of Progressive Rock’s most influential figures in guitarist Robert Fripp. By 1974 his brainchild King Crimson were releasing their seventh studio record entitled “Red“, an album that saw five cuts including the epic 12 minute affair that is “Starless” that unbeknown to the band at the time would go on not only to influence Progressive sounds in general but also Avant-garde Metal as well. It has a delicately knife edge balanced complexity and utilizing the bands powerhouse rhythm section of John Wetton and Bill Bruford to create heavier tones while affording Fripp the opportunity to create multiple layers of guitar overdubs and round out the sound.

Nonvector and Crimson Massacre guitarist James Jackson comments: “This album was actually my first introduction to King Crimson, and perhaps my personal gateway into 70s progressive music (I think I first heard my dad’s vinyl copy of this when I was 10 or so).  I don’t know if I have a favorite King Crimson album, but this one certainly had the strongest influence to my sense of songwriting and composition.  The brilliance in these arrangements is that each song stands alone as its own superbly strong composition and yet also contributes itself towards the album’s whole concept. Individual riffs are not merely pieces to a larger device however, and are innovative in their own sense of melody and edge-of-dissonant direction. This album perfectly captures a sense of adventure, wanderlust, ambiance, and all the while maintaining avoiding any meandering.  At times jazz and blues-driven, yet progressive and “heavy”, this album continues to stand as a timeless entity; forever a relentless influence in more ways than we’ll ever realize“