Heaven And Earth

Only dipped the proverbial toe so far, a quick skim over a representative (for me) selection, and even allowing for my over enthusiasm, it sounds tremendous; the re-jigging of '..Construktion..' for example, never a 'bad' album, more a case of it hiding in the murky depths; now, with a seemingly more congenial hand on the mixing/mastering and PM's re-done percussion...well, you can hear the thing now, and it is more than ripe for reassessment.Beautifully boxed (as much as i am attached to the Islands sleeve used on the last box, PJ Crook illustrations are always a treat, and seem to go hand in glove with this later incarnation) and the addition of so much Projekt material - well, my learned friend above was quite correct; Ahmet Zappa - look upon this and weep.Anyway, i ramble too much in my enthusiasm, my apologies. And as my daughter pointed out recently, shouldn't you be getting past material possessions and acquisitiveness by now? Ha! - not when they're this good!

If you reading this, it’s either because you bought the previous box sets or you are a new Crimson fan... do yourself a favour: buy it while it’s still available!! If you are a multichannel geek like me, you’ll love the new 5.1 remixes of their last 2 albums. But the real treat are the complete recordings of their fracktal concerts, known as Projeckts 1,2,3 and 4. You get all their concerts ever played !!! In outstanding soundboard quality!! I don’t know how long its gonna take me to listen all this, but I’m gone trough 2 concerts and I’m loving it :DThe Power to Believe and The Construction of light in HD master 5.1 sound incredibly crisp and clear it literally makes you wanna pump up the volume!Don’t be a fool! Don’t let this one get past!!

This set is, of course, excellent in terms of content. However, the official KC-DGM website now features several articles about the faulty Blu-Ray discs - they play at an incorrect speed. Trying to get this corrected either at DGM or from Amazon is like getting blood from a stone.So I am stuck with a dud. Apparently it is too expensive for KC themselves to fix the discs properly and send them to those of us who paid for this (Mike Oldfield did this with one of his reissues, I cannot see why KC can't). Amazon seem to think it is a KC problem. And don't try to use Amazon's chat service to sort this out, they are hopeless.So be careful. Yes, the content is excellent blah, blah, blah but you pay for CDs, DVDs and faulty Blu-Rays with no intention to fix this? Are new releases now fixed, and can we have one of those?Very poor service from King Crimson, DGM and Amazon in this case.

This package of work is beyond belief in all respects, composition, musicianship, production, recording, packaging, value for money. It is amazing. Life changing if you are lucky enough for this to be your first KC encounter

The last of the “big box sets” from one of the most influential groups of the last 50 years. Good to have both studio and live performance from another transition of KC and also the ProjeKcts

Have to admit I've only managed to listen to a few highlights yet, since the amount of stuff on here is simply dizzying - about 60 full live sets by King Crimson and its various improvisational ProjeKct configurations, plus excerpts (2-5 tracks each) of a further 20 gigs from their 2000 tour caught on camera. Plus the two main studio albums in new 5.1 and stereo mixes, along with the original versions and a smorgasbord of ProjeKcty-type releases, most of which are in hi-res. But from everything I've heard so far, the sound quality is, as we've come to expect from these boxes, absolutely stunning.The new album mixes are great - the drums on the new 'ReConstruKction of Light' completely re-recorded from scratch when the old drum recordings couldn't be found. And though I can't say it's better than the original (I'm one of the few who secretly loves its lo-fi, over-compressed, unrelentingly dense presentation), it's certainly more accessible, with better dynamics and a wider sound stage. Not as 'difficult' perhaps. The TPTB remix is less different from the original but as my all-time favourite Crim album, it's hard to imagine making it any better.As for everything else - the entire output of the ProjeKcts is here, including the incredible ProjeKct X, which has only improved with age. I guess whether you buy this depends on how much ear-shredding improvisation you want to hear - the second blu-ray (there are four in the set, packed to the max) features a staggering 35 sets by ProjeKct 2, which I haven't quite dared to engage with yet, and the ProjeKcts as a whole might be considered challenging to new ears - but from what I heard already, it will be just as engaging as the Red and Starless sets were, bringing you up close with the day-by-day evolution of a band on tour whose only remit is to take serious risks. Back in the early 00s when I first heard the original CDs, the ProjeKcts changed the way I listened to music, and they're still doing it now.The actual 'King Crimson' parts of the set are fairly minor in comparison - only a handful of sets from their various tours, more like the 80s box set. Strangely there are also no videos of the 2003 version of the band in action. But hey, I've got the Wide Eyes Open DVD already so who cares? What's here gives a great overview of the period in question and, unless you just don't like the band in this period, it's just as impressive as the other sets, if not more so.OK, so the number of posters, memorabilia, ticket stubs etc in the box is fewer than usual, if you want to quibble. And the accompanying booklet is still fascinating, with a few new bits of info from a couple of more recent interviews with Trey Gunn, Machine and so on. But it's the music I buy these sets for, and it is glorious.