VOTD 2/12/2023

 Robert Fripp: the League of Gentlemen (Polydor)

Purchased at a record show, I think

A few times in years past, I've purged some of my vinyl. "I'll never listen to this again" I say to myself. Often I find that regret some of those choices, and in a few cases have bought second copies of a previously owned record. This would be one. 

I wouldn't say that I hated this one, but I was certain it was in the past and I wasn't interested. Yet, I sought it out and bought a reasonably priced copy at a record fair (probably at Spirit). 

It's an interesting and transitional era in Robert Fripp's creative life. He was trying to scale back from the late 60s to mid 70s prog rock excesses of King Crimson, a name he would ultimately return to some six years after the breakup of the John Wetton-era band. Some of the time was spent touring with his Frippertronics setup (a flexible tape delay system, I think actually developed by Brian Eno). 

Then there's this project, joining his guitar gymnastics with a new wave rhythm section. It's stripped down, with his guitar unquestionably the center of attention. The rhythm section is minimal, direct, repetitious. One can see a clear through line from 70s Crimson, through this group, onto the early 80s Crimson. While it's fair to say that Crimson has always been an instrumental band first and a vocal band second, this is nearly entirely instrumental. The exceptions would Lemon Kittens' Danielle Dax(!) with a sprechstimme performance on "Minor Man", and some tracks including "found" vocals, most notably of Fripp's guru (poshumously) J.G. Bennett.

You know how some groups or artists, you want to hear everything they've done? Then there's something like this project. It's good, yet a single LP is perfectly fine. I wouldn't mind listening to some of the live documents of this band, but otherwise this band probably existed exactly as long as it needed to. 

Fripp is known for his diaries, which sometimes seems very self-centered, and yet also keeps some notable records of his goings-on. The back of this album lists 77 gigs for the band, between April 10 and November 29, 1980. 22 of those dates were in May. They played the Decade in Pittsburgh on July 5. It was a period for that club that also saw The Police and U2 appear there, on their first American tours. 

Bassist Sara Lee would go on to play and tour for Gang of Four after this group, later touring with B-52s, among many others. (I think that's her in the "Love Shack" video.) Barry Andrews was an original member of XTC, and would later play with Shreikback. Drummer Johnny Toobad? His only credits I can find are with this band. 

This album, with alternate takes and live recordings, was included in the recent 32-disc Exposures box set. It's a lot of music for the money, but jeez, 32 discs?