On the evening of Monday January
13th, 1969, King Crimson formally began rehearsals in the basement of
the Fulham Palace Road Cafe. After hauling their equipment down the
stairs into their cramped rehearsal room Greg Lake, Ian McDonald,
Michael Giles, Robert Fripp plugged in their instruments, and with Peter
Sinfield operating lights and sound, played and worked on material for
the next hour and a half.
By July of that year, the band was
performing in Hyde Park on the same bill as The Rolling Stones to an
audience of up to 500,000 people. By October, the debut album: “In the
Court of the Crimson King” was in the Top 5 of the UK album charts,
shortly followed by a top 30 position in the US album charts and a No 1
slot – replacing Abbey Road – in the Japanese international chart. By
December, following a series of US concerts finishing at San Francisco’s
Fillmore West, the band’s first line-up had imploded.
That was just the beginning…
We will play the original album in its entirety plus some live recordings from the Hyde Park show.
After the
success of his first vinyl album, “The Climb”, Boddy moved onto working
on his second vinyl release “Spirits”. Dominated by the sound of his
recently acquired Yamaha DX7 the album has an all together starker sound
than its predecessor. He actually premiered a version of the title
track at the first ever UK Electronica held in 1983. The album was
recorded at Newcastle Media Workshops between December 1983 &
February 1984 and released toward the end of 1984.
The title track which spans an entire side of the vinyl release is a huge, sprawling, Gothic soundscape which features a pounding middle section with the live drums of Ian McCormack. The first side opens with the track “Pulse” which could almost have been released as a single with its dance like rhythms and “catchy” tune. The next track “Living In A Ritual” is a unique track for Boddy in that it features vocals from Blitzkreig front man Brian Ross. Overlaid on a pulsing arpeggiator rhythm & with Vocoder keyboards from Boddy it has rather surprisingly become a bit of a cult classic in some Berlin nightclubs!
As with “The Climb” the vinyl edition of “Spirits” quickly sold out and was also reissued on CD in 1995 on Boddy’s Something Else Records label. A bonus track “Lamalode” was added to this edition which tries to follow on from the Gothic mood of the title track albeit with a more orchestral feel. This edition also sold out and other than a limited run on CDr this classic album has been out of print for many years. Since then Boddy has set up his successful DiN label and whilst he has moved on musically it is important not to forget his past. Thus Boddy intends to reissue each of his early albums on the DiNDDL download sub-label of DiN to give new listeners access to the full CD quality audio with as much of the original artwork as possible.
The title track which spans an entire side of the vinyl release is a huge, sprawling, Gothic soundscape which features a pounding middle section with the live drums of Ian McCormack. The first side opens with the track “Pulse” which could almost have been released as a single with its dance like rhythms and “catchy” tune. The next track “Living In A Ritual” is a unique track for Boddy in that it features vocals from Blitzkreig front man Brian Ross. Overlaid on a pulsing arpeggiator rhythm & with Vocoder keyboards from Boddy it has rather surprisingly become a bit of a cult classic in some Berlin nightclubs!
As with “The Climb” the vinyl edition of “Spirits” quickly sold out and was also reissued on CD in 1995 on Boddy’s Something Else Records label. A bonus track “Lamalode” was added to this edition which tries to follow on from the Gothic mood of the title track albeit with a more orchestral feel. This edition also sold out and other than a limited run on CDr this classic album has been out of print for many years. Since then Boddy has set up his successful DiN label and whilst he has moved on musically it is important not to forget his past. Thus Boddy intends to reissue each of his early albums on the DiNDDL download sub-label of DiN to give new listeners access to the full CD quality audio with as much of the original artwork as possible.
credits
released January 8, 2019
Ian Boddy: Synthesisers, Samplers and Electronic rhythms.
Brian Ross: Vocals on "Living In A Ritual".
Ian McCormack: Drums on "Spirits".
Ian Boddy: Synthesisers, Samplers and Electronic rhythms.
Brian Ross: Vocals on "Living In A Ritual".
Ian McCormack: Drums on "Spirits".
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