Exposure was Robert Fripp's first solo album released in 1979. It's a real dolly mixture of new wave rock, pop, post punk, and blues (and very little prog, ambient, or frippertronics, surprisingly). Guest singers included Daryl Hall and Peter Gabriel. More punky singing is provided by Peter Hammill and Terre Roche.
Mostly consisting of short pop songs there are nevertheless some trail blazing instrumental workouts like the brilliant Breathless which is reminiscent of Red and Fracture.
Side two does veer off into some more experimental work with spoken samples. But it's not until the ambient drone of Urban Landscape and the Water Music loops does Exposure really touch upon what I was expecting.
All in all it sounds like Fripp was throwing everything into this album - all his current (New York and Berlin) influences, and as a result, although there are some decent singles, the album as a whole sounds disjointed.
To read an extended review of Exposure please click here>>
King Crimson - Starless And Bible Black
Robert Fripp - Exposure
King Crimson - Three Of A Perfect Pair
King Crimson - Thrak
King Crimson - The Construkction of Light
King Crimson - The Power To Believe
Robert Fripp - Exposure
King Crimson - Three Of A Perfect Pair
King Crimson - Thrak
King Crimson - The Construkction of Light
King Crimson - The Power To Believe
Starless And Bible Black is an excellent Crimson album - coming in between the more celebrated Larks' Tongues In Aspic and Red it is nevertheless equally as powerful. I just love the squishy bass guitar and Fripp's distorted arpeggios like on Lament (very similar to One More Red Nightmare).
Some tracks (from this partially live recording) are apparent jams that chug along just the right side of chaos (We'll Let You Know, The Mincer and most of all the title track). The Night Watch is one of King Crimson's most gorgeous songs with a typically melodic Fripp solo (I read somewhere that some of these solos are track reversed and this one does sound like it actually). Trio is a classical piece reminiscent of the work on the jazzy Islands. The album ends on the monumental and infamous Fracture instrumental with Fripp's fingers exploring the dusty parts of the fretboard with series of ascending guitar scales (a theme he would revisit in the following Red album and the "Crimson mk. III" trio of albums retained in the player this week).
Great minimalist album art too which I've opted for at the head of the post over Fripp's less interesting Exposure:
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