ProjeKct Three: Masque

PROJEKCT THREE: MASQUE (1999)

1) Masque 1; 2) Masque 2; 3) Masque 3; 4) Masque 4; 5) Masque 5; 6) Masque 6; 7) Masque 7; 8) Masque 8; 9) Masque 9; 10) Masque 10; 11) Masque 11; 12) Masque 12; 13) Masque 13.

General verdict: Good album. Let Crimsonologists figure out the rest.

All right, onwards to ProjeKct Three. Since itʼs three, it made sense to have only three players... well, ProjeKct Two also had three players, but I guess thereʼs a bare minimum beyond which a ProjeKct ceases to be a ProjeKct and becomes «Fripp and annoying sidekick». Anyway, this here ProjeKct Three consists of Fripp, Gunn, and Pat Mastelotto replacing Adrian Belew. Given that in the previous ProjeKct Belew was playing drums as well, one might think that there wouldnʼt be that much difference, but there definitely is — Mastelotto is, after all, a professional drummer, and, unsurprisingly, ProjeKct Three is far more percussion-heavy and percussion-dependent than its immediate predecessor. And I do prefer the sound of real drums to that of V-drums, so thank you very much for bringing back this weird human element.

The five live shows by ProjeKct Three all took place in March 1999 somewhere in Texas; full versions, as usual, have been available from DGMLive since 2014, but casual fans will probably find contentment with Masque, collecting about sixty minutesʼ worth of performances from all the five shows. Sonically, this particular ProjeKct stands somewhere in between One and Two: it sort of preserves the astral-groove vibe of Two, but returns to darker and heavier territory, with consistently aggressive bass playing and plenty of thick, distorted, dirty lead playing from the Frippmeister, though he seems just as happy playing any possible or impossible sort of weird psychedelic tone that he sees fit on any occasion.

Everything is perfectly listenable because, as with the other ProjeKcts, groove always takes precedence over experimentation — rule of thumb is that you can do just about anything as long as it does not take you off the beaten path. Describing the music is another matter, though: each track is somewhat special and predictable at the same time. ʽMasque 1ʼ, for instance, begins like a slightly grungified jazz-fusion track from the mid-Seventies, then lays on the percussion and bass so thick that it switches over to the «industrial» realm, going from gently stroking your ass to kicking it real hard in a matter of seconds. Itʼs cool, except that about half, if not more, of the other ʽMasquesʼ behave in more or less the same way, veering between the fusionesque and the industrial-esque. Formally, the grooves are all different in terms of chords, tonalities, and tempos, but on the whole, it just feels like one very, very, very long experience.

I was a little amused about ʽMasque 2ʼ, though — for all I know, it seems to borrow its groove, with a few small modifications, from the poppy Belew track ʽMan With An Open Heartʼ (just listen to that bassline); no idea if that was intentional or not, but I like to think of this particular improv as an exercise in creative deconstruction, and it does stand out from the rest because of the relaxed, simple pop groove, contrasting with all that other math-rock stuff. Other than that, well... just another day in the life of the ProjeKcts.