ProjeKct Two: Live Groove

PROJEKCT TWO: LIVE GROOVE (1999)

1) Sus-tayn-Z; 2) Heavy ConstruKction; 3) The Deception Of The Thrush; 4) X-chayn-jiZ; 5) Light ConstruKction; 6) Vector Shift To Planet Detroit; 7) Contrary ConstruKction; 8) Live Groove; 9) Vector Shift To Planet Belewbeloid; 10) 21st Century Schizoid Man.

General verdict: A somewhat compromising live album that seems to make less of a point than its studio predecessor; still fairly powerful in certain spots.

As of now, no fewer than twenty-six different live shows by ProjeKct Two are available for purchase through DGMlive, and while it could be considered a respectable and devoted move on the part of Only Solitaire to give each and every one a thorough analytical check-up, I am not yet sure that such an expenditure of energy would bring final and permanent balance to the cosmos. Consequently, for now I will humbly limit myself to just a few words on Live Groove, the very first commercially released album by ProjeKct Two which was originally available as a part of the ProjeKcts boxset, or as a stand-alone title in Japan (where else?).

The first thing you see is that none of the tracks here overlap with Space Groove — but a few actually overlap with the soon-to-be newest incarnation of King Crimson, such as ʽDeception Of The Thrushʼ and the ʽConstruKctionʼ pieces (ʽLight ConstruKctionʼ would be reworked into ʽConstruKction Of Lightʼ, while ʽHeavy ConstruKctionʼ would later lend its title to the first live album from 2000). This is quite telling, since the basic idea of the ProjeKcts was to never repeat anything twice in the exact same way; yet it also means that this weirdly unique sci-fi vibe that the band had going on Space Groove is not felt nearly as strongly on the live release, much of which is more in line with traditional KC-type improvisations.

One thing that puzzles me is that only the regular ProjeKct Two trio is credited on the album, with Belew indicated as responsible for electronic drums; however, at least two of the tunes, the opening ʽSus-tayn-Zʼ and the title track, clearly feature four instruments — two guitars, bass, and regular, not electronic, drums, which actually sound like Bruford, not Belew. Was there some mix-up? is this really ProjeKct One material that somehow found its twisted way onto a ProjeKct Two album? I am quite happy to hear both of these jams, with «sus-tayn» really playing a large role throughout (actually, the main rhythm groove is exactly the same on both tracks), but it probably wouldnʼt have hurt to clarify this in the credits.

Other than that, itʼs fairly heavy business as usual, with Fripp and Gunn regularly laying on thick, crunchy layers of almost grunge-like atmosphere (ʽHeavy ConstruKctionʼ indeed); whether Belewʼs electronic drumming agrees with this atmosphere or not is up to the listener to decide, but I suppose that it is, to a large extent, responsible for why the final results still feel «weird» rather than «ass-kicking» (well, that and all the effects that make Frippʼs guitar, every once in a while, metamorphose into a symphonic orchestra or a prepared piano). When the band slows down, it is time for synthetic experiments — ʽDeception Of The Thrushʼ combines the robotic industrial pace of ʽIndisciplineʼ with fuzzy atonal solos that sound straight out of 1974 — but while they are all atmospheric and listenable, once again, I wouldnʼt go as far as to suggest that the stunned audiences were witnessing the birth of some new musical genre here.

Most interesting is the inclusion, at the end, of a very special rendition of ʽ21st Century Schizoid Manʼ — not so much the song itself as part of the ʽMirrorsʼ section, played with the aid of Adrianʼs «V-drums», Treyʼs bass, and (supposedly) Frippʼs guitar which has this time been rigged to sound like chimes. Itʼs just a short two-minute long segment, appended to the main bulk of the show like some sort of ʽHer Majestyʼ-style musical joke, but it is pretty symbolic of the ProjeKctsʼ burning desire to change as many rules as possible while still retaining the Crimsonian essence in everything they do. Not that the piece, by itself, does anything other than demonstrate what we already knew well enough (namely, how insanely cool and catchy that jazzy mid-section is), but, well, a surprise is a surprise even if it does not have any particular meaning.

On the whole, this is hardly the ProjeKctsʼ shiniest moment — sort of a half-assed compromise between the completely different sound of Space Groove and a regular King Crimson jam — but for those interested in the «road to the Double Duo», it might be one of the most important ProjeKct releases.