Young Lions - Adrian Belew

Side One - Adrian Belew

After a long hiatus, Adrian Belew returned in fine form to release a trilogy of albums over the course of a year. The first of these, imaginatively titled Side One (you can guess how imaginative the other two will be), is a glorious return to Belew s wild guitar style that characterised eighties King Crimson, perhaps even going too far in its homage on occasion, but is made even more successful by the addition of guest musicians in the form of Primus Les Claypool on bass guitar and Tool s Danny Carey on drums, both of whom appear on the first three tracks. The addition of Claypool and Carey really does suit Belew s notion of the "power trio" and serves to ...

Side One - Adrian Belew

After a long hiatus, Adrian Belew returned in fine form to release a trilogy of albums over the course of a year. The first of these, imaginatively titled Side One (you can guess how imaginative the other two will be), is a glorious return to Belew s wild guitar style that characterised eighties King Crimson, perhaps even going too far in its homage on occasion, but is made even more successful by the addition of guest musicians in the form of Primus Les Claypool on bass guitar and Tool s Danny Carey on drums, both of whom appear on the first three tracks. The addition of Claypool and Carey really does suit Belew s notion of the "power trio" and serves to ...

Side Two - Adrian Belew

I was surprised at how well the central part of Adrian Belew s musical trilogy worked, considering that many veteran musicians who turn their hand to electronic composition end up as an embarrassment, like someone s Nan break-dancing. Belew certainly has a knack for it, his synthesised percussion loops suiting the more laid-back guitar style employed here, and never seeming like they re trying to be cool and modern just for the sake of it, but all the same the music does end up rather repetitive and dull, especially for lacking the energy that made its predecessor so entertaining. It s gratifying to see Belew breaking out of the King Crimson influence for the most part, ...

Side Two - Adrian Belew

I was surprised at how well the central part of Adrian Belew s musical trilogy worked, considering that many veteran musicians who turn their hand to electronic composition end up as an embarrassment, like someone s Nan break-dancing. Belew certainly has a knack for it, his synthesised percussion loops suiting the more laid-back guitar style employed here, and never seeming like they re trying to be cool and modern just for the sake of it, but all the same the music does end up rather repetitive and dull, especially for lacking the energy that made its predecessor so entertaining. It s gratifying to see Belew breaking out of the King Crimson influence for the most part, ...

Side Three - Adrian Belew

The final instalment of Adrian Belew s trilogy, which I m sure is supposed to represent some high musical concept or other, takes the best elements from its predecessors as well as a very obvious influence from Belew s work with King Crimson, to make it the strongest of the three - by a little bit. The spoken word stylings of the first two songs and the presence of electronic percussion make this instantly comparable to King Crimson s The Power to Believe, and Robert Fripp even comes over to assist as a background player along with former Crimson alumnus Mel Collins and, most significantly, the rhythm section of Les Claypool and Danny Carey who made the first half of ...

Side Three - Adrian Belew

The final instalment of Adrian Belew s trilogy, which I m sure is supposed to represent some high musical concept or other, takes the best elements from its predecessors as well as a very obvious influence from Belew s work with King Crimson, to make it the strongest of the three - by a little bit. The spoken word stylings of the first two songs and the presence of electronic percussion make this instantly comparable to King Crimson s The Power to Believe, and Robert Fripp even comes over to assist as a background player along with former Crimson alumnus Mel Collins and, most significantly, the rhythm section of Les Claypool and Danny Carey who made the first half of ...