[Magic Mountain]

http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?entry=19858

Some excerpts:

Fripp: … is the 5.1 mix of Discipline.

This music sounds fresh to my ears today. The criterion: if the music I'm listening to makes me want to strap on a guitar and rock out, it works (the last time, live, was seeing Tool in Seattle) [Jim see this. Even Fripp thinks the Moon should have some Tool ].

This is how the music was meant to sound. Ace. Stunning. El fab. I am too-muched by it all. And other superlatives.

More tomorrow.


...........

… a through-listen and fine-tuning of the 5.1 mix of Discipline (1981). Superb. The music is brought to life.

Then - horror! A new stereo mix of Discipline. We considered this when originally looking at the 5.1 mix, and decided against. We didn't feel we could improve on the original mix. Steven has given this more thought and feels that we can improve on the present version, not in terms of the mix-picture as such, but for clarity, transparency and definition in the sound. This is what digital can do. So, into the psyche-squashing chamber for me, as whenever I re-enter the space of a classic KC album.

After a period of horror, moving swiftly through, the spirit of the original mix is honoured and the sound is very much better. Another el superbo, and gratitude to Steven for his persistence and support in the series of KC re-presentations. Without Steven, none of this would have happened.

Steven does 85-95% of the work before I arrive. Steven is, essentially and in many respects, a Child of the Crimson Beast. So many of Steven's default instincts are already Crimsonised. But some details and value judgments are only available to original members and, in some cases, myself. My key contribution is to the stereo and surround pictures. Because I am left-handed, but also right-handed in some functions, I hazard the guess that my hemispherical wiring is idiosyncratic, neither one nor the other, nor evenly ambi-hemispheric; with the result that I hear/see the sound-picture in a particular way. When there is correspondence, a "just fit" and a satisfying match, the picture "works". But until then, I move from profound-discomfort to pain. The feeling of responsibility to King Crimson, and the creative current that gave rise to it, is overwhelming, sometimes crushing. Which is one reason that KC is a difficult Beast to manage: it has to be business-like, but can never be or become a business and merely a professional undertaking; while simultaneously working within a professional and business context.

My participation has come with a tab attached, one of the strongest reasons originally for me not wanting to approach the 5.1 mixes: to re-immerse myself in the historic would act against bringing the future into the present. That is, no "new" King Crimson. And this has been the case. I don't know whether the definitive re-presentation of the historic catalogue and its 'improvements' with present technology is "better" than were my attention to have been placed on "futureworks" in the Crimson domain.

Do I regret this? At the beginning, yes, without quite getting as far as resentment. The argument that Steven would be doing most of the work, which he has, doesn't impact the question of attention: where is the attention placed? This moves beyond the number of hours spent in front of a mixing console / computer. Where our attention is, is where we are. With my attention in the living past, the living future isn't quite addressed. More accurately and specifically, the living future is addressed, but indirectly. The living future is being supported, but seemingly without anything to show for it.

Whatever, I felt myself being re-directed away from my natural inclination to move forward in the external sense. Now, there is great satisfaction in the catalogue's beginning-again with music not-bound by the date of its origin; and King Crimson now dwells in the realm of non-existence.

Leaving Wilson World HQ c. 16.00