Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Record Collector SEPTEMBER 2006 - by John Martin

ROBERT FRIPP: EXPOSURE

Official... punk's more embarrassing than prog

Despite his status as a prog pioneer, Robert Fripp has long been keen to distance himself from that increasingly unfashionable musical milieu. However, he should be more embarrassed by his self-conscious 1979 solo attempt at reinventing himself as a punk. Admittedly, the biz is prone to such preposterous misrepresentation, but Bobby Rotten takes the proverbial biscuit. It's probably well to remember that he once also trained as an estate agent...

Having broken up the Wetford/Bruford incarnation of King Crimson on the verge of a Pink Floyd-type breakthrough, Fripp withdrew from the public eye. Subsequent soul-searching is evident on this album, and if you can get past Daryl Hall's empty vocal gymnastics (North Star), Peter Hamill's florid histrionics (I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You), and such conceits as the interpolated smart Alec interjections of Brian Eno, an interesting story of musical transformation emerges. The most resonant items are the Frippertronic-drenched rewordings of the title track and Here Comes The Flood, in collaboration with their creator Peter Gabriel, another artist trying to find his way in the post prog fall-out.

Fripp would eventually score with the world music-friendly 1981-84 line-up of Crimson. Exposure (handsomely presented here on two discs with a 1983 remix, with bonus vocal tracks from Hall) is a brave attempt, but no cigar.