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Arts
Page 6 Wednesday, May 6, 1981 The Michigan Daily
RECORDS
Fripp's fragments of brilliance
Robert Fripp -'The League of Gen- artists. Almost without exception, his somnolent. A rhythm generator would ploring all sorts of new styles, fr
tlemen' (Polydor)-It's too bad that best work has always had someone have shown more kick and spontaneity upbeat herky-jerky dance riff of
Robert Fripp's solo work rarely mat- else's name on it (like David Bowie. than these two players. If Fripp didn't taparaparshinokh" to the over
ches his instrumental abilities, for his Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel). usually record with luminaries like circuitry of "Minor Man." Esp
guitar work is on a level all its own. His In some ways, this record is no dif- Busta Jones and Phil Collins, then this in the latter style, Fripp has she
own albums generally echo ideas that ferent. Not to point fingers, but the bassist and drummer might not seem that he has finally surpassed the
he has explored previously with other rhythm section here is barely above so awful. But given that context, they that he did with Crimson. At the
are unforgivable. The fact that League time that he has extrapolated
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of Gentlemen is composed exclusively
of instrumental dance tunes (with a few
found vocals and tape loop pieces
thrown in for good measure) also
doesn't help the album avoid becoming
a mishmash of intriguing riffs that
never quite salvage their plodding
rhythms and predictable chord
progressions.
THE BOTTOM LINE is that you
could see this as just another miscon-
ceived product by Mister Fripp ... ex-
cept for one crucial difference. On
League of Gentlemen, Fripp finally
steps out and plays some of the god-
damn hottest guitar he has played sin-
ce the halycon days of King Crimson.
Gone are the trite reiterations of Crim-
son riffs that peppered Exposure and
even further removed are the almost
embarrassingly familiar guitar tape
loops of God Save the Queen/Under
Heavy Manners.
Fripp spreads out on this album, ex-
unimaginable chord changes and im-
possible soloes to a point beyond any
description, he has also learned to im-
press us with understatement rather
than simply bowl us over with bombast.
THIS NEW understatement thank-
fully allows room for the one other real
talent on this record, namely keyboard
player Barry Andrews. And Andrews
wastes no time with that space; he has
much more fun with his keyboards on
this record than anything he has recor-
ded since the early days of XTC. He
seems to bounce across the keys, sen-
ding out short jabs and monstrous swells
of sound to counterbalance Fripp's
stinging guitar work.
Still, this is not what you could calr a
fully realized album. Rather, League of
Gentlemen is composed of bits and
pieces, though it can't be denied that
some of those bits and pieces are of ex-
ceptiopal quality.
-Mark Diehton
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