King Crimson

They were bold, hyper-intelligent, hyper-aware, dynamic, clumsy, quick, forgiving, unforgiving, calm and boisterous. Live, the mid-'90s "double trio" formation of one of rock's most enigmatic thinking man's groups toured the planet relentlessly while struggling to achieve greatness and then some. This two-CD document is a definitive testament to their interlocking battle of wits onstage. Disc one, their legendary Mexico City performance, was previously available only as an internet-only mp3 album, and here it finally sees the light in a full, uncompressed resolution format, and the repertoire of these two drummer sets were performed with machine gun energy that sprayed musical bullets across the venue. The second disc, their infamous live on Broadway shows in New York, captures the band dusting off material mainly from their early '80s four-piece repertoire, with hurried and cleverly offset renditions of tracks such as "Frame By Frame," the jazzy, Sabbath-esque "Indiscipline" and the suave "Three of a Perfect Pair." And certainly of interest to hardcore fans, disc one closes with an ultra-rare and stunning performance of the oft-requested Crim classic "21st Century Schizoid Man," which should forever halt future audients to ever shout out its pickled name again. By now the band have striped away two of this line-up's members, but one listen to these sets and one will have evidence that it is indeed possible to split the musical atom, no matter how dangerously delectable the mutations that spring form doing so.