KING CRIMSON – LIZARD ELEMENTAL MIXES (2025)

An alternative sleeve, no longer gatefold, 200g vinyl. The ‘Cirkus’ track sounds very different to the original and was produced and mixed from the original tapes by David Singleton and Alex ‘Stormy’ Mundy. In extremis ‘Happy Family’, the track that inspired the name of a Japanese prog rock band, is presented as an instrumental. A lot of liberties are taken with the drums and percussion as well basically to demote them to either not being there at all or much reduced in volume. It takes a bit of getting used to and I now have two very different lizards in my vinyl collection. My initial reaction was shock- this is pretty radical - which it is. Imagine any classic album deconstructed and reconfigured. And “Lizard” is my favourite KC album so I’m quite protective of it. The extended manic laughing at the end of ‘Indoor Games’; weird. What is not lost is that this was KC’s jazz album and not just because of the trio of brass players and the appearance of Keith Tippet; there’s an ‘out there’ musical elephant on ‘Happy Family’ - I do miss the vocal though. At least Jon Anderson’s vocal on ‘Prince Rupert Awakes’ is retained.

The dearth of drumming is an issue for me- or is it – after all think of the layers of an onion, the hidden and unused tracks, the revealing of ‘the music within the music’, Keith Tippet’s piano being given predominance; he is now a major player brought to the fore without the constraints of the original album’s mix. Btw I think the second side works better – it could qualify as a suite of new age classical/ jazz music. And the drums are back in full force once the mellotrons and flutes have disappeared. Fripp’s guitar is literally exposed towards the conclusion. Well known pianoforte pieces are added to ‘The Big Top’ – why? I had forgotten what a strange and groundbreaking album “Lizard” was but this is even stranger.

So, ‘Lizard’ is totally reimagined and transformed but it is still “Lizard”. I now have two copies of my favourite KC album. I know “Poseidon” has also been done, What’s next? Prepare to be astonished and astounded.