King Crimson - 1981-12-14 Kokusai Hall Tokyo Japan (1981)

Discipline positively throbs with a barely restrained power on the 5th gig of the tour in Japan’s capital city. A bright, slightly trebly audience recording can really only give us a sense of how things were that night but even at this remove it’s obvious right from the off that Crimson are really hitting their stride. Levin is a totally unstoppable bass beast providing a dark undertow of long creeping bass tones, providing a kind of ominous still centre as the notes and beats whirl around him.

The high-octane stuff continues with a Red that threatens to demolish the place, and at the other end of the scale, a wonderful light and graceful Matte. The way this band can go between these two extremes with such apparent ease and facility is surely what makes Crimso special.

The gig is rounded off in grand style with the reappearance of Sartori In Tangiers. It had first featured in the Crimson set list (not under that title) on the American leg of this tour in October, making sporadic appearances. Having given it a rest a for a couple of evenings, it returns with a vengeance. The otherworldly interplay between the organ and Belew’s swooping guitar notes during the extended introduction sends shivers prior to a brilliant piece of Belew bravura as he coaxes all manner of weirdness out of his guitar. A great gig with Crim on form and a decent bootleg sound. If you download this you won’t go wrong.