Holy shit, is it just me or is the drumming on this album the most underrated thing about it?

Holy shit, is it just me or is the drumming on this album the most underrated thing about it?
I mean, Jesus Christ Almighty, how the fuck is this fucking level of drumming even possible? I just... Holy shit.
Why does nobody ever mention Michael Giles when they talk about the greatest drummers of all time?

What?

Epitaph drums best

lol

Yeah! And that "Greg Lake" guy! It's like he might as well have never existed the way people act!

Err, Greg is (or was, R.I.P.) far more famous than Michael. At their height, ELP was practically THE face of prog (for better or for worse). It's not like it was called Emerson, Giles & Palmer.

Really? I was thinking 21st Century Schizoid Man.

Practically every psych album is like that the drummers would just constantly play fills instead of keeping a beat

this
the first thing that caught me when I first listened to the album were the drums

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I still have no fucking clue how Giles was able to pull off those stabs near the 3/4-ish mark. If I didn't know any better, I'd say those were impossible.

Are there any recorded performances of Bruford playing 21st Century Schizoid Man? I'd love to see (or hear, as it was) that beast of a drummer tackle this.

Giles is a monster. His work on ITCOTCK and ITWOP is incredible.

Check out disc 2 of The Great Deceiver. There's an incredible version of Fripp, Wetton, Cross, and Bruford doing the song at their penultimate show.

Can someone post the edit where the face on the cover is cringing

I know which one you're talking about but I don't have it so here's another one

...

Ty user
I guess cringing wasn't the best descriptor

Alright, so since this is sort of the de facto King Crimson thread:
Should I buy the Red 2CD version or the Red CD-DVDA edition?
Essentially, the CD-DVDA edition came out in 2009 and contains the 30th Anniversary mix on the CD and the 5.1 surround sound mix on the DVD. That would be fine and all, except this is the 40th Anniversary Edition, not the 30th, so the mix is technically outdated.
Alternatively, the 2CD edition comes with the 30th Anniversary mix on one CD and a newer, updated 2013 mix on the other... but no DVD-A with the 5.1 surround sound.

So what do I do, Sup Forums? The other option, I guess, is the Road to Red pack with 21 CDs, including the 30th Anniversary, the 40th Anniversary, the 5.1 mix, and a lot of other shit, but that's like $100. I love King Crimson, but I'm not dropping $100 on a single album, regardless of how good said album is and how many CDs are involved and how much artwork and cool stuff comes with it.

Epitaph's drums are so simple that it's the perfect example of how important drums can be in music.

can someone post the "essential drumming albums" chart?

Same here. It's immaculate. Giles really steals the show on 21st Century Schizoid Man, which might also be the most prototypical prog song in existence, so the man doesn't get nowhere near the credit he deserves.

How can anyone evaluate the drums on this track when they sound like banging on Pringles cans due to how badly it was recorded?

Sounds like someone listened to one of the shit copies of a copy of a copy that came out when the master tracks were lost pre-2003.
Trust me, listen to the 40th Anniversary Edition and have your life changed.

I've been through every vinyl/CD version of this album I could find online

They sound exactly the same on the remix which was really disappointing, the track was literally recorded out of alignment or something

This, my favorite part of the album is the drums

Never that well

Percussion is also great on pic related

This.

this album was recorded really poorly, drums sound like shit, but the technique is amazing

Jamie Muir is godly.

Check out the album McDonald and Giles, really fucking good.

Seconding this

Thirding this

Also, since this is sort of the King Crimson thread right now, can we exchange the highest-resolution versions of KC album covers that we have on our hard drives? Since Fripp hates fanart.tv for whatever reason (which is my #1 source of high-res album art), I have to rely on iTunes, which isn't always very high-res.
Please keep it to 1:1 squares!

I feel you OP, drums are my favourite instrument on that album. Especially the way it sounds.

ITCOTCK(song) has the best drumming imo

Thing that hit me the hardest on this album was how tight Mirrors is, and it's all carried by the drums. That staccato middle thing is fucking insane.

>drums sound like shit
I guess it depends on taste
I fucking loved the production on drums, especially on Moonchild

Milk thread?

>how tight Mirrors is
This.
I hate how people dismiss all prog as being overweening, masturbatory shit that drags on and is crowded by self-indulgent solos. Save that shit for ELP and Yes, who actually deserve that distinction. King Crimson, the actual founders of prog, have always been tight as fuck with their instrumentation. There is never a single misplaced note, everything is in its perfect place.

best percussion is early/mid blink 182

don't bother arguing with me on this either