King Crimson: Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part II
[purchase]
When I'd heard this week's theme was tricky beats, the first song that came to mind was King Crimson's Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part II. Try and count the many different time signature shifts; I come up with 11/8, 10/8, 7/8, 5/8, 5/4 - even 4/4 gets the once over.
Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part II is a blueprint for later King Crimson works - Fracture, Red, Starless and Bible Black, among others. You don't have to understand music theory to hear the beauty of guitarist/composer Robert Fripp's organized chaos at work. It's a delicate balance of tension and release in this tricky instrumental voyage - don't try and follow it yourself, just jump aboard and let the music take you there.