Recording
Thrak was recorded in late 1994 at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Box,Wiltshire,England,with producer David Bottrill. [2] Bottrill had previously produced Fripp and David Sylvian's 1993 album The First Day ,which had featured Trey Gunn as a session player. [3] With the band consisting of two guitarists,two bassists and two drummers, [4] the opening track begins with all six musicians in the center of the audio mix;as the album progresses,they are split into two trios,with one in each stereo channel.
Bill Bruford assumed that this lineup would be a continuation from their work in the 1980s but instead found that the band had adopted a heavier sound that bore a greater resemblance to their 1974 Red album. The band wrote the compositions at Belew's home studio in Nashville,Tennessee and Fripp's house in Wiltshire. Fripp primarily composed the instrumental sections and Belew focused the lyrics and melodic ideas. [4]
"Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" and "One Time" were developed at studio rehearsals for the 1994 mini-album Vrooom in Woodstock,New York,during the spring of 1994. Instrumental outtakes and improvisations from these sessions would later be released as The Vrooom Sessions in 1999. "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" developed from the instrumental outtake "No Questions Asked".
"Fashionable" was another instrumental from The Vrooom Sessions that was re-recorded at Real World during the sessions. It features a guitar line reminiscent of David Bowie's "Fashion",on which Fripp played. Despite being reworked with various additions and refinements by the band members,the piece was ultimately cut from the album. [5]
"Vrooom Vrooom" incorporates a middle section originally composed by Fripp in 1974 for Red ’s instrumental title track. [6] The band had also experimented with this material in 1983,while working on Three of a Perfect Pair ;evidence of this is the track "Working on Sleepless" from the 2016 compilation Rehearsals &Blows .
Reception
Trouser Press described Thrak as "an absolute monster,a cerebral sextet adventure stunning in its precisely controlled rock power." [11]
In a retrospective review of the album,Daniel Gioffre of AllMusic called King Crimson "the only progressive rock band from the '60s to be making new,vital,progressive music in the '90s" and expressed high regard for the various ways they exploited the double trio format on the album. While noting the album often referenced previous King Crimson works,he felt that this was a subtle acknowledgment of King Crimson's established fan base rather than a preoccupation with their own past. [9]
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