More than three decades after King Crimson’s THRAK helped ignite a new wave of progressive rock, two of the musicians who defined that groundbreaking album are back, ready to dive headfirst into its DNA. The legendary trio Stick Men—featuring veterans Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto alongside composer and multi-instrumentalist Markus Reuter—is preparing to release their first new work in over ten years, Let’s THRAK Again, on September 4.
Let’s THRAK Again is not merely a retrospective; it’s a profound reimagining of the sonic philosophy that fueled one of the band’s heaviest and most adventurous periods. It stands as a Robert Fripp-approved homage to the masterpiece of 1995, moving beyond simple covers into a deep exploration of textural chaos and controlled brilliance.
The project is structured as two distinct listening experiences: “Reel One,” mixed by Stefano Castagna, and “Reel Two,” masterfully produced by bassist Fabio Trentini. These dual mixes offer contrasting sonic perspectives and alternate track sequences, allowing listeners to engage with the music’s architecture rather than just its surface notes.
The band explains that they didn’t just write twelve new compositions; they designed an entirely new sonic vocabulary for them. This obsessive attention to detail is perfectly suited to the source material, paying tribute to the heavy, mechanical impact of the original THRAK era while pushing boundaries into stranger and heavier realms.
The personnel driving this monumental effort alone read like a dream lineup for any prog rock devotee. Tony Levin, whose career spans giants like Peter Gabriel and Pink Floyd, remains among the most influential bassists of the modern age. Pat Mastelotto helped usher King Crimson into its industrial-leaning late-’90s phase with his pioneering hybrid acoustic-electronic percussion approach. Completing the trio is Markus Reuter, who has spent years developing his singular language on the self-designed eight-string Touch Guitar, acting as both composer and sonic architect for the group.
The result is a deeply immersive journey that rewards listeners who seek to understand the underlying structure of sound. For those who appreciate musical complexity built on raw energy, Let’s THRAK Again offers an experience that is as intellectually stimulating as it is sonically explosive.
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Credit: Spin
