Fripp's early loopin'

["Jason N. Joseph" <jj1@compuserve.com>]

Michael wrote:
>I'll give it another go.  To those who know the peices I'm talking about -
>mid-80's Frippertronics - has he released anything with wider varieties of
>tones?

The real kicker here is that in most of those releases (particularly LTPF)
you're only hearing half of the original performances ... Fripp used the
loops you hear on the disc as loopage bases on top of which he did
his patented swirly chaotic mamajama soloing. Unfortunately his gear
setup at the time dictated that only the original loops themselves could
be committed to tape...

There *are* a few extremely rare bootlegs out there of some of his
performances from that area which features such loops *with* the
soloing over them ... I heard a snippet of one years ago, and the
sound quality was worse than abysmal, but you could at least get
an idea of what he was up to. And let me tell you those solos were
wild. Wow.

All of the new soundscapes CDs seem to be recorded more or less
the same way ... Mr. Fripp plugs in somewhere for a live improv
performance, sets up some loops, records them. I only wish he would
do some soloing over them sometime! (His solos on Sylvian's
"Gone to Earth" for instance are nifty.)

jj