King Crimson - Red

I’ve just finished remixing King Crimson’s Red for its 2009 reissue, now available in new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes. To me, Red is the finest studio representation of the 1972–74 lineup—a power trio of Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford, and John Wetton, with guest appearances by David Cross, Mel Collins, Ian McDonald, Robin Miller, and Mark Charig. The sound they created is immense, driven by the raw force of the trio. Working on Red was one of my first projects remixing classic albums, and it’s been a privilege to dig into this record’s intensity.

The process meant going back to the original session tapes, using Logic with minimal processing to preserve the incredible tones captured in 1974. Those engineers, limited to just a few tracks, got sounds so powerful - Fripp’s guitar alone has a ferocity that needs no embellishment. My goal was to enhance clarity while keeping the album’s raw energy intact, and the 5.1 mix lets the music’s textures breathe in a new way. The stereo mix sharpens details that were softened by earlier formats, revealing the interplay of the trio and the guest players more vividly.

When Red was released in 1974, it was overlooked because the band had already split, but it’s since become one of King Crimson’s most revered albums, second only to In the Court of the Crimson King in sales. As John Bungey wrote in The Mojo Collection in 2000, it’s “that rarest of records, the sound of a line-up quitting while ahead.”