Central Track Contributor
New Fumes, The Flaming Lips, Stardeath & White Dwarfs Team Up To Cover King Crimson's Debut
Dallas clearly has a thing for King Crimson.
In 2010, you may recall, Dallas hip-hop producer Symbolyc One sampled the King Crimson track “21st Century Schizoid Man” in the beat he crafted for Kanye West's Grammy-nominated super smash, “Power.”
And now Dallas is once again showing King Crimson some love — and for that same album, even. Over the past few months, Dallas-based experimental electronic musician New Fumes has teamed up with like-minded collaborators The Flaming Lips, Stardeath & White Dwarfs, Linear Downfall and Space Face to cover King Crimson's debut, 1969 release, In The Court of King Crimson in full.
The fact that these artists are working together on this project actually makes perfect sense, too.
Take, for instance, the lead-off track of the album's B-side, “Moonchild.” On that song, which in this version stands as a collaboration between New Fumes and the Lips, you'll hear what amounts to an abandoned space wasteland on the moon, filled with loud reverberated electric guitars and topped off by haunting high-pass filtered vocals from Wayne Coyne. It's a trippy track, for sure.
So, too, perhaps, is the entire project's intent. Not familiar with In The Court of the Crimson King? Check out the progressive, psychedelic sounds of this original version of one of the album's songs, and you'll start to understand you why The Flaming Lips are kind of a perfect fit for the project.
Even cooler: Two of the songs were recorded by New Fumes' Daniel Huffman right here in Dallas.
Could it be possible that King Crimson has entered an inter-dimensional, psychedelic relationship with the music scene here in town and tapped into the consciousnesses of New Fumes and Symbolyc One alike?
Probably not, but, according to Huffman, 500 copies of the new, covers version of the album will be pressed onto vinyl in the near future, possibly also here in town, over at A+R Records, where the Lips have pressed a number of recent releases.
In the meantime, you can download New Fumes and the Lips' “Moonchild” for free below. Oh, and you can catch New Fumes opening up for Twin Shadow at Trees tomorrow night, too.
