Stick Men Revisit King Crimson’s ‘THRAK’ Era

More than 30 years after King Crimson’s THRAK helped nudge progressive rock into a new generation, two of the musicians who made that album (and subsequent tours) such a thrilling exercise in controlled chaos are returning to its DNA. Stick Men, the long-running trio featuring King Crimson veterans Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto alongside composer and multi-instrumentalist Markus Reuter, will release their first new album in over a decade, Let’s THRAK Again, on Sept. 4.

Described as a Robert Fripp-approved homage to Crimson’s 1995 masterpiece, Let’s THRAK Again isn’t a covers album so much as a reimagining of the sonic philosophy that animated one of the band’s heaviest and most adventurous periods. The first preview, “Swimming in Tea,” arrived today, featuring the album’s sole vocal performance courtesy of Reuter before exploding into one of Levin’s trademark Chapman Stick excursions.

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For prog rock devotees, the personnel alone reads like a dream lineup. Levin, whose resume stretches from Peter Gabriel and John Lennon to Pink Floyd and countless sessions, is among the most influential bassists of the modern era, while Mastelotto helped usher King Crimson into its industrial-leaning late-’90s phase with his hybrid acoustic-electronic percussion approach. Reuter has spent years developing his own singular language on the self-designed eight-string Touch Guitar, serving as both composer and sonic architect for the trio’s expansive sound.

In true prog fashion, Let’s THRAK Again will be released as two entirely separate listening experiences. “Reel One,” mixed by Stefano Castagna, and “Reel Two,” mixed by producer and bassist Fabio Trentini, feature different track sequences, alternate mixes and contrasting sonic perspectives. “We didn’t just write 12 new compositions; we designed an entirely new sonic vocabulary for them,” the band says. “Our audience listens deeply. They don’t just want to hear the notes; they want to understand the architecture of the sound.”

That kind of obsessive attention to detail feels particularly appropriate given the source material. Released in 1995, THRAK found King Crimson’s beloved “double trio” lineup pushing its sound into heavier and stranger realms — a move that influenced both contemporary experimental rock and metal. According to Stick Men, the dual mix approach serves as “a tribute to the heavy, mechanical impact of the original THRAK era.”

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