Live: Penn State University 29 June 1974 (2026 RSD 2x 200G VINYL) | Mint (M) Mint (M)

Live King Crimson multi-track recording of live set from June 29th, 1974, at Penn State University. Available on vinyl for the first time, exclusively for Record Store Day 2026. 2LP set cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering and pressed on 200-gram audiophile vinyl. Gatefold sleeve with new sleevenotes from King Crimson biographer Sid Smith. To coincide with the releases of "Starless & Bible Black" in March 1974, King Crimson set out on a run of shows that many fans consider to be that line-up's peak with the late music critic John Kelman (All About Jazz) describing them as being at their "heaviest and most guitar-centric version of Crimson to date" where "even 24 hours represented a significant difference in how this group approached form-based material". In the final week of June, as the band neared it's conclusion as a live act, four of these concerts -including the Asbury Park show from which much of the original 1975 released "USA", single live LP was derived - were recorded to multi-track tape but, with the exception of that release, lay unreleased until the 1992 assemblage/mix & compilation of "The Great Deceiver" boxed set by Robert Fripp & David Singleton which was centred around those performances. In the notes to that set Robert Fripp described the band's 1974 tour as a period of "balanced disarray" characterised by "chaotic and intense" performances and "powerful, almost brutal improvisations".With the rapid growth of CD in the 1980s came an equally rapid growth in bootlegging and by 1992 there were over 120 different King Crimson bootlegs - many focusing on poor quality recordings of the 1973/74 touring band whose reputation among fans and influence on a generation of musicians continued to grow. The first pressing run of "The Great Deceiver" sold out within weeks & was re-pressed by DGM in the same format before being split into two double CD sets in the early 2000s. The release also did much to re-establish King Crimson's critical reputation, especially in the UK. Of the four multi-tracked concerts, Penn State was a last minute addition to the schedule and required gruelling additional journeys there and back, book-ended, on the original tour schedule, by the geographically easier Asbury Park, New Jersey on the 28th and Providence, Rhode Island on the 30th, leaving audiences then & since, grateful for the band's willingness to use a 'rest day' for an unplanned performance.. Despite the travel complications, the Penn State gig featured two of the best improvs from this tour - Is There Life Out There? and It Is For You But Not For Us, which sounded, in many respects, no less fully composed than the recently released Fracture or the yet to be recorded Starless. For most attendees, the majority of the material would have been heard for the first time, not an uncommon feature of King Crimson gigs in that period, though unthinkable for most bands today. Long requested by fans for a vinyl release, Penn State is being made available on 200-gram double vinyl for the first time exclusively for Record Store Day in April 2026, '1974 Penn State University' also includes the recording of 21st Century Schizoid Man from the band's Central Park gig 2 days later which was to be this line-up's last incarnation before becoming a trio to start recording the 'Red' album.

Label:
Discipline Global Mobile – KCLVX1, Panegyric – KCLVX1
Format:
2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Record Store Day, Reissue, Stereo, 200g
Country:
Worldwide
Released:
Apr 18, 2026
Genre:
Rock
Style:
Prog Rock
A1        Walk On: No Pussyfooting
A2        Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part II
A3        Lament
A4        Exiles
B1        Improv: Is There Life Out There?
B2        Easy Money
C1        Improv: It Is For You, But Not For Us
C2        Fracture
D1        Starless
D2        21st Century Schizoid Man
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Robert Fripp
Copyright © – Robert Fripp
Recorded By – Record Plant Mobile Studio
Recorded At – Penn State University
Recorded At – Central Park, New York
Mixed At – The Courthouse Studio
Lacquer Cut At – Loud Mastering
Bass Guitar, Vocals – John Wetton
Cover [Cover Art By], Artwork [Cover Art By] – Bearhand Design*
Drums, Percussion – Bill Bruford
Guitar, Mellotron, Electric Piano – Robert Fripp
Lacquer Cut By [Vinyl Cut By] – Jason Mitchell
Mixed By – David Singleton, Robert Fripp, Tony Arnold
Recorded By – George Chkiantz
Sleeve Notes [Whitley Bay, November 2025] – Sid Smith
Violin, Mellotron, Electric Piano – David Cross
Issued in a gatefold sleeve.
Limited to 2500 copies.

Record Store Day
(from the 1st sticker on the front shrink wrap)

KCLVX1 (2 LP set)

• First ever vinyl release of King Crimson's
Penn State live set from June 29th, 1974

• Taken from the original multi-track tapes

• 200-gram super-heavyweight vinyl
(from the 2nd sticker on the front shrink wrap)

Discipline Global Mobile.
Made in England. ℗ & © 2026 Robert Fripp.
(from the labels)

Recorded live in Recreation Hall at University Park,
Pennsylvania, June 29, 1974

Track D2 *
* (Central Park, New York, July 1st, 1974)

[...] - Violin, Mellotron, Electric Piano
[...] - Guitar, Mellotron, Electric Piano
[...] - Bass Guitar, Vocals
[...] - Drums, Percussion

Recorded by [...] with the Record Plant Mobile.
Mixed by [...], [...] and [...] at the Courthouse, Cranborne.
Vinyl Cut by [...] at Loud.
Cover Art by [...].
www.dgmlive.com

℗ & © 2026 Robert Fripp

Audio Advisory: Sides A & B begin very quietly before the band begins to play.
The last track on Side D is from an audio restored bootleg at a later concert.

Panegyric Recordings Limited c/o Citycas, Suite 540, Fifth Floor, Linen Hall, 162-168 Regent Street, London, United Kingdom, W1B 5TF
E-Mail: info@panegyric.net
EU authorised Representative Galileo Music Communication GmbH Dachauer Str. 5-7 82256 Fürstenfeldbrück Deutschland E-Mail: info@galileo-mc.de
(from the back sleeve)

Matrix / Runouts are hand-etched.
Barcode (Text stickered): 6 33367 79851 0
Barcode (Scanned stickered): 633367798510
Matrix / Runout (Side A runout): KCLVX1 A JASDAFACE LOUD
Matrix / Runout (Side B runout): KCLVX1 B JASDAFACE LOUD
Matrix / Runout (Side C runout): KCLVX1 C JASDAFACE LOUD
Matrix / Runout (Side D runout): KCLVX1 D JASDAFACE LOUD

• Media Condition: Mint (M)
• Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
• Genre: ROCK
• Format Type: 2xLP