"Thank goodness the music is good. It should be noted that almost every note of this £150 stonker has been released in some form elsewhere. But this box represents one end of the listening world we live in - a deluxe, lavishly illustrated package for the completist. At the other end is ad-spattered free Spotify on your phone speaker ... What's most striking here, though, is hearing young players all those years ago performing without fear to audiences prepared to take the journey with them. The playing can be clumsy and some of the music is of its time but these recordings document an age when fine young musicians seemed to believe anything was possible"

"The Complete 1969 Recordings represents the final word and most complete document of King Crimson's formative year, combining In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation by King Crimson's various reissues with live shows and recording sessions which would ultimately result in the sound that shook the music world. While the band's first lineup lasted only 335 days, its dissolution pushing Fripp into a two-year searching for a suitable touring band while, at the same time, releasing three additional and extraordinary King Crimson albums, it remains a watershed period in the history of rock music or, for that matter, music period"