Not really an album per se, but a collection of works from both King Crimson and some additional stuff from artists connected with to band. Forever led by the part time control freak and full time musicologist Robert Fripp, King Crimson started out back in the late 60's as one of the progressive rock bands that punk can thank for giving it a reason to tear the music business apart. The band split in the 70's only to re-form and re-invent itself in the early eighties as a bleeding edge technology driven four piece, making three ice cool albums before Fripp once again placed the band in mothballs.
Resurrected in the mind 90's, Fripp now changes the line-up from album to album producing everything from great slabs of noise to tiny droplets of beauty. This collection is an eclectic orgy of solo/group input from current and ex band members, the results of which sound eerily cohesive considering this is a compilation.
As for the validity of this kind of music, I'll leave that for critics and wankers to squabble over.