Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller
Mark and I had a great time this week thinking about interesting or unusual Yes musical textures. We both came up with 3 examples that we thought were surprising or different so do have a look below to hear the clips we are referring to and add your own examples to the comments section. You may be surprised with some of our suggestions – that’s somewhat the idea, after all.
What interesting textures can you think of in Yes music?
Is it down to instrumentation, arrangement or a combination?
Do Mark and I choose the same things again?
Kevin – Church bell texture!
Mark – Weird electronic sounds in the drum solo
https://youtu.be/pkrz5PBhhtM?si=tSYyLMSK4mc83k1w
Unable to embed this one – Mark – Tom Brislin playing the electronic sounds in perfect synch with Alan White – Ritual
Kevin – the orchestral and band textures throughout Dreamtime, especially when the orchestra takes over towards the end
Mark – Steve Howe’s Coral Sitar guitar sounds in the mix
Mark – The Coral Sitar again in Siberian Khatru
Mark – Sitar in the introduction
Mark – A real Sitar this time played by Deepak Khazanchi on It Can Happen from 90125
Mark – this is the Danelectro Coral Sitar guitar as used by Steve Howe
Kevin – the amazing texture of Tony Levin’s Chapman Stick and Bill Bruford’s electronic drums
Mark – Alan White’s amazing electronic drum sounds
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Theme music
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from: archive.org
Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Halland Jeffrey Crecelius
Mark and I spent a very enjoyable week listening to CTTE and Relayer – and why not? In time honoured fashion we have recorded our thoughts independently and then we meet up to criticise each other’s ideas. Not really. We do, however, indulge in the futile but nevertheless enjoyable process of ranking the albums against each other and coming out with a winner. Will you agree with our assessments? The sense of anticipation could be cut with a proverbial hacksaw.
Is it possible to rank these albums after listening to them?
Why would anyone want to?
Go on then, which one is better?
Take a listen to the episode and then let us know what you think below!
Relayer
Facebook has just changed how pages work which means that I’ve had to establish a new place for us to post and discuss Yes-related happenings. It’s a new group entitled, rather creatively, YMP Discussion Group. For the moment it’s open to anyone to join but I’ll be adding rules and joining requirements when I have time. One of the advantages of the new format is that all members of the group have the same ability to post content, so it’s a bit more egalitarian, or somesuch. Please do search for the group and join in.
If you haven’t already done so, please sign up at tormatobook.com to the email newsletter. PRESALE IS UNDERWAY (for subscribers only)! If you sign up now, for free, you can have access to the newsletters you’ve missed. It really helps to know people are looking forward to reading the culmination of my decades of Tormato obsession.
Not final artwork or title – just me messing about with one of Jeremy North’s photos
If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:
Theme music
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from: archive.org
Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Halland Jeffrey Crecelius
This week Mark and I embark upon another inevitably unjustifiable escapade – the rating of two classic Yes albums against each other. If it wasn’t fun we wouldn’t do it but it keeps us off the streets at least. This time we have decided to pit Close To The Edge against Relayer and you can play along as well. In part 1 we bang on about the similarities and differences between the records and then next week we will report back on our findings after listening carefully to the albums. Please do add your own thoughts to the show notes for both weeks’ episodes.
Which album is ‘better’?
What are the main differences and similarities?
Why would you want to do this?
Take a listen to the episode and then let us know what you think below!
Relayer
Facebook has just changed how pages work which means that I’ve had to establish a new place for us to post and discuss Yes-related happenings. It’s a new group entitled, rather creatively, YMP Discussion Group. For the moment it’s open to anyone to join but I’ll be adding rules and joining requirements when I have time. One of the advantages of the new format is that all members of the group have the same ability to post content, so it’s a bit more egalitarian, or somesuch. Please do search for the group and join in.
If you haven’t already done so, please sign up at tormatobook.com to the email newsletter. PRESALE IS UNDERWAY (for subscribers only)! If you sign up now, for free, you can have access to the newsletters you’ve missed. It really helps to know people are looking forward to reading the culmination of my decades of Tormato obsession.
Not final artwork or title – just me messing about with one of Jeremy North’s photos
If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:
Theme music
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from: archive.org
I was on the road this week but still managed to catch up with Mark and Henry Potts to discuss the news that Yes will not be playing Relayer on the upcoming tour but have opted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Close To The Edge instead.
I was in a hotel room with just my laptop but this news was clearly too important to miss.
Why has Relayer been shelved?
Will we ever hear the full album live?
Is it too soon to play Close To The Edge in its entirety again?
Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!
PRESS RELEASE:
50th Anniversary Celebration
of Close to the Edge
for UK
The Album Series Tour in June
8th March 2022: Progressive pioneers YES have announced a change to their forthcoming The Album Series Tour 2022 as they will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their iconic album Close to the Edge. This tour, twice rescheduled due to the Covid pandemic was intended to showcase YES’s 1974 classic Relayer album but will now feature Close to the Edge, performed in full, along with other classic tracks from YES’s extensive catalogue. An announcement regarding the European dates will be made shortly.
The tour line-up features Steve Howe (guitars), Alan White (drums), Geoff Downes (keyboards), Jon Davison (vocals), Billy Sherwood (bass guitar and backing vocals) with additional drums and percussion by Jay Schellen. All tour dates are as previously announced and all tickets remain valid. A full performance of the Relayer album will now be featured in a future tour in The Album Series.
The show will comprise full production and a high-definition video wall directed by Roger Dean who will also be joining the tour with an exhibition of YES related art.
Following the release of The Yes Album and Fragile, in 1971, YES released what is widely considered one of the most defining albums, not only for YES but for the whole progressive movement. Close to the Edge became an inspiration for their contemporaries and for successive generations of musicians.
“We reached a real high, doing ‘Close to the Edge’,” said Steve Howe. “We valued the musicianship, the artistic ideas and the vocalising that people bring and that’s why we’re still doing it, because it’s exciting to do! ‘Close to the Edge’ was voted the most-proggy album possibly ever made. It was very experimental. We had already done 10-minute epics but with ‘Close to the Edge’ we just took it a stage further and I’m very pleased we were brave enough to do that.”
YES 2022 UK Tour Dates Are:
June 2022
15th June Wednesday Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
17th June Friday Manchester Bridgewater Hall
18th June Saturday Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
20th June Monday Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
21st June Tuesday London Royal Albert Hall
22nd June Thursday York Barbican
24th June Friday Birmingham Symphony Hall
26th June Sunday Newcastle O2 City Hall
28th June Tuesday Dublin Eire Vicar Street
29th June Wednesday Cork Eire Opera House
Tickets remain valid for the rescheduled shows. For full details and to book tickets for all shows go to venue website or http://yesworld.com/live where you can also book Meet and Greets with the band.
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from: archive.org
Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier
This week, Mark and I decided to delve back into the main sequence of Yes albums and think about the pros and cons of Fragile and Close to the Edge. Both contain some fantastic music but which is the more satisfying? Listen to our thoughts and then add yours to the comments below.
Which record is ‘better’?
What about the solo items on Fragile?
Why does Close To The Edge always win in polls?
Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!
My original copy from 1988-ish
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The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org
