Yes

Introduction

Yes have been just about my favourite band since I first heard The Yes Album all those years ago.  It was one of those experiences where you heard something so fresh and different that you just had to buy it.  When I asked for The Yes Album from my parents for Christmas, I actually got *A* Yes album, namely Going For The One.  A bit of a shock, but Going For The One turned out to be just as amazing.  Yes are the essential Progressive group, each musician is at the top of their profession and technically brilliant; the music is complicated yet involving.  You can listen to their albums, following each player in turn as they come to the fore.  Yes are a guitar-led band with the keyboards taking a definite back seat, as opposed to Genesis where it's the other way around.  Yes lost a lot of street-cred for albums like Tales From Topographic Oceans but this is one of my favourites.  They definitely took a dive in the 80s; I didn't enjoy the Trevor Rabin influence but latterly I have liked the studio tracks on the two Keys To Ascension albums, although they're nowhere near as good as the 'old' stuff.  Without a doubt Steve Howe is a fine guitarist with a unique style, and he has won many music fan polls; Chris Squire is one of the best bass players around, not necessarily for technical prowess but for his musical touch.  Bill Bruford is just about my favourite drummer and his departure from Yes seemed a great shame until I discovered what he was up to with King Crimson.  It took me a while to get to like Alan White as he was so different from Bill but in time I realised what a great job he was doing.

[ Cover ]

Keys To Ascension (DVD)
by Yes

Released 1996
Label: Castle Music Pictures
Catalogue: CMP 1006

[ Reviewed August 2002 ]

This is my first DVD and I've never owned a music video either.  The reason for getting it was that we have bought a Playstation 2 at home and I wanted a music DVD to test it out.  The Yes DVD appeared a couple of weeks later at the bargain price of £10, and since I've been a lifelong Yes fan I thought I'd give it a go.

Firstly, even at full price this appears to be something of a bargain, 150 minutes of live music that you could just treat as a big CD.  It's all of the live tracks from the two volumes of Keys To Ascension with the same quality sound, plus pictures and surround-sound if you want them.  As a reminder, the lineup is Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White.  I already had the two albums but was curious to see what the band was up to as well as hear them.  Curious; not desperate.  One worry was that the 'creators' would feel it necessary to try out all sorts of useless video effects that would spoil the view of proceedings.

My first impression of this disk was that it's so very odd, is it typical of live DVDs?  All of the tracks are completely separate from each other so one ends and you get a couple of seconds of blank screen before the next one starts.  There's no attempt to fade one into the next.  It ends up feeling like a video-album rather than a concert event.  My next impression was that they had recorded most of the thing at rehearsals rather than on the night, as the crowd is not very evident to say the least.  Most of the shots are from a distance so the stage fills the screen and above their heads is a larger shot of the current soloist - usually Steve or Jon, or an album cover, or some lyrics.  The shot manages to just misses the heads (and arms) of the crowd so are they really there at all? Another strange thing that adds to this rehearsal feeling is that the band does not appear to make eye contact with anyone who's not on stage.  No little smiles or nods to those sweaty front-rowers.  Shots from the sides of the stage also do not seem to show the audience, well not much, only by the odd 'mistake' it seems.  I'm wondering if it was mostly filmed at rehearsals to get the perfect sound and a few clips with the audience were spliced in later.  The tracks do have some low-volume cheering at the end before abrupt fade-outs, but there is absolutely no discernable audience noise during.  That many Americans couldn't be that quiet.  The last three tracks do finally seem to get back to the idea of a live album, the sound quality isn't as good as the rest of the tracks, but you do see the band with the audience, and even interacting.  And they are letting rip again especially with the excellent version of Starship Trooper.

As I feared, Mr Director felt the need to have a play with his video-editing suite, which is strange because the gig itself was deliberately planned to not use much in the way of lighting effects.  I would've been completely happy with boring unobscured shots of the band but we find ourselves spending a lot of time peering at them through layers of out-of-focus rivers or American flags etc.  Another effect that is annoying is where they mess about with the frames so that it looks as if the film is slowed down but it still stays in sync.  This makes it a bit tricky trying to follow Rick's fingers or Jon's lips.  The worst-off track for effects is Starship Trooper when at times the whole screen is taken up with planets and orbital paths, at best you view the band members through small circles in the screen.  And at times I felt that the visuals were completely detached from the music, mainly caused by too many long shots and not enough action.  It's not too bad overall though, as I mostly manage to switch off mentally and not worry too much about it.  Luckily (maybe) there seem to be no little DVD menu options that you can fiddle around with like choosing different camera angles, as I would constantly be worrying about them; although a 'special-effects-off' button would be great.  Other then these gripes, the camera-work is pretty good and the picture is sharp.  I would've preferred to see a lot more of Chris and Alan though.

Musically this is a note-perfect performance and the tracks seem to be the same as the ones on the CDs as far as I can tell.  So that means then, that they will not be setting the world on fire, as the playing overall is not very exciting.  They do seem to start enjoying themselves during America which incidentally is my favourite from the set, plus the last tracks as mentioned earlier.  Why can't Yes do more of this almost free-form jamming, last heard on the Yessongs version of Perpetual Change? Close To The Edge is very impressive as well, notably for the excellent sound as they all play chaotically at the start, you can tell that the boys had Relayer inside them somewhere.  The recording on this album is superb especially on Steve's guitar, and throughout he doesn't make a single mistake, not a squeak or a slip.  He's funny to watch though as he seems permanently amazed at the sounds he's coming out with.  There appears to be an alternative Dolby 5.1 soundtrack on the disk but I don't have the equipment and frankly don't see the point as the band is only playing in front of you.

I could go on for hours about this but I'll sum up by saying that it's an item worth having in your collection.  It will encourage me to listen to more Yes music which is a good thing.  It's almost worth getting instead of the two Keys albums but they have some studio tracks that I like so maybe not.  Since they've released the Keys Studio album pretty cheap you could fill in with that.  Now should I get The House of Yes...

Tracks:
1.Siberian Khatru
2.Close To The Edge
3.I've Seen All Good People
4.Time And A Word
5.And You And I
6.The Revealing Science Of God
7.Going For The One
8.Turn Of The Century
9.America
10.Onward
11.Awaken
12.Roundabout
13.Starship Trooper
total time 150 mins (approx)

[ Album Cover ]

House of Yes: Live From the House of Blues
by Yes

Released 2000
Label: Pinnacle
Catalogue: IX1139LRUKD

[ Reviewed February 2003 ]

Along with the DVD Keys To Ascension, this release is another bargain.  It's a few pounds more than Keys but still only about the price of the equivalent CD album, and the track listing is identical.

It is what appears to be a complete concert, shot in the House of Blues in Las Vegas during the 1999 tour for The Ladder.  The line-up is a good one: Anderson, Howe, Squire, White plus two new younger members - Russian (no!) Igor Khoroshev on keyboards and American Billy Sherwood on guitar.

After the traditional opening of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite Yes burst out with a great version of Yours Is No Disgrace.  Actually this is a bit of a shock as I'm so used to The Firebird being followed by Siberian Khatru that they almost seem to be the same piece of music.  From the outset you can see that the picture quality is excellent and the shots are well edited, providing a good mix of solo, band and audience.  Steve Howe gets a good share of the limelight which is fine as I never tire of watching his finger work.  Nothing seems to have been taken out as you get all of Jon's funny talking to the audience between tracks; he's got long hair again but I have to say he manages to carry it off well, bunched up behind his head as it is.  Chris Squire is larger-than-life as usual and with his ultra-fine moustache and goatee beard (surely dyed) reminds me a bit of Clark Gable.

The rest of the concert has decent versions of some of the old favourites and some new tracks.  Don't expect any high-energy output from them though, those days are surely gone for good.  They appear to be concentrating on the quality side of things.  In this respect the performances are pretty identical to those on Keys.  The playing is tight and note-perfect as you would expect and Jon helps out with keyboards, harp on Awaken and generally adds nice touches of percussion here and there.  His voice holds up well considering how long he's been doing this stuff, or considering how old he is :)  Chris Squire seems to be enjoying himself and looks suitably ridiculous with his triple-bass guitar during Awaken.  He's not too prominent in the mix but he's not too far behind either.  Alan White puts in a fine performance and makes it all look so easy as usual.  Khoroshev's keyboards are good but let's face it, Yes is guitar-led.  Sherwood plays enthusiastically but he's not greatly in evidence as Steve Howe can easily cope with the workload (and number of guitars).

I'm not too keen on the new stuff although the track The Ladder is pretty good (I don't have the album).  I have to warn you that they only perform a short part of Time and a Word and a microscopic sample of Nous Sommes Du Soleil.  It's under a minute and shouldn't have a mention on the track listing in my opinion.  I suppose at least they have produced a live album with some different tracks on it such as Cinema and Owner of a Lonely Heart but we really have had a lot of live albums from Yes, let's be honest they are milking it.  And just wait until the back-catalogue DVD-Audio releases start coming - Fragile is already out.

There is a fair amount of overlap here on modern versions of classic tracks with Keys and I suspect that you wouldn't want both in your collection.  Where this disk gains though is in the feel of the thing, the idea that you're there with them as they perform.  Keys suffers badly from a disjointed feel as each track has a fade-to-black before the next one.

Extras: As you may have worked out by now I'm not a big fan of extras but I'll try to be objective about those provided with this release.

There is a short feature on the making of The Ladder which shows the band jamming away in the studio for a few minutes on two tracks.  I use the term 'band' loosely as Alan White is nowhere to be seen, although he can be heard.  Each of the band and Bruce Fairburn the producer are then interviewed for a very short period of time, each answering only about two questions.  But let's face it how much can you talk about the music.  Again Alan White is not present but it turns out that he's had to rush off to work on the final mix of Ramshackled II prior to release.  Ah, had you going there didn't I?  No I don't know why he wasn't there.

Another extra is a 5.1 remix of the track Homeworld (The Ladder).  I can't comment on the mix as I don't have the equipment but it does have some nice computerised graphics to go with it.  Lots of shots of spaceships zooming around the place leaving pretty trails.  This is meant to be part of a PC game but I don't know anything about it.  One snag with this DVD is that you can easily get fed up with the start of Homeworld as it blasts out every time you go to the main menu.  And it's in the concert, the making of and it's there again in remixed format.

There is a virtual tour book which is a series of stills of the band and more interestingly, pictures of concert posters and back-stage passes going all the way to the start of Yes history.  It's curious to see who they were supporting in the early days.  There are mini-biographies of the band members, and there is also a partial web-site on the disk but I haven't looked at it as it's DVD format.  I can't imagine it's too exciting.

To sum up this is a fine release in musical and image terms.  It hangs together much better than the Keys To Ascension DVD as it has a much more intimate feel to it, and there are very few director's effects to spoil things.  The sound quality is not as crystal clear but it is in the very good category, and makes up for it with atmosphere as the band are more obviously interacting with the audience.  The highlight is the 13-minute version of Yours Is No Disgrace where Steve Howe gets some time to show what he can do.  I'll sometimes just put this track on if I'm pushed for time.

I don't think that any of the extras are worth having but I suppose they have to put something on there.  If anything I'd rather see more rehearsal stuff but I don't suppose anything would really satisfy me.  It's funny but I'd like a decent booklet with the disk instead of the meagre single sheet of copyright notes!

If you have the album you don't need to get this.  If you don't have the album then you might as well get this.  But as my 10 year-old pointed out to me, "Why do you need pictures, why not just listen to it?" That's my boy.

Finally, I'm still waiting for them to release the 1978 Wembley concert on CD.  It was recorded by the BBC and broadcast a few times.  What is the problem with releasing it?  There is a DVD from this tour from a Philadelphia concert but it's got some bad reviews.  We could do with live versions of Tales as well, as long as they're not rehashes of the studio tracks, something along the lines of the Genesis box-sets.

Tracks:
1.Yours Is No Disgrace13:03
2.Time and a Word (excerpt)0:58
3.Homeworld (The Ladder)9:44
4.Perpetual Change10:48
5.Lightning Strikes5:07
6.The Messenger6:39
7.Ritual - Nous Sommes Du Soleil (excerpt)0:59
8.And You And I11:22
9.It Will Be a Good Day (The River)6:28
10.Face to Face5:32
11.Awaken17:34
12.Your Move/I've Seen All Good People7:27
13.Cinema (excerpt)1:57
14.Owner of a Lonely Heart6:03
15.Roundabout7:40
total time 112 mins

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Copyright Steve Bachini