why late at night in the u.s. does ilm get all yessed out

Wobbly, if you're out there, tell your Jon Anderson at NAMM story . . .

best

Drew

at a booth that sells vocoder software there is a man earnestly saying in a silvery, elven speaking voice reminiscent of Glinda the Good Witch "no, no, NO, you don't understand. I want to make my computer-" and here he erupts into a shivery high melodious flutter "s-i-i-iing!" and it's HIM and he's singing the word "sing" in THAT Yes voice.

What is NAMM, anyway?

I just watched some of that DVD "The Future Is Wild", the cheezy computer animated forecast of what freakish species will dominate this planet in 200 million years. It was very Yessed out too, CGI supercontinent-formation footage and giant global oceans (topographic tales of .. .)

http://stat.discogs.com/R/262506-1103102672.jpg

Olias of Sunhillow Critical Edition, with commentary track guest starring the 'scientists' from The Future Is Wild

maybe a little like the trevor horn yes (or maybe i just wish it sounded more like trevor horn yes).

it's basically arp-heavy metronomic 1978 eurosynth cheese.

I always see a Dean landscape, or some Art Nouveau P. Craig Russell planet landscape whenever I listen to Yes. Except for Yes mach-90125 and onward.

I guess the only interesting thing in them was that apparently Eddie Jobson was in the "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" video. They tried to edit him out when he ended up not being in the band, but couldn't do it completely. The edits are one reason why the "plot" is so hard to follow.

and yes, there ARE maggots on the dude's eyes.

BUT! just guess what my classic rock station is playing right now on their so-called DEEP CUT weekedn at this ungodly hour ...

yup, STARSHIP TROOPER!!

good god what a tune.

and i'm out

I found my mint LP copy of Relayer for a dollar in a used bin.

http://www.drjazz.ch/album/bilder/Moraz30.jpg

damn, and i'm not even close to being drunk tonight!!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y123/Eisbaer29/be70040c-9265-47c2-ab7b-0dc6abe418a.jpg

I'm yessed out on poppy pod tea and I just played guitar for an hour. Yes!

karaoke, yes-style!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwoE9r11a-c

Oh dear...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlgH7Oec__s

Nothing succeeds like excess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMF1-OEZYBE

Watching Bruford in that clip makes me think of the story (perhaps apocryphal) of the Genesis tour he was on when he'd get bored and start playing different beats just to screw things up.

DIG IT! (the "it" being really bad stock footage, apparently)

as much shit as tormato gets, i do like squire's bass sound on that
and wtf with wakeman's synths? the birotron - cheesy to the max
xpost

LOL cheesy late 70s video effects -- also, it reminds me of the "i want candy" video.

"don't kill the whale" is actually an OK song, maybe the best thing on tormato. and the really painful wakeman synths are in the beginning of "arriving UFO" (maybe the worst yes song of all time?)

The Birotron was an ill-fated tape replay keyboard conceived by Dave Biro of Yalesville, Connecticut, USA, and funded by Rick Wakeman of the progressive-rock group Yes in the late 1970s.

The Birotron was a keyboard instrument that used 8-track cartridge tapes to play sounds whenever a key was pressed on the keyboard. It is similar in concept to the Chamberlin and Mellotron, and was a forerunner of digital sampling. Keyboards like the Mellotron and Birotron were mainly used for strings, choirs, brass, and flutes; sounds not easily reproduced on the synthesizers of that era. The major innovation of the Birotron was that it stored its sounds using 8-track tape loops, which allowed it to play the sounds indefinitely, a great improvement from the 8-second limit of the Mellotron.

History
Dave Biro invented this instrument and showed it to Rick Wakeman, who was so impressed by the idea that he offerred to fund its manufacture. It was developed by Birotronics, Ltd which was one of Wakeman's Complex 7 businesses. The Packhorse road case company was under this umbrella as well. Birotronics apparently made a very limited number of these instruments (David Biro says only 17 were made, including the original and 4 prototypes, while Rick Wakeman claims 35.) 4 of those were owned by Rick Wakeman, who noted in an interview in 1999 that 2 were stolen and 2 were damaged beyond repair. Only 5 or 6 Birotrons are accounted for today.

Two major factors led to the Birotron's demise. The most direct cause was a lack of necessary and consistent funding. The Birotron also suffered from poor timing, being introduced very shortly before the arrival of the digital sampling technology (such as the Fairlight_CMI) which would render it obsolete.

OOooooh the band Yes... I thought you meant high.

Squire on "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom" here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q5KQIaHFma4

The world of Yes tribute bands on YouTube is very strange, but I gotta give them points for trying...

The packs of Marlboros in the foreground totally makes this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lvjkG5EgFxA

OOooooh the band Yes... I thought you meant high.

-- trashthumb, Sunday, October 21, 2007 7:29 AM

OMG I AM YESSED OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A COON'S AGE

A raccoon killed my pet rabbit. It grabbed the thing through the cage, and smashed it again and again through the rails, and a lot of its body that the raccoon couldn't get dropped down into the plastic tub that captured its feces. So be careful what you say BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, or you might totally ruin my yes sesh..

Utterly ridiculous, but Howe really kills it here.

OMFG. "Awaken" sounding transcendent right now really LOUD after a night of bourbon & Guiness. On headphones, mind.

interesting that they covered "america" -- the beginning of "el condor pasa" sounds a lot like the beginning of "roundabout"

my wife and I were playing Yessongs after we got home from a show last night around 2 A.M. and I was telling her about this thread.

so far my main impression is that it sounds awful - it's one of those albums you can tell was mostly completed over DropBox, where none of the elements seem to gel and its got this dull lifeless sound to it, outside of the orchestral bits. if I didn't know better I'd suspect it was AI-generated, not just because of the compositions (which feel like they're just stringing things together) but also because of what sounds like a bunch of digital sludge (especially on the drums, which sound particularly bad), or maybe because they're using a lot of flat digital reverb, or maybe it's new Jon, who sings everything the same way and also writes such bizarrely generic lyrics. amusingly the long track has the line "In the age of AI, there goes you and I"...wtf ???

lotta little runs by Howe and Downes here, occasionally on time with the music in fact. Howe sounds like he's lost a step but some of his playing is decent. Downes is still using his presets from his Asia days. kinda wonder who is really at the wheel here. is it new Jon?

only track I kinda liked is "Jambustin" mostly because its so fuckin stupid, "Don't Kill the Whale" heads can rejoice

Got about halfway through some 14 minute track called Countermovement and bailed, and that's me done with the new Yes album. Not that I had any expectations for it. Why does this record even exist? An excuse for touring I guess, I'm not sensing a vast enthusiasm for the music.

it's abysmal. even the last two Davidson albums were better than this. Really surprised to see people online saying it's their favorite of his run. I think this beats Heaven and Earth for the slot of 'worst Yes album ever'

more auto tune than a T-Pain album

I basically dropped out of listening to new Yes music with Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe, which isn't even that bad in retrospect (though some is very bad). I'm very cautiously dipping my toes into the records I've missed, starting with the Keys to Ascension releases, which could have provided an enjoyable LP-length studio release. Probably The Ladder is next for me. I may get to Aurora in the 2050s maybe.

I'm out after 90125, which I kind of like against my better judgement but it's not really Yes anyway if you ask me. Don't think I've even heard Big Generator all the way through, best to focus on the good stuff rather than the warmed-over attempts to recapture former glories (and make some $$$).

even the last two Davidson albums were better than this.

I haven't listened to the new one yet, but I liked Mirror To The Sky.

the only post 90125 stuff I ever listen to on a regular basis are a handful of songs off Generator and ABWH, and all of Fly From Here, which is really very good.

They premiered Big Generator on the syndicated radio call-in show Rockline, when they played the title track I thought, "oh, that's funny, they put in a bit of the 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' bassline as a humorous callback". Then I realized with horror that's the actual bassline.

I'm very cautiously dipping my toes into the records I've missed

Try Magnification (the 2001 album they made with an orchestra). I like it.

yeah that one is pretty good too, I dont' listen to it very often but it's better than Talk and Open Your Eyes which you can just skip

My boss has a copy of that signed by the guy who did the arrangements.

The Ladder has some good stuff on it - the opening track definitely has a full-throated "Yes is BACK!" feel to it in the chorus at least. Magnification is pretty good as well. Fly From Here ain't quite Drama, but it's decent. The Davison albums you could pretty comfortably write out of Yes history however. as bad as Heaven & Earth was at least that one had some hooks on it, I can still remember how half the tunes go, while the last three are completely indistinguishable from one another. Yes have certainly had their ups and downs but they never made the same album twice, even the Rabin albums all sound pretty distinct to me.

Probably The Ladder is next for me

the ladder is really good! there are a few duds, but the two epics -- "homeworld" and "new languages" -- completely rule. "face to face" and "to be alive" are decent prog-pop, and "nine voices" is as fine a latter-day closer as they've ever recorded, up there with "take the water to the mountain" and "into the storm." and there is no talking me out of my theory that "lightning strikes" inspired anco's merriweather post pavilion

and frogbs you are doing hero work taking the bullet for us with aurora. i'm pretty much done with 'the davison era'

only track I kinda liked is "Jambustin" mostly because its so fuckin stupid, "Don't Kill the Whale" heads can rejoice

Okay, you've got my attention

qualmsley, you too! Haven't tried The Ladder yet (or almost any actual Yes -- been so happy with Olias, Tales from Topographic Oceans, and Tormato for now)

Don't Kill the Whale is a great song

You've gotta dig it (dig it)

There's so many fun solo albums and offshoots that I won't be listening to those post-Jon albums any time soon.