----------------------------------------------------- NOVEMBER 4, 1997 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Publiczny Dostep do Internetu http://www.lodz.pdi.net/~eristic/yes/tvr_1.html Yes: Keys To Ascension Video: (released 1997) By Christopher Currie Track: Rating:  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***1/2  8. Turn Of The Century*****  9. America*****  10. Onward***1/2  11. Awaken****1/2  12. Roundabout*****  13. Starship Trooper*****  Personnel: * Jon Anderson: vocals, harp, rhythm guitar  * Steve Howe: guitars, backing vocals  * Chris Squire: bass, backing vocals  * Rick Wakeman: keyboards  * Alan White: drums  Comments: A few technical matters should be addressed before the actual review begins. First is the matter of overlap between this release and the album (i.e. audio only) version of Keys To Ascension. The versions of "Siberian Khatru", "The Revealing Science Of God", "America", "Onward", "Awaken", "Roundabout" and "Starship Trooper" which appear on the album version are carried over more or less intact to the video. Minor variations, such as the brief interpolation of audience feedback in "Roundabout", are too insignificant to alter the ratings of the tracks. As such, it would be rather superfluous to review these tracks in detail when a Tentative Review for the album version already exists; I shall, as such, limit myself to comments on the video realization in discussing these tracks.  This brings me to the second technical point -- the star ratings for this release are only for the audio component of the result. I will make comments about the video accompaniments, but these will not affect the ratings.  With these out of the way ...  The Keys To Ascension video was released by Yes in 1997 with the intention of documenting the entire live performance by the group from the SLO dates (March 4-6, 1997). The events leading up to this event are documented in the Keys To Ascension (KtA) album review. As per the tracks on the KtA, all tracks on this release feature wholesale replacement of the vocal tracks by Jon Anderson via subsequent studio performances.  The first comment which must be made about this video release is that it may not be easy for the average fan to access (please note that this is a deliberate understatement). The laserdisc was never released in North America, and only briefly in Europe -- it received a full pressing in Japan, but may no longer be easily available from this (or any other) source. Those who wish to acquire this album can be given little more than a "good luck" wish from this reviewer, unfortunately.  As a general comment, it must be admitted that the cinematography in this release is not of a "world class" level. When the band is simply captured live on stage by the cameramen, there is very little to complain about (although the habit of said cameramen to frequently miss those individuals involved in soloing is a bit annoying at times). When they try to include "special effects" and video interpolations into the mix, the result is frequently rather amateurish. The "nature" shots generally aren't too offensive, but the more significant errors in judgement are detailed below in the relevant tracks.  The album begins (after various images of diehard fans milling into the SLO complex) with a powerful version of "Siberian Khatru". This track is accompanied by images of rivers and mountains, as might be reasonably expected -- there is nothing terribly wrong with the camera work here, although the general feel is sometimes a bit amateurish (why does it take them so long to focus on Howe during his solo, for example). Still, the images of the band performing the track more than make up for these deficiencies.  Next comes a performance of "Close To The Edge", which begins with a shot of the CTTE cover, mixed with forest imagery and Roger Dean graphics. As per the rest of the performance, the bass seems considerably higher in the mix than usual, and the keyboards begin the track on a slightly less amplified note (though this changes before too much time has elapsed). Steve Howe quickly takes his usual prominent role at the beginning of this track; those individuals who have criticized his more restrained manner of playing in this section may be mistaking subtlety for error, as the performance comes off without a hitch. The "song" part of piece is likewise performed without any significant mistake, although the editing at the beginning of "Total Mass Retain" seems perhaps a bit more noticeable than it should have been. Anderson actually does an interesting job of altering the vocal melody in the "onward movers" section, and deserves some credit as such.  Later sections of the track suggest that the group is, in fact, attempting to recreate the "magic" of the studio version in the most accurate manner possible -- Wakeman's "church organ" solo sounds much more authentic here than in earlier live recordings, and even the subsequent Moog section sounds more accurate than it usually does (one can also see Howe walking offstage at this point in the background, oddly enough). Squire's strongly mixed bass line provides appropriate power to the beginning of the "Seasons Of Man" section; while it must be admitted that this reviewer personally believes that Wakeman's current setting for the extended solo here isn't as good as the original version, the difference is to minor to make a substantial difference. From here, the piece reaches its conclusion in an excellent manner, as would be expected.  There are a few problems from a visual standpoint, though: the split-second shot of the moon in the "Total Mass Retain" section is rather pointless, and the image of sparks issuing from both Howe's guitar and Wakeman's keyboard is a bit on the offensive side.  The next song on the video is "I've Seen All Good People" (from The Yes Album), for which it must be admitted that actually seeing Howe's lute does add something to the piece. Anderson's voice in the "Your Move" section is as amazing as ever, and the shifting images of band members on the giant screen behind them makes for decent visual accompaniment. If any problem with this version may be found, it is that the "all we are saying" background vocals seem slightly trite in this context; this isn't substantial enough to damage the rest of the performance, however. Both sections of the track are pulled off in a relatively flawless manner, with Howe's guitar solo on the "All Good People" section being particularly notable (White's drum fills in the clap-along section aren't bad either). A strong performance (and one unmarred by visual inanities as well ...)  Next is "Time And A Word", which is given an extremely good performance here; it may be somewhat underwhelming in contrast to Yes's epic works, but this performance does a good job of bringing out the strengths of the work. Wakeman's extended keyboard introduction is surprisingly tasteful, and Howe's acoustic guitar works quite well (particularly in adding fills as the track develops). All members of the band perform this song quite well, leading to a final result which easily outdoes the original album version. From a visual standpoint, we have more landscape shots (which aren't so bad), and an "outer space" image positioned near Howe (which is).  "And You And I" begins with Jon telling the story of how Steve's harmonics were included in the album cut (sadly omiting the narcotics reference which so amused the live audience), and then leads to a version which remains relatively faithful to the album track -- this version, unlike that of Yessongs, recreates the acoustic introduction. Credit should be given for the vocal harmonies on the "cords and crosses" section; there is little in the arrangement which differs from the album version, however (aside from Squire's harmonica solo, of course, and slightly extended spotlights on Wakeman and Howe in the "The Preacher The Teacher" section). This does not, of course, take anything away from the fact that this is a well-performed version, and is certainly capable of being considered in the same general range as earlier versions. Not terribly much happens from a visual standpoint, aside from a few "earth" shots.  "The Revealing Science Of God" (which, as was noted in the earlier review, was performed extremely well by the band) has a few serious problems as regards visuals, not the least of which is the image of a crystal diamond emerging from a sea of molten silver. The mere association of crystals with Tales material plays into the worst stereotypes of the album as it is perceived by mainstream critics, and one must wonder why this shot was allowed to make the final cut. The shots of the Oriental monastery and a river are considerably less problematic.  This performance of "Going For The One" is, unfortunately, perhaps the low point of the release -- and the problem may lie in the mixing, rather than in the performance itself. The setting of Howe's tone seems strangely out-of-synch with the rest of the band for some sections of this track, and the listener is left to wonder if the cross-tracking techniques used in creating this product resulted in Howe's part being "left in the lurch". Even aside from that, the guitar part for this track is considerably more minimal than that of the album version. There isn't really anything terribly wrong with anyone's performance, but this particular track doesn't quite measure up to the rest of the album, sadly. From a visual standpoint, not terribly much happens.  By some accounts, the live performances of "Turn Of The Century" (from Going For The One) at SLO were more than slightly flawed; nevertheless, the "after-the-fact" alterations by Anderson produce the end result of an extremely successful (and listenable) performance. Howe's acoustic opening is as beautiful as ever, and Squire and Wakeman provide very impressive accompaniment. Through the miracle of post-production, this track is given an extremely faithful treatment, save only for a few minor variations. Howe's spotlight is an extremely haunting performance with his slightly extended guitar line; Wakeman's reproduction of the main theme at the beginning of the instrumental section was also a nice touch. The vocal return was handled extremely well, and the instrumental outro was very touching as well. This track actually has an extremely elaborate video accompaniment, featuring a film of actors playing out the story of the song (including a surprise ending, which I won't give away). In conjunction with images of the band members, this seemed somehow less than appropriate at times; on its own, though, it is fairly interesting.  (The remainder of the tracks were all featured on the KtA album; ergo, the following comments will deal primarily with visuals.)  This performance of "America" (which, of course, was quite good) is somewhat flawed by the rather gratuitous inclusion of a waving American flag at the beginning; moreover, one wonders if the inclusion of a Greyhound bus at the relevant lyric was an endorsement of sorts. The image of a cyclist at the beginning of the guitar solo doesn't make terribly much sense either, but it's a fairly benign inclusion.  From here, things begin to go downhill rather quickly in the visual department. The surprisingly good performance of "Onward" is matched with various images of dolphins, for no apparent reason -- this reaches a particularly high level of tackiness when combined with sunrise image. Still, the shot of Anderson and Squire hugging at the end of the track may ultimately by useful in chronicling this aspect of the on-and-off feuds involving various band members.  The visuals for "Awaken" are, generally speaking, even worse. The image of bungee-jumpers here makes even less sense than that of the dolphins in the previous track, and juxtaposition of this shot with band members (notably Steve) seems even more foolish. One also wonders what the lava imagery has to do with (i) the bungee-jumpers, and (ii) the track itself. This is probably the single greatest annoyance on the album (as a minor consolation, we are given an extended shot of Squire's impressive-looking three-necked bass for much of the performance).  The visuals for "Roundabout" are thankfully less intrusive -- the track begins with a shot of the back cover of Fragile, and from there focuses most strongly on minor visual tricks and a few shots of the audience.  "Starship Trooper", sadly, has a few cringe-inducing moments. The sketches of planetary orbits aren't so bad, but the decision to juxtapose band members with shots of the planets must be regarded as somewhat unwise (the juxtaposition of Squire with Jupiter was perhaps in slightly poor taste, and the image of Howe emerging from an asteroid is even worse). Moreover, there are some problems here involving the visual emphases on the band members -- Howe, for instance, is not shown onscreen throughout the entirety of his concluding guitar solo. Even despite the strength of the music, it must be allowed that the visuals could have been much better.  In spite of these problems, the video version of Keys To Ascension is a notable document as regards the atmosphere of Yes's live ventures; the problems with visuals can generally be overlooked with a small degree of effort. This is, as such, recommended to anyone fortunate enough to come upon it.  Note also that the versions of "Close To The Edge", "I've Seen All Good People", "Time And A Word", "And You And I", "Going For The One" and "Turn Of The Century" also appear on Keys To Ascension II -- which, as of this writing, has been released in Europe, but not the rest of the world. The ratings/comments for these tracks will thus also make up the ratings for the first disc of KtA II, when that review eventually arrives. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com