|
-----------------------------------------------------
JANUARY 5, 1998
-----------------------------------------------------
Source: Publiczny Dostep do Internetu
http://www.pdi.net/~eristic/yes/tr_65.html
Yes: Keys to Ascension 2: (released 1997)
By Christopher Currie
Track: Rating:
1. I've Seen All Good People*****
2. Going For The One****
3. Time And A Word****
4. Close To The Edge*****
5. Turn Of The Century*****
6. And You And I*****
7. Mind Drive*****
8. Foot Prints****1/2
9. Bring Me To The Power****1/2
10. Children Of Light****1/2
(i) Children Of Light
(ii) Lifeline
11. Sign Language****1/2
Personnel:
* Jon Anderson: vocals, lyricist, guitars, harp
* Steve Howe: guitars, bass, vocals
* Chris Squire: bass, guitars
* Rick Wakeman: keyboards
* Alan White: drums, vocals
Credits:
* "I've Seen All Good People" by Anderson/Squire.
* "Going For The One" by Anderson.
* "Time And A Word" by Anderson/Foster.
* "Close To The Edge" by Anderson/Howe.
* "Turn Of The Century" by Anderson/Howe/White.
* "And You And I" by Anderson/Howe/Squire/Bruford.
* "Mind Drive" by Anderson/Squire/White/Howe/Wakeman.
* "Foot Prints" by Anderson/Squire/Howe/White.
* "Bring Me To The Power" by Anderson/Howe.
* "Children Of Light" by Anderson/Vangelis/Squire.
* "Lifeline" by Wakeman/Howe.
* "Sign Language" by Howe/Wakeman.
----------
Comments:
As many Yes fans already know, Keys To Ascension 2 is the product of a
promising reunion project which has recently fallen on hard times. The
spirit which guided the recording had become rather scarce within Yes by
the time of the album's release, with the goal of recapturing the intensity
of their 1970s recordings having been replaced by a more commercial ethos
(which, as of this writing, has proven less than successful in terms of chart action).
The details of Yes politics will be well-known to diehard fans already, but
bear repetition here for the benefit of other readers. In 1996, the
revamped Yes lineup of Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman and White played
three concerts at the San Luis Obispo in California. Later in the year,
seven live recordings from these performances were paired with two new
studio tracks on Keys To Ascension (which I've already discussed in another
Tentative Review). This release generally won the respect of those
experienced Yes fans who were aware of its existence, but proved to be a
poor seller on the album charts (reaching only #99 in America).
After this release, the five Yes members (along with co-producer Billy
Sherwood, who has since joined the band as a full-time member) began
working on new studio material. The plan for the release of these
recordings seems to have changed more than once; evidence would suggest
that some within the group would have preferred to release the album as a
single CD, but this suggestion was ultimately rejected in favour of a
double-CD release which pairs the five new tracks with the remaining songs
from the SLO shows.
At first, everything seemed to be developing in a promising manner. A Notes
From The Edge interview with Rick Wakeman early in 1997 showed the
keyboardist to be very enthusiastic about the quality of the new material
(describing, essentially, as an antithesis to the Union project which he so
despises). Whatever personality conflicts may have existed between
individual band members, the collective entity known as Yes seemed to be
well on its way to releasing a credible album in the style of their classic material.
Suddenly, a myriad of problems appeared. After the recording of the album
was finished, Yes changed their management team (in the wake of KtA's
commercial failure). At about the same time, plans for a tour were developed.
Not everything went according to plan. For reasons which have still not
been explained to anyone's satisfaction (in public, at least), Rick Wakeman
absented himself from the band mere weeks after his Notes From The Edge
interview. Various theories have been suggested, but those who know the
entire story aren't telling. Wakeman's website refused to comment on his
reasons, but stated that it was unlikely Wakeman and Yes would work together in the future.
After this, Yes mysteriously began recording more new material at the same
time that Chris Squire's solo album was mysteriously dropped from its
scheduled release. These sessions -- now including Sherwood in a musical
capacity -- formed the basis for Open Your Eyes, a more commercial
endeavour which, in fact, features some recycling from Squire's unreleased album.
There were some concerns that Keys To Ascension 2 (sometimes referred to by
its rumoured working title, Know) might never see the light of day. Diehard
fans, after having been promised quite a bit in the early days of the
reunion, were understandably quite upset with these developments.
Thankfully Yes were still able to work KtA2 into their generally strategy
... albeit not in the manner that was originally intended. After belatedly
beginning their tour in late 1997, they released both Keys To Ascension 2
and Open Your Eyes a few weeks apart. The former was released on the
unknown Purple Pyramid records, and was not promoted by the band to the
same extent as was/is Open Your Eyes. Moreover, only the first section of
"Children Of Light" from the new recordings was performed in concert.
Although Yes deserve considerable credit for eventually getting the album
out, there is little doubt that Open Your Eyes was the album that they were
placing their primary hopes on.
With the SLO dream now fading into the background, KtA2 appears as a
testimony to the creative window of opportunity that was briefly opened
within the project. The new studio material here is easily the best on any
studio Yes album since Drama, and perhaps even beyond that. The five tracks
in question show a fair diversity of influences, with the ideas of various
band members coming together to form an extremely interesting whole. The
live tracks are a decent bonus as well, though some might wonder why
releasing the album as a double-CD was necessary to begin with (all live
tracks except for "Turn Of The Century" having been released on either
Yessongs or Yesshows as well). The two discs are obviously the results of
separate projects, and the album makes rather little sense if one attempts
to judge it as a seemless whole. Still, there is little need for complaint
as regards the tracks themselves.
I have already commented on the live performances in my review of the Keys
To Ascension video; while there may be some differences in the mix, the
similarities are strong enough as to not require extensive discussions in
this context as well. As such, I'll keep my comments brief.
The album begins with a reasonably inspired version of "I've Seen All Good
People". The most immediately obvious distinction between this and previous
versions of the track is the sonic clarity. This aside, the performance
itself is fairly impressive, with the various nuances (Howe's lute,
Wakeman's adaptation of the recorder part, Squire's backing vocals) coming
off rather well. It may be an overplayed standard, but there's very little
to fault in this version.
To my ears, the jarring mixing defect at the beginning of "Going For The
One" on the KtA video has been cleaned up here; as such, I've decided to
increase its rating by a half-star (in the event the problem on the video
only existed on my copy, the reader may assume a four-star rating for both
tracks). Although this still isn't quite as impressive as the album
version, its a generally successful version of the piece.
The high rating which I'm giving to "Time And A Word" (as per my rating on
the video) may seem overly generous. The fact that Howe seems to be
undermixed in this version (compared to the video) is making me wonder if a
reduction might be in order; nevertheless, I've decided to give the track
the benefit of the doubt (for now). This is, even with the undermixing, an
impressive adaptation of the track, with Wakeman providing a new opening
section and Howe taking the song to a higher level with his spotlight
moments. I wouldn't want every song on the album to sound like this, but
there's nothing wrong with this track in itself.
There have been some complaints about Rick Wakeman's performance on "Close
To The Edge" recently, with the general argument being that he seemed
under-rehearsed in playing the parts. It is true that some aspects of his
performance here (particularly his major solo in the beginning of the
"Seasons Of Man" section) have room for improvement. Still, though, his
performances are never embarrassingly bad, and the strength of the
composition and the rest of the performance allows it to retain its
five-star rating. Steve Howe's clean tone is not a major problem.
There is little else to add about "Turn Of The Century" and "And You And
I", except to note that the latter performance (despite some minor flaws)
makes up for the 1988 version rather nicely.
The primary feature of this release, however, is the second disc, which
features the five new recordings. Regarding these, I should first note that
my five-star rating for "Mind Drive" is not given without some
reservations. Although most of the song is unquestionably on this level,
Anderson's "bring you light" sections threaten to bring the rating down
somewhat (they're not wretched, but they wouldn't be five-star tracks on
their own). My eventual decision was that the balance still pointed
upwards; opposing opinions are equally valid, however.
The track begins with an ambient, quasi-exotic keyboard/guitar duet. Howe
first plays a pastoral theme on acoustic guitar, with bass and electric
guitar variations soon taking its place. After about two minutes, this
shifts to a 7/8 drum/bass theme (previously used in the XYZ demos, as well
as the drum duets on the Union Tour). The full band eventually joins in
this section, and the first vocal section is allowed to emerged in a most
interesting manner (curiously, the vocal line sounds similar to that of
"Without Hope You Cannot Start The Day", only done much better).
The first Anderson spotlight then appears, as the lyrics and music both
take a slight step down (lyrics about Gnostic understanding are fine, but
actually singing about the angels in question seems a bit more
questionable). After this, Howe plays an acoustic segueway piece, followed
by a more successful Anderson vocal section (perhaps his best singing on
the album). After this, a jazz guitar/drums combination leads to the next
band section.
Some of the shifts become more abrupt at this point. The actual "Mind
Drive" motif is re-introduced fairly quickly, and Anderson's "they will
bring you" reprise may well fall into a similar category. The 7/8 section
them returns again, and the subsequent jazz return shows Howe playing in a
manner which almost suggests the final movement of "Themes" (from the
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album). Wakeman is granted a decent keyboard
solo towards the end, and some odd keyboard effects mark the conclusion of
the piece.
Although the piece is not an unbroken triumph from beginning to end, the
good parts are enough to grant it its exceptional rating. It may not be
quite at the level of "Close To The Edge", but it at least falls in the
same general range.
"Foot Prints" is something a bit different. The opening section of this
track features a return of the vocal harmonies which Yes has traditionally
been well known for -- everyone, including Howe, is impressive in his vocal
role here. Wakeman is the dominant musician at least, with Squire a fairly
close second -- Howe's musical presence is limited to acoustic guitar until
the most electric presence is heard at the three minute mark. From here,
Wakeman and Howe take solos in and around the structure of the track; the
first of Howe's solos has an oddly Frippian characteristic about it. The
work is very well structured, and occasionally seems to be a more
successful version of the ABWH ethos. The track ends with Howe playing a
main theme in an English folk manner.
"Bring Me To The Power" begins as a rock track, with Howe getting the lead
hook between the vocal lines. A shift suddenly occurs after this point,
with acoustic guitar coming to the foreground and more Gnostic- inspired
lyrics emerging from Anderson's creative process. This piece has a somewhat
unusual arrangement, going well beyond the usual song structure of a track
of this length. Howe takes an impressive solo at the five minute mark;
Wakeman and Howe trade leads at the end fairly well. This may be the second
best track on the second side of the album. (As a side note, how obvious
might it be that the lyrics are about an audience/fan relationship of some
sort.)
"Children Of Light" was originally a three-part track, but a solo Wakeman
piece that originally began the suite was dropped after his departure from
the band. Instead, the track begins with "Children Of Light" proper, an
adaptation of the Anderson/Vangelis track "Distant Thunder", which Jon has
been performing in different contexts for some time now. The vocal
harmonies are once again superb, and the keyboard role is quite notable. As
Henry Potts has noted, the lyrics are almost certainly about post-apartheid
South Africa -- while the earlier lyrics to "Distant Thunder" often sounded
rather trite, this track actually comes off fairly well. The second part of
this track, "Lifeline", has the distinction of being the only Yes track to
feature Rick Wakeman as the primary songwriter. While some might fear this
possibility, the track is actually done in a tasteful manner, with Howe
playing sustained notes to a background setting that seems primarily
Wakeman's doing. A majestic conclusion to the track, to be sure. It's just
a shame that the entire suite will probably not be heard for some time.
The album ends with the instrumental "Sign Language", a Wakeman/Howe duet
which features excellent interplay between the two artists. Howe is clearly
the star of this piece, with Wakeman accompanying his guitar leads with a
keyboard effect rather akin to the sound produced by a small classical
ensemble. Melodically, this is a most impressive piece. This is a rather
unusual manner for the album to conclude, but is an extremely worthwhile
piece nonetheless.
This album is strongly recommended to all fans of "classic era" Yes, and to
progressive fans in general who have retained some interest in the group's
endeavours. It's simply a shame that these paths probably won't be
travelled by Yes again in the near future.
Close Window
YesInThePress.com
For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact
YesinthePress@aol.com
|
|
|