Label: Warner Music (Japan), WPCR-13521
Style: Symphonic Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 69:31
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 503 Mb
In
1973 Yes released their most pompous, overblown, and over-the-top
effort ever, Tales From Topographic Oceans. Although fans were now
somewhat used to longer songs by Yes, four 20 minute songs was not what
they had in mind. After the commercial disappointment and mixed
reactions from fans, Rick Wakeman decided to leave the band in order to
pursue his solo career. This left a large void in Yes, as Wakeman's lead
keyboard work was a huge part of the band as we had been shown in such
masterpieces like Close to the Edge and Siberian Khatru. The man to
replace him was an entirely different type of player, one that would
take Yes's sound to a new level that they had not seen before. Coming
from a jazz background, Patrick Moraz was not as much of a lead player
as Wakeman was, but he was perfect at completing everything that was
going on.
By the time Moraz had joined the band, most of the material
for the album had been written, so much of his influence is not shown
with the exception of the frantic jazz-fusion bazed Sound Chaser. One
huge characteristic of this album is that the guitar takes a very
leading role along with the drumming, making Relayer the "Steve
Howe/Alan White" show. Many of the sounds on Relayer are far more
aggressive than previous albums with the guitar at center stage, which
is by no means a bad thing. From the get go with The Gates of Delirium,
Steve Howe shows us that his leadership can produce great tracks and a
great Yes album in general.
This opening track is based off of War
And Peace, and is divided into three (or four if you'd like) large
sections. Kicking things off we instantly notice a more raw sound to
this cd, with Steve Howe's guitar dibbling over a small Patrick Moraz
background does a great job of emulating a buildup of some sort. Jon
Anderson kicks in with his classic vocals, this time dealing directly
with the topics war. Throughout this whole song, there is always a lot
going on. Even at slower points, Steve Howe's guitar can run at a
frantic pace, and Alan White's drumming is always at a top notch level.
Moraz throws in his lead keyboard lines from time to time to continue
driving the song forward. Then at 4:30 we see a repeat of keyboard line,
but Moraz's genuious shines and we see an awesome intro to this line.
After one more round of classic Jon Anderson, we begin to enter into the
"battle" section. Starting with a guitar line that we have heard
already, it becomes perfect when Moraz repeats the D minor chord from
the behind and Steve Howe adds just a little bit more to put it over the
top. The battle section is an intense fury of music, Chris Squire
finally shines in this part putting in his best bass work, and Alan
White comes in full force with perfect drumming alongside some quick
Patrick Moraz keyboard work. Throughout this part quick changes come
along as Steve Howe will go off on the guitar with a fantastic flurry of
notes that is quickly succeeded by Moraz with more lines of keyboard
goodness. Eventually this all explodes into one final burst that brings
up an ascending keyboard line that just keeps climbing higher and higher
until it finally shifts to Steve Howe, who puts it over the edge and
sends into the section named "Soon". This section is a large departure
from the earlier parts of the song in that it is entire soft, but it is
also entirely beautiful. Jon Anderson's vocals shine here and round off
this song, making The Gates of Delirium one of the greatest progressive
rock tracks ever written.
(full version: sputnikmusic.com/review/11160/Yes-Relayer/) Review by clairvoyant. February 21st, 2007
01. The Gates Of Delirium (21:56)
02. Sound Chaser (09:27)
03. To Be Over (09:19)
04. Soon (Single Edit) (04:17)
05. Sound Chaser (Single Edit) (03:13)
06. The Gates Of Delirium (Studio Run-Through) (21:16)
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