S★m V★rm★RE: https://fosstodon.org/@samvarma/116196836374395901
You know what... reply with album covers that changed your life
Let's go #GenX
Geoff Duncan@samvarma
I'll follow up with another oddball pick. I was that one kid in school who didn't much care for Yes's "breakthrough" 90125—Yesssongs or go home, right?—although a few bits have grown on me. But for some reason I really liked this Yes lineup that was half Yes, all of the Buggles (really!), and sparked off Asia (think Yes sounding like Journey), Rabin-era Yes (think Yes sounding like Journey and Art of Noise), GTR (think Marillion sounding like Journey) and cemented Steve Howe in my mind. I mean, he was already cemented there but this added more superglue.
I'll follow up with another oddball pick. I was that one kid in school who didn't much care for Yes's "breakthrough" 90125—Yesssongs or go home, right?—although a few bits have grown on me. But for some reason I really liked this Yes lineup that was half Yes, all of the Buggles (really!), and sparked off Asia (think Yes sounding like Journey), Rabin-era Yes (think Yes sounding like Journey and Art of Noise), GTR (think Marillion sounding like Journey) and cemented Steve Howe in my mind. I mean, he was already cemented there but this added more superglue.
Steven Woolgar@geoffduncan @samvarma I love love love Drama
@woolie @samvarma
That's not a thing one can often say sincerely, on the internet. ;)
I noticed you're also a Saga person. I didn't learn two-handed tapping from absorbing Van Halen or Steve Hackett (although the latter *very nearly* happened). I first picked it up from Ian Crichton. But more importantly, I internalized a *lot* about cool ways to arrange and record synths in a rock band.
Grogmagog@geoffduncan @woolie @samvarma I never, ever get tired of listening to On The Loose. Great song and it sounds sooo good
@gogmagog
Holds up! My two were Wind Him Up and Pitchman, although Ice Nice on their first album stuck with me too.
Holds up! My two were Wind Him Up and Pitchman, although Ice Nice on their first album stuck with me too.
@geoffduncan @gogmagog my two were….hahahahahah, I don’t have two. I love most of them. 🤣
@geoffduncan @woolie @gogmagog So I'm listening to this (Drama) now. Don't think I've formed an opinion yet, but I feel like I can hear the influence of the drumming in my fave band Spidergawd. I also noticed the meticulous precision, and the almost classical arranging. But so far the through lines have yet to reveal themselves.
@samvarma @geoffduncan @gogmagog Drama took me a while to love. But it is way up there in the pantheon now.
@geoffduncan @woolie @gogmagog Super crazy how their 1971(!) shit sounds so far above their contemporaries. Most the other bands of the era sound primitive in terms of recording quality et cetera, and these guys sound like they're from 10 years in the future
@geoffduncan @woolie @gogmagog Currently really enjoying Fragile. Drama seems disjointed by comparison
@samvarma @woolie @gogmagog
Ha! Every Yes album seems disjointed to me! Particularly Fragile because it screams “Uh we have a deadline and not enough material Rick can you throw in a track from your album, how about that Chet thing Steve does at shows…” “I could do a track that’s all bass overdubs!” “WTH. Only if we call it The Fish.” Etc.
(Squire’s nickname was The Fish because he apparently took enormously long baths. And, ironically, Squire’s later solo album may be the best Yes album that never was.)
Drama *was* put together in a hurry because they were already committed to a tour. You can ev n find the original Buggles version of I Am A Camera out there.
@geoffduncan @woolie @gogmagog I mean is it possible that because they were clearly influenced if not formed by classical and jazz, it might have led to a more naturalistic (therefore timeless) aesthetic when it came to recording? Like more of a documentary style, rather than going for a "sound"
@geoffduncan @woolie @gogmagog Thinking about it I'm definitely getting more the sense that they would sound exactly like this live, and there aren't a million layers of production going on. They recorded performances of their parts, and that's it
@geoffduncan @woolie @gogmagog Chatting with my bass player on Wednesday about how jazz musicians often don't "speak" rock even as they think that it's beneath them. The thing that strikes me about Fragile is we have guys here who completely understand the rock aesthetic and energy, while holding in their brains the capacity to also understand classical and jazz. Pretty fucking amazing to be honest
@samvarma @woolie @gogmagog
My understanding is that's pretty true: there are dubbed guitars, they doubled up vocals, did a few studio tricks (backward piano in Roundabout, along with a "tictac" bass on top of the clicky bass!) Wakeman had had many years of classical training, if I remember, and their sound definitely changed when they brought him in. (He turned down Bowie for Yes!) But that material was written to be performed live. And it changed over time: Heart of the Sunrise got *very* heavy in live performances in ways that aren't reflected on the album, etc.
Anyway: I remember listening to this stuff as a kid and picking bits of it apart note by note to try to understand it: bands like that were the start of my music theory getting beyond I IV V/ ii V I.
Jaycosm🔆@geoffduncan @samvarma @woolie @gogmagog 'Hope you don't mind me commenting. "Magnification" is one of my favs (Anderson, Squire, Howe, White, and orchestration in place of the missing keyboardist) along with the "ABWH" album. I like the Trevor Rabin Yes stuff too. You might be interested in the band Circa - there's a Yes connection in there somewhere... writer, bassist, keyboardist, etc. during a Yes band quarrel, but I don't recall. I like "Valley of the Windmill" album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfrq06jz9oA&list=OLAK5uy_lf6kkHdGno3xuYCscikg0xp0fwSkYObEo&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfrq06jz9oA&list=OLAK5uy_lf6kkHdGno3xuYCscikg0xp0fwSkYObEo&index=2
Silent Resolve
@jay
I'll check it out! I never dove into that particular sector of the Yes-verse, despite having been tangentially adjacent (how's that for a term?) to it for a couple minutes. I want to say Circa eventually developed out of Sherwood's Pink Floyd tribute albums, but I might be misremembering.
I'll check it out! I never dove into that particular sector of the Yes-verse, despite having been tangentially adjacent (how's that for a term?) to it for a couple minutes. I want to say Circa eventually developed out of Sherwood's Pink Floyd tribute albums, but I might be misremembering.