Yes - High Vibration SACD Box Set

Here are the details for the upcoming SACD box set of Yes albums that Warners Japan are releasing in September.

The price for the whole shebang is about 39,800 Yen, about £260. Though I have seen one UK supplier advertising it for a whopping £400!

What we have is all albums up to and including Big Generator, the live Yessongs but not Yesshows.

I think that the production of this box set shows how strong the SACD market is in Japan. They do love their formats and physical product. Hence why stores like Tower and Disk Union are bucking the world trend and doing great business there. They also seem to be oblivious with the overseas market. Not only are Audio Fidelity in the US releasing SACD editions of Yes albums, but Panegyric in the UK start their campaign of Steven Wilson mixed hi res surround and stereo Yes albums with Close to the Edge in October. All of a sudden the market is being saturated with hi res Yes. This box set will be attractive to the mad Yes fanatic, who will probably have the SHM papersleeve editions of a few years back. Those too were mastered by Isao Kikuchi. Those have generally not been held in high esteem in some quarters. For me they are generally the best Yes I have heard on CD yet. But that's just my personal choice. I will be interested to read the reviews of this when it is released. It's going to be an interesting few months.

 

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Willowglass - The Dream Harbour

Here is another excellent self financed recording. The third release by Willowglass (which in essence is multi-instrumentalist Andrew Marshall). This is his third album under the Willowglass banner and it certainly is his best. The music is definitely of the symphonic, Genesis kind of thing, but Andrew is such a wonderful musician and composer that he takes his influences to different levels. Although his previous albums are very good, I did find that sometimes the compositions seemed to lack some cohesion. No problem with this new album. All tracks are very well structured and have a clear sense of development. He is ably assisted on this by Hans Jorg Schmitz on drums and the very talented Steve Unruh (The Samurai of Prog) on violin and flute. Excellent instrumental album this is indeed.

 

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Vienna Circle - Silhouette Moon

Every so often an album comes out of nowhere and hits you for six. Vienna Circles second album is one such album. I knew nothing about them and can't even remember how I was led to their web site. But I was and ordered their CD and very pleased to have done so. The core band seem to be brothers Paul and Jack Davis. Musically, it is a bit neo prog, a bit symphonic, nicely melancholic, but it has that certain something that sets it apart and makes it special. Very strong songwriting and arrangements, embellished with flute and strings to give a wider, sweeping feel to the tracks. The highlights are the epics "Dreams Presage" and "Ballad of Night". The whole thing is beautifully recorded and mastering is by the legendary Denis Blackham. It's hard to believe that this seems to be a self financed project considering the quality of the recording, the beautiful digipak packaging and that there is also a bonus DVD included on the making of the album. Overall very special indeed.

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White Willow - Ignis Fatuus, expanded remastered edition

White Willow were one of a few bands from the Scandinavian regions who helped to regenerate interest in progressive rock in the early 90's. Along with Anglagard, Anekdoten, Par Lindh Project and Landberk they wholeheartedly embraced the core essence of 70's progressive rock, utilising the intrumentation of that period like analogue synths, mellotrons and bass pedals.

This new edition of their debut album has been expanded with an extra CD of outtakes, demos and live cuts. The quality of these is actually very good and includes a rather sprightly version of King Crimson's "Moonchild". As can be seen from the photo the artwork has been completely revamped. The original CD had some very nice artwork, but the new design is more streamlined and you can actually read the lyrics! Nice notes by Sid Smith too. The original CD was mastered by Bob Katz and sounded pretty good, but the album has been analogue remastered and sounds very detailed and warm. The tracks on the bonus CD were transferred as is. More reissues are promised soon, which is welcome news.

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Going For The One SACD

Confusing times indeed! Not only are Audio Fidelity seemingly reissuing SACD versions of Yes's back catalogue, starting with "Close To The Edge" a few months back, but news has just come out that Steven Wilson, yes him again, has been remixing Close To The Edge, with new stereo and surround mixes to be released in October. So another version of CTTE! It will be interesting to compare the new version with Steve Hoffman's SACD remaster.

The Steven Wilson version is being released by Panegyric who release the King Crimson 40th anniversary packages and it's the same team doing it. The feeling is that there will be other titles in the series. In the meantime Audio Fidelity carry on and release "Going For The One". Again this is remastered by Steve Hoffman and again I conclude this to be the best sounding version yet. Whereas His remaster of CTTE highlighted the shortcomings of the master tapes, with GFTO there is a sense of clarity, finding new details in the mix previously hidden. The lack of bass was always a grumble about the production of the album, but that has been enhanced sufficiently without overwhelming everything else. A really good job on this. I wonder if Wilson will tackle this one in the future!

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A Couple of Crackers

Here are two very impressive new albums.

The first is Andy Tillison's The Tangent, newie "Le Sacre Du Travail". This is simply Tillison's Topographic Oceans. Hugely ambitious and pushing everything to their limits like Yes's double album did back in the 70's. Tillison has always produced large, complex work. For me his "Afterlifecycle", made with Parallel or 90 Degrees is a modern epic prog classic. But nothing he has produced in the past matches this new album for its breadth of compositional dexterity. Like Yes's major work, Stravinsky is a big influence here, using big sound colours to generate a rich tonal tapestry. Luckily he is aided by musicians capable of handling the task of this major work, like Gavin Harrison, Theo Travis and Jakko Jakszyk.

The second release is the second by US duo, Days Between Stations. Not a well known band but this new album will change that. Again an ambitious, complex work like The Tangents album and with some great guest spots by Rick Wakeman, Colin Moulding, Tony Levin and the late Pete Banks. The music is beautifully played, instrumentally very strong and well produced with the help of Billy Sherwood who also handles vocals and drums.

 

 

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Quickbeam - Quickbeam

A quick blog to highlight this exceptional debut album by Glasgow based band Quickbeam. There does seem to be a scene going on for acoustic based bands. Not really folk music, but chamber based certainly and taking their cue from different elements such as post-rock and even prog. For me Quickbeam are one of the best. With Monika Gromeks distinctly Scottish vocals, the music is beautifully melancholic and dreamlike. Go to their website and search out the excellent video for "Immersed".

www.quickbeammusic.com

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