\nRelayer<\/i> was an important transitional album for prog-rock
\navatars Yes. There almost seemed nowhere left to go after watching
\nthe band’s compositions balloon from four to six to eight to an
\nastonishing 20 minutes over their previous three studio albums,
\nFragile<\/i>,
\nClose To The Edge<\/i> and the infamous four-song double-LP opus
\nTales From Topographic Oceans<\/i>. For better or for worse —
\nand you’ll find plenty of Yes partisans on both sides of that one
\n—
\nRelayer<\/i> saw the trend toward epic-length pieces begin to
\nreverse itself.<\/p>\n
The album also marked Rick Wakeman’s first departure from the
\nband, of which there have been four to date, not that anyone’s
\ncounting. (This band’s family tree looks like a Joshua Tree crossed
\nwith a weeping willow. They have more former members than the
\nMormon Tabernacle — oh, you get the idea.) For this one album,
\nWakeman’s magic fingers were replaced behind the keyboard stacks by
\nthose of Patrick Moraz, later of Moody Blues fame.<\/p>\n
Moraz’s presence coincides with a brief but significant change
\nin the band’s sound. Where most of their albums have a majestic
\n(some would say slightly pompous; some would omit “slightly”) feel,<\/p>\n
Relayer<\/i> takes a rougher, looser, jazzy approach absent from
\nthe band since its earliest days.<\/p>\n
The difference is obvious from the first movements of the
\nalbum’s opener, the 22-minute “The Gates Of Delirium.” The band’s
\nfirst side-long epic two years before (“Close To The Edge”) was
\nstately and often soaring; by contrast, “Gates” is chaotic, almost
\nbipolar in its moods. Opening with a jittering, echoey, nearly
\natonal guitar solo from the chameleon-like Steve Howe, the song
\nveers along above an ever-shifting bed of exotic time signatures
\nlaid down by bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White (who gives
\nthe most intricate, technically skilled performance of his career).
\nAs it builds, the track gathers a kind of frenetic energy in places
\nthat reminds me of a young Rush. Midway through, a series of
\nbizarre “battlefield” synth effects from Moraz offer an effective
\ncomplement to singer Jon Anderson’s uncharacteristically focused
\nlyric, addressed squarely at the evils of war.<\/p>\n
One of the highlights of this memorable piece is the “Soon”
\nsection three-quarters of the way in, where the thundering battle
\nfalls away to an uneasy stillness, replaced by Howe’s shimmering
\nslide guitar as Anderson sings beseechingly of the rebirth of hope
\nin the aftermath of conflict. It’s a striking moment that evokes my
\nown personal image of “Gates” as being like a medieval tapestry –
\nalien, beautiful, violent and magnificent.<\/p>\n
Of the two shorter (yeah, only nine minutes apiece!) pieces that
\nfill out the album, “Sound Chaser” is the more interesting, with
\nits hyperactive acid jazz opening, all frantic keyboard runs and
\nscat-singing, followed by a more measured middle section that
\nfinally accelerates back into a reprise of the opening psychedelia.
\nThe closing “To Be Over” is neither as varied in tempo nor as
\ninteresting in execution, aside from Howe’s always-proficient
\nacoustic and electric guitar work.<\/p>\n
Final score for
\nRelayer<\/i>: one stupendous rock symphony, one interesting
\njazz-rock experiment, and the latter’s lesser twin. Though not for
\neveryone, in my view the Moraz era of Yes was brief but rewarding,
\nand worthy of any prog-rock or jazz-rock fusion fan’s attention.
\nNext would come the return of Wakeman – the first one, anyway —
\nand what looked at the time like the last stand for Classic
\nYes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5713],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37511","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-yes","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37511"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}