KEYSTUDIO

Wow! Keystudio kind of makes you wonder what Yes were thinking all those years between when these tracks were recorded and when they were finally released in a single, cohesive album. Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White return to form with a vengeance on this dizzyingly brilliant collection of tracks from recording sessions in Los Angeles from 1996. The sequencing and production of the material is impeccable, and the tracks flow together like a truly unified work of art.

After years of bad management, bad career moves, moderate- to bad solo and side projects, Yes returned to some semblance of their former glory on the extremely well- received Keys to Ascension releases in 1996 and 1997. From this same period these studio tracks were recorded but largely forgotten. That changed when they were gathered together for what would amount to practically a new studio release with Keystudio in 2001. Whatever painful suffering fans had gone through in the eighties was forgiven when these tracks finally came to light. There is nothing even close to a bad compostion on this album.

The opening tracks “Footprints” and “Be the One” both feature Jon Anderson’s voice as strong as ever, and Rick Wakeman proving once and for all that this band is not the same without his complex and bombastic keyboards. Steve Howe plays at least three different guitars on the two works and each to perfection, including bass on “Be the One”. These lengthy works signal a coming treat in the rest of the album, and the band doesn’t disappoint.

Howe’s opening acoustics on “Mind Drive” hearken back to the sound of Tales… and Relayer, giving way to a staccato keyboard/drum combination that gets a mystic and intense treatment from Chris Squire’s bass licks. This is a much more mellow work than the band’s epic tracks from the mid-seventies, but carries just as much weight in terms of musical complexity and emotion. The smooth sound sets the stage for the even more melodic “Bring Me to the Power”, which picks up steam as it moves toward a funky, almost jazzy conclusion. Very much reminiscent of Fragile.

“Sign Language” is another very mild and lazy track, but full of exquisite piano from Wakeman and Howe’s reflective guitar picking. This is just an instrumental interlude to the next extended-play epic, “That That is”. This one starts off with slow guitar picking as well, followed by a brief symphonic simulation by Wakeman that is quickly followed by a quintessential brooding and harmonic verse dominated by Anderson and Squire. Toward the end Howe, Squire and Wakeman combine in a torrid instrumental very much in the vein of Siberian Khatru, with an ending that is disappointing largely because it means the song is over.

The closing “Children of the Light” sounds as if it were made to close an album, with it’s reflective vocals and eerie synths. Wakeman and Howe play an extended, haunting instrumental that is both beautiful, and also as fresh as anything the band has done in the past twenty years. Another sad ending follows.

If you’re like me and just hung on to Yes out of habit (or blind loyalty) during the eighties and most of the nineties, this album is your reward. It may not be as technically impressive as some of the band’s pivotal seventies works, but the shock value alone of listening to this after years of 90125, Big Generator, Talk, Open Your Eyes, and even the Ladder are enough to raise it to the level of essential. If you are a Yes fan, or just a symphonic music fan in general, you should have this album. Four stars for a strong effort by the band to reestablish themselves as the true symphonic rock masters, because I love the way the record turned out, and because it does my heart good to hear the band return from whence they came.

peace