Prog Issue 107 (April 2020)

Their 40 Greatest


Songs Ever!






+








Roger Dean

The story of those classic 70s
Yes album covers



Steve Howe


“We’re doing songs on this tour we
haven’t played since 1978!” PROG 107



Contents
ISSUE 107 05.03.20









IF IT’S IN THERE IT’S ON HERE

WILL IRELAND


















































Roger gave
our sleeves
the wow
factor.
There’s
always
been a
chemistry
with Roger.





Yes p 34



A feast of the best Yes songs and finest Yes album covers ever.

FEATURES




REGULARS


BLOODY WELL WRITE pg 10
Missives, musings and tweets from Planet Prog.

THE INTRO pg 12

Anathema break cover to tell us all about their
forthcoming album, plus the latest news from Rick
Wakeman, Enslaved, Green Carnation, Tiger Moth
Tales, Annie Barbazza and more.


Q&A pg 32
Former Happy The Man keyboard player Frank Wyatt
on reuniting the band for his latest solo album. Sean Reinert _______ Pg 30

We pay tribute to the late Cynic drummer
THE OUTER LIMITS pg 74
who died in January.
We all know Biff Byford from denim and leather
clad metallers Saxon. But did you know his new solo Lazuli_____________ Pg 58
album’s got prog on it? And that he’s a big prog rock The French proggers dedicate their latest
fan to boot!
album to a super-fan. We ind out why.

THE PROG INTERVIEW pg 92 Nektar ____________ Pg 62
Nick Barrett of Pendragon looks back over the band’s The prog legends have returned to clear
40 years of existence and tells us all about their new up the confusion over the other line-up.
album, Love Over Fear.
Novena___________ Pg 66

THE MUSICAL BOX pg 98 Young British prog metal band who are
Clannad’s career-spanning box set leads, with getting a leg up from Haken’s frontman.
reviews of Yes, Alan Parsons Project, Devin
Townsend, Myrkur, 10cc, Renaissance, Darryl Way, Myrkur ___________ Pg 70
The Orb and more.
Amelie Bruun ditches the last vestiges
of metal on her new album, Folksange.
TAKE A BOW pg 118

Sons Of Apollo in LA take top billing, plus there are RareNoiseRecords___ Pg 78
reviews of Francis Dunnery, DBA, Roger Chapman, Label boss Giacomo Bruzzo reveals the
the Robin 2’s Prog All-Dayer, Dave Foster Band, secrets of his irst decade in business.
Atomic Rooster, Wheel and more.
Jack Hues__________Pg 82

MY PROG pg 130 We catch up with the former Wang Chung
Nightwish multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley likes man who’s made his irst ever solo album.
a bit of Mike Oldfield, Yes, Iamthemorning, Laurel &
Hardy, and a night out with Bryan Josh! Prognosis Festival__ Pg 86
Everything you need to know about this
year’s goings-on in Eindhoven.

Diagonal__________ Pg 90
The southern England prog rockers are
back after a hiatus with album no.3.





“I do remember
somebody asking me
about some symbolism
in my work and me
saying that it isn’t there
and that basically they

were imagining it. This
person’s reaction was:
‘How the fuck would
you know? You’re just

the artist!’”

Roger Dean

WILL IRELAND



progmagazine.com 7

Ed’s Letter


















elcome to the new issue of Prog in which we celebrate
the style and sounds of one of the all-time prog greats,
WYes. Thank you to all of you who voted for your APR
favourite Yes song of all time. We’ve collated them into a Top NEXT ISSUE
40, which makes for fascinating reading. You can find it on page 03
38; let the debating commence. O
We also talk to Steve Howe about the impending Cruise To N SALE
The Edge and other Yes plans for 2020. Steve and Yes artist
Roger Dean discuss those iconic album cover designs of the 70s
and we even find out how Roger’s art ended up on the catwalks
of high fashion!
This issue is what we call a ‘Premium’ issue, hence it being
bagged up and with some extras for you to enjoy. There are some
very nice art cards* featuring that great Roger Dean artwork,
and there are free downloads of the 132-page Prog Collection
Volume 1 – a celebration of the first 10 years of Prog Magazine
– and also a sampler from RareNoiseRecords, with whom we
Download the also celebrate a decade in business in this very issue. You can
FREE 132-page discover how to access your free downloads on this page and
Prog Collection I hope you enjoy them all. Download the FREE
Vol 1 Magazine Sadly we say goodbye to former Cynic drummer Sean Reinert 10-track sampler
from this issue as well, who died at the end of January. Cynic were from www.bitly.com/
www.bit.ly/ a truly groundbreaking progressive band and this is another ProgSampler
ProgVol1 or scan the QR code
great loss to the genre. Read Dom Lawson’s tribute to Sean on below
page 30, and I urge you to seek out any Cynic album to listen to
while you do. If you’ve never heard them, I’m sure you’ll find
something in their music.
I hope you enjoy the issue and everything that comes with it.
We’re back on April 3, when we hope once again to have the
pleasure of your company.
Until then my friends, prog 0n!









Jerry Ewing - Editor
You can subscribe
to Prog at www.
myfavouritemagazines.
co.uk/PROG. See page
116 for further details. *UK and subscribers only



FIND
US progmagazine.com
ONLINE
AT
Get your daily fix of prog
news and features at
www.progmagazine.com



Letters









Send your letters to us at: Prog, Future Publishing, 1-10 Praed Mews, Paddington, London, W2 1QY, or email prog@futurenet.com. Letters may be edited
for length. We regret that we cannot reply to phone calls. For more comment and prog news and views, find us on facebook.com under Prog.

IN PRAISE OF PEART
I’d like to say my profound thanks to all
for an emotional, thoughtful and excellent
feature on the much-missed Neil Peart.
I have to admit, the Friday the news broke,
I got a little emotional waiting for my
taxi to work, and the thought-provoking
yet excellent words from Jerry Ewing did Prog 106:
their work and got me emotional again. dedicated to the
You did as fine a job of music journalism late Rush legend.
as I’ve ever read. I’d like to think Neil
himself would have appreciated it.
Sean Dunne

STICKING WITH NEIL
If you’ve been a fan of music for as long
as I have, you hear every once in a while
about guitarists who are trying to “play
like Jerry”, a reference to the late Jerry
Garcia of the Grateful Dead. They buy a
guitar like his, amps like his, effects boxes
like his and then they try to play like him.
And, often much to their surprise, they
can’t “play like Jerry” at all. I suspect that
there is a similar phase that drummers go
through: “play like Neil”, though to be able
to duplicate his drum kit would make for
quite a hefty financial undertaking. So, we
muddle through with what we have and
make a game effort to try and play along
with Rush with what we have at hand.
This is what I did yesterday after CLAYTON CALL/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
hearing about the Professor passing away:
I worked my way through two of the
albums that I feel comfortable attempting RIP Professor.
– Roll The Bones and Counterparts.
Animate was the first song of theirs that
made me think, “I can take a shot at that.” UNDYING LEGACY number of their original bandmates are
I’ve absolutely no delusions about being So now we have Nick Mason’s Saucerful no longer here, or able and willing.
able to play anything remotely close to his of Secrets, to go with Steve Hackett’s Musicians don’t last forever, but their
level, but I am satisfied with what I can Genesis Revisited and Carl Palmer’s ELP music does: the great classical composers
do with the skills and the rig that I have. Legacy. Not to mention Yes Featuring of the 18th and 19th centuries are all long
Perhaps some of you out there have Anderson Rabin Wakeman. Oh, and dead. But Beethoven is still Beethoven,
done the same thing this day. It was Jeff Lynne’s ELO. I wonder if we might even if old Ludwig himself is no longer
a cathartic experience, which at times anticipate, in the not-distant future, tinkling the keys. We didn’t complain
also made me stop and think that Jimmy Page’s Zeppelin Re-Inflated? Or about it not being “authentic” when the
there was no chance that this level of how about Paul McCartney’s Beatles LSO performed Symphony No 5 in 2019.
musical creativity – both lyrically and Re-Booted? I jest, of course. Nature will take its inevitable course,
rhythmically – will come our way again. Please don’t get me wrong. Although and in maybe 15 years’ time we’ll no
As Neil himself once said, “What’s I am having a bit of fun with the naming longer be able to hear the old prog classics
the big deal? I hit things with sticks.” convention, I’m not knocking the idea. played live by any of the original artists.
And I appreciate the time you spent On the contrary, it’s hats off to messrs But the music is timeless, and I wouldn’t
doing it and the time we (sort of) spent Mason, Hackett, Palmer, Anderson and mind betting that, in 100 years, there will
“sticking” together. co. They’re playing much cherished still be groups of musicians performing
Tom Callen music we all love to hear, even if a good The Dark Side Of The Moon, Close To The



JOE PAYNE MIKE VENNART BRYAN BELLER
@thatjoepayne @Vennart @bryanbeller
@maxjosephread and I are finally mixing the I’ve been informed that you need “Merci beaucoup” to all who
TWEET last remaining track for the album. Things to be ‘high AF’ to appreciate my came out to the 5 @acratsband
TALK always take longer than you expect, but trust music. Dunno whether to laugh shows in France (Paris, Lyon,
Nice, Marseille, Toulouse). It was
or cry
me, this will be well worth the wait! The song
Follow us on twitter.com/ features a special guest vocalist. Who could JOE PAYNE wonderful to meet so many of you
progmagazineUK it be? Have a guess… at the merch table after the shows
10 progmagazine.com

’ve been an avid purchase albums of bands that
Isubscriber and thorough they hear from your discs. It
reader of Prog for over two helps bands progress in the
years or more – where music industry. They can’t rely
does time fly? As soon as just on performing at gigs. Future PLC, 1-10 Praed Mews, Paddington, London,
W2 1QY
All I’ve to say now is to the
I can, I get my headset on
Email prog@futurenet.com
LETTER and listen to the new disc writers of Prog, keep up your You can also find us on facebook.com under Prog
twitter.com/ProgMagazineUK
that accompanies the mag marvellous work. We can all Editorial
and I’m blown away by its grow up gracefully, even if we Editor Jerry Ewing
Deputy Editor Natasha Scharf
contents. With some great bands like have to start turning the music down to Art Editor Russell Fairbrother
Production Editor Vanessa Thorpe
The Longing, Donna Zed, Lunar, and please our partners, or turn it up because News Editor Matt Mills
a couple of my favourites Stuckfish and we’re getting hard of hearing. Keep those Reviews Editor Jo Kendall
Online News Editor Scott Munro
Zeelley Moon. Having heard them the concerts going. You advertise well in your Content Director Scott Rowley
first time via your complimentary disc, mags and help us to enjoy new music as Contributors
Jeremy Allen (JA), Olivier Zoltar Badin (OZB), Joe Banks (JB),
I then had to go and buy their album. well as all those 40th and 50th concerts. Mike Barnes (MB), Chris Cope (CC), Stephen Dalton (SD,
Isere Lloyd-Davis (ILD), Malcolm Dome (MD), Daryl Easlea
I do hope other readers are inspired to Julian Warwick (DE), Briony Edwards (BE), Claudia Elliott (CE), Dave Everley
(DEV), Ian Fortnam (IF), Pete Fowler (PF), Polly Glass (PG),
Eleanor Goodman (EG), Rob Hughes (RH), Will Ireland (WI),
This issue’s star letter wins a goodie bag from The Merch Desk at www.themerchdesk.com. Emma Johnston (EJ), Dom Lawson (DL), Fraser Lewry (FL),
Dannii Lievers (DIL), Dave Ling (DML), Alex Lynham (AL), Gary
Mackenzie (GMM), Rachel Mann (RM), Rhodri Marsden (RHM),
Clay Marshall (CM), Julian Marszalek (JM)), Giulia Mascheroni
(GMA), Emily MacNevin (EM), Chris McGarel (CMG), Grant Moon
Edge, Selling England By The Pound and room up with a projector and surround (GRM), Ben Myers (BM), Kris Needs (KN), Kevin Nixon (KNI),
Matt Parker (MP), Alison Reijman (AR), Chris Roberts (CR), Paul
2112. And people still listening to them. sound system with speakers in the Sexton (PS), Johnny Sharp (JS), Nick Shilton (NS), Sid Smith (SS),
Joseph Stannard (JSS), Rick Wakeman (RW), Phil Weller (POW),
Prog is timeless, and here I am not corners and no need to compromise for David West (DW), Philip Wilding (PW), Lois Wilson (LW), Rich
Wilson (RW), Holly Wright (HW)
referring to weird time signatures! It is furniture. I’m not sure whether 7.1 would Cover image
©Roger Dean 2018/2020
timeless music in that it does not depend add much unless you live in a mansion! Advertising
on any fashion of the day, or spirit of the I was an early adopter of the surround Media packs are available on request
times. It is simply music for its own sake. sound set-up. One of the first DVD audios Commercial Director Clare Dove
clare.dove@futurenet.com
Olly Renton I got was Brain Salad Surgery (I think it was Advertising Manager Kate Colgan
kate.colgan@futurenet.com
a US import). The mix was great to show Account Director Olly Papierowski
olly.papierowski@futurenet.com
THANK YOU FOR THE PROG! off the system, but somewhat demented Account Director Helen Hughes
helen.hughes@futurenet.com
I just want to thank you for the well- (I think the mixer may have borrowed International Licensing
made magazine, that in every issue, the Floyd’s Azimuth Coordinator, as Prog is available for licensing. Contact the Licensing
shows how much care you put on its the music wooshed all over the place!). team to discuss partnership opportunities.
Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw
making. The prog music world is so vast, Jakko’s 5.1 remix of the same is far more licensing@futurenet.com
but you are able to focus to the masters subtle and appreciative of the music. Subscriptions
Email enquiries contact@myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
of prog and to explore new boundaries or Another favourite is Steven Wilson’s UK orderline & enquiries 0344 848 2852
Overseas order line and enquiries +44 (0)344 848 2852
new proposals at the same time. There’s remixes – a great early example is Online orders & enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.
always something interesting in every Porcupine Tree’s Lightbulb Sun. The vocal co.uk/PROG
Head of subscriptions Sharon Todd
issue and I particularly appreciate when harmonies on How Is Your Life Today Circulation
Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers
you go deep in the making of, when build from the centre and then envelope Production
a masterpiece album gets its anniversary. Some of our readers you. He also did a fantastic job with Head of Production Mark Constance
Production Project Manager Clare Scott
Luigi Scagliarini are certainly ready Gentle Giant on Three Piece Suite and I’d Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby
for surround sound! Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson
love to hear Unburied Treasures, but alas Production Manager Keely Miller
SOUND INVESTMENTS my budget doesn’t run to it. Management
Managing Director Aaron Asadi
Great magazine as always. I think the rise That is one of my main gripes, as so Brand Director - Music Stuart Williams
in the prog scene is very much down to many of the surround sound mixes are Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham
Head of Art & Design Brad Merrett
having this magazine as a central hub. only available if you buy an expensive Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd
I always find something to learn or enjoy box, which usually includes a lot of Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary
Wharf, London, E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk
in the pages. This month it was great things you already have or extras that Tel: 0203 787 9060
to see Kaprekar’s Constant getting the are probably only worthy of one listen. ISSN 2045-2260
We are committed to only using magazine paper
recognition they richly deserve. Case in point is another of my favourites which is derived from responsibly managed, certiied
forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this
I wanted to respond to Jakko Jakszyk’s remixed by Mr Jakszyk – Chris Squire’s magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable
managed forests, conforming to strict environmental
Paperlate article [Prog 105] wondering Fish Out of Water. I shelled out for the and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper
mill and printer hold full FSC and PEFC certiication
if all the effort to mix classics into 5.1 is whole package, but already had the vinyl and accreditation.
appreciated. I love to hear my favourite and CD versions. I’d have preferred just to All contents © 2020 Future Publishing Limited or published
under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine
albums remixed in surround sound. Prog buy the 5.1 version and the remix, which may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior
written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company
particularly lends itself to this treatment were both fantastic. They pulled out number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered ofice: Quay
House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication
as the music is often richly overlaid and, passages that were lost in the original mix is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going
to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in
when done well, the remixes tease out and it was like rediscovering an old friend. such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly
with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps
things that are sometimes lost in the mix. A couple of requests that I think are and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are
not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This
I agree that room limitations can mean ripe for the 5.1 treatment are Godley and magazine is fully independent and not afiliated in any way with the companies
mentioned herein. If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the
that a surround system can’t be set up Creme’s Consequences and the Refugee material and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material
and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish your
perfectly in the average lounge. I’m lucky album, particularly the opening section, submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications,
in any format published worldwide and on associated websites, social media
enough to have a spare bedroom (and an before the dialogue. I can but wish! channels and associated products. Any material you submit is sent at your own
risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents,
understanding wife) and we have set the Simon O’Connell subcontractors or licensees shall
be liable for loss or damage.
We assume all unsolicited
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NAD SYLVAN JOHN MITCHELL RICK WAKEMAN
@SylvanOfficial @LordConnaught @GrumpyOldRick
I am working on a new solo album I’ve gotta say, I do like making music Working on the additional keyboard
that I hope will come in the autumn. on occasion. It’s quite rewarding. It’s all parts for the album today, but not the
Having done the trilogy, this is the other baggage that comes with it solos. The inspiration for solos happen
a more intimate album that ruins it for me when I least expect it & so Erik is always Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne
ready for me to change direction in the company quoted on Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford
Chief strategy oficer Penny Ladkin-Brand
the London Stock
studio and shout “solo”!! Exchange (symbol: FUTR) Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244
www.futureplc.com
progmagazine.com 11

INTRO









IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE


ANATHEMA DIAL UP THE DARKNESS

FOR STUDIO ALBUM NUMBER 12

After celebrating a decade of We’re Here Because We’re Here, the Liverpudlians are setting their
sights on brand new music to follow on from The Optimist.


Anathema have revealed that work is well After a decade of releases with Kscope, there’s look at the work he’s done,” says Vincent, “but
underway on the follow-up to 2017’s Prog a sense of anticipation about working with a new more than that he’s a really great guy. It’s
Award-winning album The Optimist. The new label at Mascot. “They’re a great young team and important to click with the person you’re going
record, currently untitled, will be out later this they’re genuinely into music,” says Vincent to be spending six weeks of your life with. It’s an
year and will mark the band’s first release since Cavanagh. “There were things in their marketing emotional process, it’s not just about the work,
signing with Mascot Records last year. The idea that had nothing to do with making money it’s about the people, and it’s about the feeling in
group are currently in the studio recording or advertising, they were more about what the the camp between everybody.”
demos and Daniel Cavanagh’s enthusiasm and essence of the band is about and about the “I like his mixing, it’s very brutal,” says Daniel
energy are palpable. “Nothing makes me happier. humanity and the connection with people. That “There’s a song on the album if you turn it up on
Literally, this is my favourite thing to do in the was impressive.” good speakers, it’s actually heavier than we are
world,” he says. “I’m very optimistic. I would say The album will reunite Anathema with The live. We can hardly recreate it. He’s that good.”
the last two or three writing sessions are among Optimist producer Tony Doogan, known for his The band is planning to spend four weeks in
the best times I can remember us ever having in work with Mogwai and Belle And Sebastian. the studio, after which they’ll record all the
a musical sense.” “He’s a brilliant producer, that’s obvious, just orchestral parts in Europe. “There will be a lot of





Anathema: having
the best of times.




























“There will
be a lot of
orchestra. It’ll
be almost like
cinematic
post-rock.”


12 progmagazine.com

Prog
news
updated progmagazine.com
daily
online!
This month, Intro
was compiled by RICK RETURNS
orchestra,” says Daniel whose concept for the Chris Cope TO HIS ROOTS
Malcolm Dome
album was inspired by Hans Zimmer’s Live In
Jerry Ewing Wakeman joins up with The English
Prague, particularly a five-note sequence from Dave Everley
the Gladiator soundtrack. “I heard these five Rob Hughes Rock Ensemble on The Red Planet.
notes, it was like a door opened,” he recalls of the Dom Lawson
experience. “I got the shivers, and there and then Emily MacNevin Mission to Mars: Wakeman
it was like the whole idea of the album, the Rhodri Marsden voyages to the Red Planet.
Matt Mills
meaning behind it, the feeling behind it, the
Grant Moon
orchestral arrangements, making it almost like Natasha Scharf
cinematic post-rock.” Sid Smith
“If you imagine something like a soundtrack, Rick Wakeman
but with a band,” add Vincent, who references Phil Weller
minimalist, contemporary composers Max David West
Phil Weller
Richter, Jon Hopkins and Clint Mansell. “It’s not
like an orchestra plonked on top of a rock band,
which is a lot of symphonic rock and metal.
With us, we allow the instruments within the
orchestra to take the lead.”
Anathema have a well-earned reputation for
sombre lyrical subjects and the album will follow PRESS
in that melancholic tradition. “I would say it’s Rick Wakeman and The English Rock Ensemble will release
a more emotional album than The Optimist,” a new album, The Red Planet, on April 3. The LP is said to be
says Daniel. “I like The Optimist a lot, it was a “keyboard-heavy” instrumental experience, where Wakeman
easy for me to listen to because it wasn’t is joined by guitarist Dave Colquhoun, bassist Lee Pomeroy and
personally heavy. I can’t listen to Weather drummer Ash Soan.
Systems all the way through because of the “The basic tracks are already recorded,” Wakeman said in
lyrics. This is a deeply emotional album. In five a recent statement on his website. “That includes contributions
years, I probably won’t be able to listen to this. from the musicians named above, and I am thrilled with the
It’s not all dark. It’s about love at the end of the results so far.”
day. Love, family, hope, strength, spirituality, the The album is a return to the legendary keyboard player’s
connection of all life, the universe inside us. The roots, inspired by debut solo album The Six Wives Of Henry
only way I can say it simply is you can think of it VIII. Recording wrapped up in late February and the album is
like this, you can say we have a life, or you can currently being mixed by Erik Jordan. Wakeman says: “There are
say we are life. I’ll just leave it there.” great plans afoot for a very special playback session and other
For more, visit www.anathemamusic.com. surprises too. It’s been great fun getting back to prog and I think
the period away from recording such an album has contributed
greatly to making The Red Planet sound extremely fresh.”
The playback session will take place at the National Space
Centre in Leicester on April 4.
After the release of The Red Planet, Wakeman will dedicate
some of 2020 to his Grumpy Old Rockstar tour. “During April and
May, there will be around 15 to 20 shows in the US and Canada, in
towns and cities that we didn’t manage to get to on the tour last
year,” he says. “This will be the irst leg of two, with the second
15 to 20 shows being later in the year.”
Visit www.rwcc.com for more. MM


PRESS/CAROLINE TRAITLER TIGER MOTH TALES TEAM
UP WITH STRING QUARTET
Peter Jones discusses his “therapeutic” new album.

Peter Jones will release the fifth Tiger Moth Tales album, The Whispering
Of The World, on April 27 through White Knight Records. Coming just two
months after his live CD/DVD set A Visit To Zoetemeer, it’s his first set of new
material since 2018’s Story Tellers (Part Two).
“This is my most personal album since Cocoon,” Jones tells Prog. “It started with
a theme of being at one with nature and rejoicing in it, but then I lost a couple of
people who were close to me, and it became about coming to terms with loss, with
mortality, and about making the most of life while you can.”
Recorded at Fieldgate Studio in Cardiff, the PRESS
eight-track album features Jones on just piano
Jones’ music
and vocals, accompanied by a string quartet
gets personal.
comprising members of the Welsh National
Opera Orchestra.
“I’m so pleased with it,” he says. “It’s been
therapeutic to put these feelings into songs.”
For more info, visit the official website
www.tigermothtales.com. GRM

INTRO














INTRO
extras




The end of all things:
Coldbones explore
PRESS
the apocalypse.
Enslaved will take listeners
PRESS COLDBONES UNVEIL
into the realm of the giants.
EARTHSIDE GO
ENSLAVED RECORD ORCHESTRAL APOCALYPTIC ALBUM
CONCEPT ALBUM ON NEW LP The post-rock youngsters are getting
Cinematic prog
heavier and proggier on LP number two.
Jaga Jazzist drummer guests on Utgard. rockers Earthside
are currently working
Dark progressive metal troupe Enslaved will release on their second Coldbones release their second album, Cataclysm, on
new album Utgard via Nuclear Blast in late May. album, due in 2020. April 17. It marks the instrumental trio’s irst release on
“In the past we have had themes running through our The band promise their new home of Dunk! Records.
albums,” begins guitarist Ivar Bjørnson. “But this time, the LP will be more “The album is conceptual,” begins bassist Nick Suchak,
we’ve gone further and developed a full concept. This is orchestral than their “and that made it easier to get the songs together. It took
prior output.
about a place called Utgard, which, in Norse mythology, is “On our debut shape because of our interest in Graham Hancock, an author
where giants live. But, beyond that, it can also be viewed as [A Dream In Static], and journalist, who wrote a pseudo-scientiic book about how
a metaphor for psychological interactions. the orchestral a comet hit the Earth 13,000 years ago, wiping out all life. From
there, we look at other predictions about the end of the world.”
“What we’ve done here is take the listener on a journey features were limited Cataclysm has 10 tracks overall, before ending with a spoken-
that involves many different levels, including the physical to one or two tracks,” word piece. “It’s part of a poem by Lord Byron, which its nicely
and the psychological.” guitarist Jamie van into what we’re dealing with. We got an actor called David Whiting
Utgard was co-produced by Bjørnson with vocalist/ Dyck tells Prog. to do it, as his voice its the emotion of the piece. We know him,
bassist Grutle Kjellson and drummer Iver Sandøy, who “To expand our sonic because he was in the video for [2018 single] Lost. The rest of the
joined the band in 2018. “Although [Sandøy] is a new palette with harps, tracks are instrumental.”
member of Enslaved, he has worked with us in the past as a percussion quartet The album was produced by Lewis Johns, known for his work
a co-producer,” Bjørnson says. “So, he knows us well. What and a pipe organ with metallic upstarts like Rolo Tomassi.
he brings to our sound is an important extra dimension: Iver was inspiring!” “He has a great track record with heavy bands,” Nick says.
is more heavily influenced by 70s prog and classic rock than “This album is heavier and darker than our debut [Where It All
any of the rest of us. You can hear this in the way he plays, Began], so we needed someone to capture this side of our sound.”
and that’s pushed us further as a band.” Coldbones, who were nominated in the Limelight category at
Once more, Jens Bogren has mixed the album. And he last year’s Progressive Music Awards, will play an album launch
is also a crucial part of the team. “What Jens is brilliant at show on April 17 in Margate.
doing is taking the vast number of disconnected ideas and “I can’t say anything yet about this, but it will be special.”
strands we have in what is recorded and bringing them all Visit www.coldbonesuk.bandcamp.com for more. MD
together in a coherent fashion. Without his input, we might
come across as disjointed.” ANNIE BARBAZZA CONTINUES
There’s also a special guest on one track. “When I played
the rest of the guys a composition called Sequence, they felt ELP LAKE’S LEGACY ON SOLO LP
what I’d come up with was heavily inspired by a Norwegian
experimental band called Jaga Jazzist,” Bjørnson remembers. Melancholic Vive is embellished by an all-star cast.
“And I agreed with them. So I thought it would be
interesting to get one of those guys involved. I rang up Ever since hypnotising the late Greg Lake with a voice he hailed as “beautiful,
Martin Hortveth, who’s the drummer and main man, brave and heartfelt”, Italian singer Annie Barbazza has helped bring his legacy to
and told him we’d ripped off Jaga Jazzist with our chord a new generation. Her guest-studded debut album, Vive, is out now via Dark
progressions on this track. I asked if he’d Companion Records. It tells the tale of her growth since that fateful meeting.
like to guest on this and, to my delight, “Over the years, I’ve met and become friends with some incredible musicians
he was up for it. What he’s added is and I’m thankful to have them appear on this record,”
some brilliant and crazy percussion.” says Barbazza. “Their knowledge and friendship helped
He adds, “This is the first time me perceive music from many different perspectives.”
Martin has ever played with a metal- With guests including Lake, John Greaves and Fred
“We’ll take oriented band. And to mark the Frith, their individual personalities all work to
the listener occasion he’s even taken a metal-style highlight the magnificence of Barbazza’s voice.
on a journey pseudonym. If you look at the credits on “The challenge was being able to open up and find
through many the album cover, you’ll notice ‘Bell a way to tell my story,” the singer adds. “I still feel the
different Hammer’ – and that’s Martin!” MD shiver of facing some inner ghosts when I listen to it.”
levels.” Visit www.facebook.com/AnnieBarbazza for more
Visit www.enslaved.no for more details. information about the album. POW Annie Barbazza: PRESS/ FRANZ SOPRANI
conjuring voices.
14 progmagazine.com



INTRO




GREEN CARNATION’S
COMEBACK IS HERE

Norway’s heavy nihilists rediscover
their progressive roots.


INTRO
extras





Gavin Miller faces
a new Dawn.

WORRIEDABOUT
DARRYL WAY
GRABS GUITAR SATAN GOES SOLO
PRESS/PETTER SANDELL Former Curved Air Gavin Miller is going it alone on new album.
ON LATEST LP
violinist Darryl Way
Green Carnation: ready has released his Bradford’s ambient post-rock outit Worriedaboutsatan
to tackle a new concept. latest solo album, will issue their seventh album on May 8 through n5MD.
Norway’s gloomy prog metal outfit Green Carnation Destinations, via Time Lapse follows January’s Crystalline as the second release
will release their long-awaited sixth album, Leaves Of Right Honourable under the name since Tom Ragsdale’s departure in June last
Yesteryear, on May 8 via Season Of Mist. The album is the Records. The year, leaving Gavin Miller to ly the ’Satan lag solo.
band’s first since the cessation of their 10-year hiatus in 10-track is a loose “It felt weird making the album alone at irst,” Miller tells
2016, and marks their return to a progressive metal sound. concept album, using Prog. “I did feel lost at times but, in the end, I learned to trust
instrumental music
“During our first stint, it was important for us not to do to paint pictures of my intuition, and I’m really happy with it.”
Exploring the project’s progressive side, the ive-track album
the same album over and over again,” singer Kjetil Nordhus different landscapes, includes two dramatic, 10-minute movements, Dawn and Point
remembers. “Coming back in 2016 and discussing where to from Los Angeles to Of Departure.
go, we felt that we’d completed a circle. So, this album is Antigua. It also marks Worriedaboutsatan performed at ArcTanGent festival in 2017
a tribute to the band’s past, present and future. You can hear the first time Way has and have worked with Vessels and Maybeshewill. They picked
elements from the early albums. It’s more heavy and proggy.” played guitar on tape, up major traction through the support of Anathema vocalist
Green Carnation originally reunited to commemorate with the instrument Vincent Cavanagh, who guested on ’Satan’s 2016 LP, Blank Tape.
the 15th anniversary of their lauded Light Of Day, Day Of joining his trademark “Vincent’s been so good at pushing us,” says Miller. “It wasn’t
Darkness album. The success of that comeback tour, where violin playing. until he got involved that a lightbulb went on: yes, we are prog
the record was performed in full, would ultimately inspire Now turn to page 108 – not in the Rick Wakeman sense, but a newer version of it. We
Leaves Of Yesteryear. for our review. set a mood, an atmosphere, [and] our music takes you on a ride.”
“We didn’t know if we would make new music when we After a one-man show at Bradford’s Fuse Arts Centre on April
came back in 2016,” says Nordhus. “We had to be sure we 4, Miller will tour in October.
had it in us; we didn’t want to release something half- “In my head, ’Satan’s just me now, and I’m quite protective
hearted. But the reception of the fans at our comeback over it. I want to prove I can do this alone. It’s a real challenge to
shows, it was a huge motivation. People still remember us!” perform everything by myself and I’ll have to strip some things
As such, Green Carnation’s modus operandi with Leaves back, but I’m determined that it will be an experience.”
Of Yesteryear was to create progressive, heavy music that can Visit www.worriedaboutsatan.bandcamp.com for more. GRM
be performed completely live. It even contains a stripped-
down, “live-friendly” version of their 17-minute track, My
Dark Reflections Of Life And Death. It’s also largely a concept SOFT MACHINE ANNOUNCE
album, with lyrics mainly penned by bassist Stein Roger LIVE LP OF LOS ANGELES SHOW
Sordal. “His wife has brain cancer,” Nordhus reveals, “and has
done for the last four or five years. A lot of what he’s been Double album release of the jazz rockers’ 2019 gig.
writing have been thoughts about that situation, but he
transforms them into more universal themes. The title Canterbury scene veterans Soft Machine will release Live At The Baked Potato
track, for example, is about loneliness, basically.” via Tonefloat on March 20. The first time Soft Machine played in Los Angeles
Nordhus says that, following Leaves Of Yesteryear’s release, was in 1968 supporting Jimi Hendrix. Over half a century later, they returned and
Green Carnation have plans through to 2023. They’ve signed played a pair of storming sets with material drawn
a five-album deal with their label, which from their classic 1970 album, Third, through to
they intend to use for this, a reissue of 2018’s Hidden Details.
2006’s The Acoustic Verses and, Live At The Baked Potato will be a vinyl-only
following that, a trio of “ambitious” new double LP. Presented on deluxe 180 gram
LPs, “recorded in a very unusual way.” coloured vinyl, the 12 tracks are spread across
“This album is He continues, “We’re hoping to do three sides with the fourth given over to
a tribute to our a London show, maybe this year. The a special etching.
past, present tour for this album will last through the “We’re very pleased with this recording,” Soft Machine: showing
and future. It’s summer of 2021 as well.” MM says guitarist John Etheridge, who joined in you their etchings.
heavy and 1975. “The band really shines, sounding
proggy.” Visit www.facebook.com/ absolutely at the top of its game in this live context.”
GreenCarnationNorway for more. Head to www.softmachine.org for more information. SS

16 progmagazine.com



INTRO





FAD GADGETS

Rhodri Marsden on three
of the latest must-have
gizmos currently putting
the prog in progress.

MEGA DRIVE SYNTH “I WON’T KEEP YOU A MINUTE…”
Nearly all of us spend our days using Rick voices his distaste for one of our most inaccurate sayings.
electronic gizmos, but very few of us
actually understand how they work.
That’s why “I won’t keep you a minute,” or, “This will If you don’t want to try either of these, you can
people like Sam only take a few minutes of your time,” are always fall back on the most successful response
Battle get such two phrases that are heard all too often. And of them all: “Fuck off, I’m busy.”
huge online they’re two of the biggest lies in the world It’s a different matter entirely when the
audiences: they – well, along with: “The cheque’s in dreaded “I won’t keep you a minute” is coming
take things to the post,” and a rather rude vow not from over the phone, but from
bits, explain that includes the words “I promise” a cold caller at your door. The
how they work and “mouth”. following suggestions could prove
and do weird things with them. In this The truth of the matter is that successful in this scenario.
project, he uses the sound chips in an old when someone says to you: “I won’t The first is to say: “I’m so sorry,
Sega Mega Drive to create a beast of an keep you a minute,” they don’t “I’m so sorry, I had a wicked curry last night and
instrument, all bolted into a wooden case mean it. Translated properly, it I had a wicked it’s going through me like a Ferrari!
the size of a Welsh dresser. You may well actually means, “I will keep you curry last night I need to use the loo.” You shut the
find his presenting style exhausting. for 10 minutes at best. These 10 and it’s going door and off you go, never to return.
But his skills are, as they say, mad. minutes will interrupt whatever through me This is the closest you can get to
www.lookmumnocomputer.com you’re currently working on, so that like a Ferrari!” hanging up on someone in person,
another hour or so is then wasted and it’s glorious.
SHANLING Q1 after I’ve finished so you can try to My second suggestion is to have
One audio player is much like another. get back into whatever it was you were doing in your own number on speed dial in your mobile.
You load music onto it, you listen to it. the first place.” Simply set it off in your pocket and answer the
That’s it. But one Hong Kong company Fortunately, these days, I have solutions! If home phone, starting your very own one-way
has made a special effort to pique our somebody calls me and assures that they “won’t conversation. Make up whatever imaginary caller
interest by keep [me] a minute”, I reply with, “No problem. you’d like! “Oh, hello. You’re calling from Japan?!
producing one Just hang on one moment.” Great to hear from you!” – all that matters is that
that looks like I then put the line on hold and forget there was you can turn to your porch-based intruder and
a Smeg fridge. even a phone call. whisper, “I have to take this and it could be a very
And why not? After a few minutes, they think they’ve been long call.” If they insist on hanging around, just
It’s got a curved cut off and put their phone down. If they try to keep talking. Eventually they will have to give up.
body, pastel ring back, I can see what the number is and As a last resort, if you’re totally stuck,
shades, and ignore it. Simple! desperate to be left alone as the doorstep-hogger
– as they put it – “opulent technical Another handy trick for you to use is saying, who insisted they “won’t keep you a minute” eats
extravagance”. That means it plays hi-res “Sorry, I’m on the other line. I’ll call you back.” into your time, you could always go back down
audio files – although, if you’re playing You can then follow this up by never calling the “fuck off” route.
them over Bluetooth, you won’t be them back. It never fails.
feeling the supposed benefit, will you?
Still, it looks good and costs under £100.
www.shanling.com
ROLAND FACET
In 2015, Roland posed a challenge:
to come up with a new design for the
ultimate digital grand piano. It was won
by American designer Jong Chan Kim
and his angular redesign, named the
“Facet”. Last year the company decided
to bring it to life and the results were
showcased at the recent CES show in
Las Vegas. Its “crystal-like polyhedrons”
are complemented by an Android tablet
(instead of sheet music) and evocative
images projected onto the piano lid as
you play (for no reason). Sadly, Roland
have no plans to
release the Facet
as a production
model. Oh.
www.roland.com KEVIN FEBRUARY


18 progmagazine.com

SIRI KARLSSON Limelight





Swedish duo create cosmic sounds inspired by fictional lands.


IN FEBRUARY 2018, Siri Karlsson unveiled an ambitious This sensory idea has been a constant throughout Siri
new work for a Swedish radio festival. Horror Vacui was Karlsson’s career. “We’ve always worked through images,
a breathtaking 20-minute piece that cast itself far and wide, ever since we started playing together,” says Arnqvist. “The
from psychedelic folk to avant-jazz to cosmic drone rock combination of instruments was quite odd for us – alto sax
and beyond, culminating in a ringing fanfare. It proved one and key fiddle acoustically – and I wasn’t from a folk music
of the undisputed highlights of the electronica-themed event, background at all, unlike Cecilia. But we played melodies
hosted annually by P2 in Stockholm. really well and had this joint interest in improvisation.
“We’re more used to writing shorter songs, so when we We needed to make something very naked and sensitive,
received the commission we needed to create some kind both in the dynamics between the instruments and creating
of framework for it,” explains Cecilia Österholm, who, arrangements. That’s when we started to think about visuals.”
alongside Maria Arnqvist, is Siri Karlsson. “Then we Much like fellow Swedes Goat, Siri Karlsson’s look
read an article about mapmakers in the 15th and 16th is an important facet of what they do. They
centuries and how they embellished the world with PROG FILE perform against exotic backdrops in ornate,
fantasy in those parts that hadn’t yet been discovered specially made costumes. “We have an amazing
by white explorers. We really loved the idea, so that visual team of two designers,” says Österholm.
became the concept.” “One who makes the clothes and one who makes
Adds Arnqvist: “It was also about looking at the headpieces and jewellery.”
the growth of the universe, where material seems Siri Karlsson formed in a student dorm in Uppsala “We are not
to expand to fill empty space. Also, we are not in 2002. Aiming high from the get-go, the pair’s minimalist
minimalist musicians. We always want to move LINE-UP first proper gig took place in Rio de Janeiro, followed musicians. We
forward, we’re very restless. So we used a lot of Maria Arnqvist by dates in West Africa, where Arnqvist had always want to
(saxophone, synths,
material that didn’t fit the festival piece for songs vocals), Cecilia been living for a while. They were soon forging move forward,
that turned in to an album.” Österholm (keyed a reputation back home. we’re very
Taking its title from Horror Vacui, Siri Karlsson’s fiddle, synths, vocals) “When we started getting reviews, people were restless.”
fifth full-length recording is very much in keeping SOUNDS LIKE comparing us to all these Swedish prog bands,”
with its grandstanding title track. Exploration is key, A modernist folk-psych recalls Arnqvist. “But we’d never even heard of
procession of Trees,
as the duo chart a passage through industrial and Goat and Nordic Giants them. We’d been listening to things like Pink Floyd
ambient noise, spacey prog and fusionist tribal CURRENT RELEASE instead. Nobody else was doing that mix of folk
rhythms, largely driven by synths, saxophones and Horror Vacui is out now and psychedelia in the way that we were. We like
the traditional Swedish instrument, keyed fiddle. on Tombola to think of ourselves as experimental rock. That’s PRESS/KNOTAN
“Horror Vacui is really a long journey of images and WEBSITE the direction we always wanted to go in and we’ve
places,” says Österholm. www.sirikarlsson.com come this far. So we’re happy.” RH




Siri Karlsson:
Swede sensations.




































progmagazine.com 19

INTRO





MY PROG HERO
Inspiring the wider music world…

PRESS/VIRGIN ARCHIVE


YOUR PROG CHEF:
ALICE FREYA
(LAST FLIGHT TO PLUTO)
On the menu: Mar-chilli-on
(aka vegetarian chilli)

“My love for cooking started at a very early age. On rainy
days, my mother would keep me entertained by making
fairy cakes with me.
“I actually went on to choose food studies as one of my GCSEs
in school. In other subjects, I was always a rebel, a class clown,
never interested in any of the lessons. I would purposely disrupt
things by doing something silly to make my classmates laugh – Keyboard heroes: Nick Sadler
I guess I was already (inset) loves a bit of Edgar
an entertainer. But Froese’s Tangerine Dream.
Alice’s tasty PRESS/ DIANA_GEIPEL
veggie treat. the first time we
had to cook in class,
I made spaghetti NICK SADLER
bolognese with apple
crumble for dessert. The Daughters guitarist professes his love for the
I can still remember cinematic synths of Tangerine Dream.
the shocked
expression on my “Tangerine Dream feel like one technology tend to drive advances in
teacher’s face when of those groups that have always musical creativity, and it felt like they
I presented it. been there, even if you don’t know it. were pushing that particular sound.
‘Turns out you are You hear their music in soundtracks “If you go back to the first album
good at something, without realising. When I was a kid, [1970’s Electronic Meditation], it
Alice,’ she said. I watched the movie Legend I don’t has moments that are very key to
I received top marks know how many times, and they did Tangerine Dream, but then there are
for both presentation the score for that. It was obviously elements that you don’t get with later
and taste. linked to what they did on their own records. You might hear an acoustic
“Nowadays, albums but it had that dungeon drum, or flutes or recorders, and it’s
Mexican food is my synth-y sound to it. sort of noisier. I love Phaedra as well.
favourite, but, since “I started to totally pay attention to “They’re more relevant now than
turning vegetarian them when I was in my mid-to-late ever before. They’re like The Beatles:
a while back, I’ve had 20s. I’d grown up with the punk, they’re ingrained in music making,
to adapt and mix up hardcore and noise rock scene in and not just the progressive rock
my cooking style. Providence, but I’d always had a broad scene. Listen to [modern electronic
The whole band are vegetarian or vegan, so this little recipe goes taste and I was going through various artist] Oneohtrix Point Never and you
prog and krautrock records. With
hear moments that sound like they
down a treat after we rehearse!”
Tangerine Dream, it was like, ‘How belong on a Tangerine Dream record.
did I miss this very obvious “Kraftwerk came out
Ingredients (serves 5) thing for so long?’ around the same time
2 onions (chopped), 1 yellow pepper (chopped), 1 orange pepper “I found [1975’s] and are ground-breaking
(chopped), 300g mushrooms, 1 courgette, 1 bulb garlic, 2 tins Rubycon and it blew my but they had vocals and
diced tomatoes, 1 tin kidney beans, 2 tbsp tomato purée, 2 tbsp mind. Tangerine Dream hooks. Tangerine Dream
chilli powder, 250g basmati rice, 2 tbsp olive oil, 10g black pepper, records sound like sonic didn’t have any of that;
200g spinach leaves. descriptions of foreign “Tangerine I hesitate to even call
landscapes and settings; Dream records what they were doing
Preparation to me, Rubycon has an sound like ‘songs’. They had a
To start, finely chop the onions and crush a bulb of garlic, then fry aquatic feel to it, as if it’s sonic fearlessness. They were
them in olive oil over a medium heat. Once they have softened, describing something a whole other beast.” DE
remove from the hob. Chop the peppers, courgette and alive. It has a lot of descriptions
mushrooms into large chunks, then add them – along with the forward-momentum of foreign You Won’t Get What You
tins of tomatoes and tin of kidney beans – to the onions and garlic. synth stuff and arpeggios. landscapes.” Want is out now. See
Mix in some tomato purée and add chilli powder to taste (use Advances in music www.daughtersofficial.com.
approximately 2 tbsp for a moderately spicy meal), as well as
a pinch of black pepper. Place everything back on the hob at high Guitarist Steve Hackett Tears For Fears will be
heat for 10 minutes, then allow to simmer at a lower heat for an (right) will release his reissuing their prog pop opus,
additional 45 minutes. Add the basmati rice and the spinach. PROG autobiography, A Genesis Songs From The Big Chair, on
March 13 via UMC/Virgin. The
In My Bed, on July 24. The
“I always like to have my chilli with some garlic bread on the IN book covers his entire life, re-release coincides with the
side. But you can’t go wrong with a side dish of toasted nachos, PRESS/TINA KORHONEN with emphasis on Genesis’ album’s 35th anniversary, and
will come in both vinyl picture
rise to stardom and his
guacamole and sour cream, either.” MM BRIEF relationships with the other disc and four-CD/two-DVD
package formats.
members of the band.
20 progmagazine.com



INTRO





ALL AROUND THE WORLD
Our far-out trip to far-flung prog


The Guru Guru: we’re
a musical family, says
Tom Adriaenssens (front).














GEORGIA ANNE
MULDROW
VWETO II
(MELLO, 2019)
THE GURU GURU
Progressive rock is instinctively inclined to embrace all
manner of different genres in its pursuit of the new. But if Vocalist Tom Adriaenssens introduces the
there’s one musical strain that has yet to be effectively embraced Belgian rockers that refuse to be pigeonholed.
by the prog world, it’s hip-hop. In truth, it would be reductive and
unfair to describe Georgia Anne Muldrow’s expansive catalogue “Belgium has an amazing fresh to me and I was having a rough
of music as wholly rooted in rap music, such is the New Yorker’s alternative scene,” The Guru time getting through everything.
inventive approach to everything from modern R&B to Guru’s vocalist, Tom Adriaenssens, Writing about it with the band was
experimental electronica. However, there’s no denying that last enthuses of the nation he and his a great therapy; it made me feel happy
year’s VWETO II album is, at heart, an instrumental hip-hop band members are scattered across. about my misery because we’d made
record. It just happens to be one of the most psychedelic and “There are a lot of new bands around something great with it.
immersive instrumental hip-hop records you’ll ever hear. who are all looking for something “Jan brought us together because
It certainly helps that the album’s artwork is highly, and new. Many artists are afraid of being he knew our five personalities and
perhaps deliberately, redolent of Mati Klarwein’s iconic work for seen as copying others, so everyone we’ve become a family.”
Miles Davis and others; that rootsy, fusion-era 70s vibe is mirrored wants to do something original and Point Fingers is rich with spiky
in VWETO II’s sonic contents too, wherein Muldrow salutes the you can really feel that in the music.” math rock guitars, Mars Volta-style
freewheeling ethos of George Clinton and Isaac Hayes while Formed in 2012 by guitarist Jan extra-terrestrial noise-melding,
serving up some undeniably sweet, old-school, boom-bap beats. Viggria – who scouted four unique Red Hot Chili Pepper basslines and
Although almost entirely free of vocals – a shame, given but complimentary musicians for sumptuous vocal hooks. But there
a new, genre-fluid project – The Guru is also a tenderness that makes The
Muldrow’s incredible voice – VWETO II feels like a weed-addled
meander through a series of musical vistas, wherein jazz, funk, Guru are one such Belgian outfit that Guru Guru’s alien music human.
have since grown into much more “I try to counter all the chaos with
hip-hop and 70s rock are amalgamated into a variety of vibrant than musical fantasy football. Their my vocals,” Adriaenssens explains.
new forms. With gentle shades of the 90s trip-hop movement
fiendish blend of rock flavours “There’s a lot of ourselves in this
woven through these organic vignettes, fans of DJ Shadow, metamorphosises every time you album. We want to be free as
Badbadnotgood and Massive Attack will feel immediately at
think you’ve got them sussed. Their songwriters and create our music
home, thanks to the downbeat grooves of Big Mama Africa Jam relentless touring, meanwhile – without boundaries, so it’s exciting
and Wu Punk. marked by performances with Brutus, to see where each song takes us.”
Yet, Muldrow is a restless soul: VWETO II touches upon Poly-Math and at ArcTanGent – has Despite its bleak lyrical themes,
everything from 60s gangster-movie soundtrack vibes on turned this band of Point Fingers is a fun
Brokenfolks and stuttering 80s funk on the Tom Tom Club-like CV strangers into a family. album. Together, its
Jam Number 2 to the woozy, urban jazz of Emo Blues and hissing, Those family values have creators have turned
clanking electronics on Mother Lou’s Motherboard. It is all, given Adriaenssens the heartbreak into
without exception, irresistibly funky, punctuated by the squiggly strength to weather his something joyous.
synth-drenched Nate Dogg’s Eulogy, and the soporific but recent turmoils. “We want to For Adriaenssens, it
insistent thud of When The Fonk Radiates. “At the time we were be free as has proved to be the
This is an instrumental hip-hop album that brims with writing [new album] Point songwriters perfect remedy. POW
disparate but diverting textures, colours and atmospheric Fingers, I had just gone and create our
touches. It shares a huge amount of DNA with that wild, through a divorce,” he music without For more info, visit
ferociously creative time in the early 70s when rock’n’roll, jazz and reveals. “It was all still boundaries.” www.theguruguru.com
funk collided with so many glorious results, but Muldrow’s music
also feels pointedly contemporary. With the possible exception of Pure Reason Revolution ArcTanGent Festival has
legendary MC Rakim’s brief collaboration with The Art Of Noise, (right) will release Eupnea on announced the next wave of
prog and hip-hop have never seemed even vaguely plausible PROG April 3 via InsideOut. It’s their bands for 2020. These include
first full-length release in 10
Thursday night headliner
bedfellows. But this is the sound of that seemingly locked door IN years, and the band call it a Chelsea Wolfe, as well as
being prised deftly open by a truly progressive artist. PRESS/ENRICO POLICARDO “return to a more progressive Wheel, Emma Ruth Rundle and
sound with ferocious guitars,
Caspian. The festival takes place
DOM LAWSON BRIEF thunderous drums and in Fernhill Farm, near Bristol,
between August 20 and 23.
stacked harmonies”.
22 progmagazine.com

Limelight
GURANFOE




Norwich psych-proggers refine their sound on studio debut.


MOST BANDS ARE in a hurry to record their debut album. done in the past. There has to be a reason why someone’s
Not Norwich-based quartet Guranfoe, who formed in 2012 going to buy a studio album and not just download a live
– they believe in taking their time over such things. recording. To encourage people to actually buy a physical item
“For years I was quite reluctant to do a studio album just you have to make it something a bit worthwhile.”
because of how final they can be,” explains their One of the ways they made Sum Of Erda very
drummer and keyboardist Joe Burns. “Once you put PROG FILE special was by commissioning veteran psychedelic
a composition onto a studio album it’s then seen as artist John Hurford, whose illustrations adorned
the definitive version of that particular piece. Whereas, many of the now-legendary publications of the 60s
we often adapt music over several years as we play and and 70s underground press. “He really had the right
improvise. So I was against making a studio album for ideas for it. We were quite keen on the coloured
that reason for a long time.” vinyl as well, just because it’s more collectible.”
However, after a lot of deliberation, they decided Hurford’s cover illustration shows an ancient
they’d take the plunge and enter the studio two years LINE-UP landscape populated with prehistoric-looking birds;
ago. “I opted, in the end, to see it as more of a project,” James Burns (guitars), a large, verdant tree reaches skywards at the centre
says Burns. “So if you spend a few months making Ollie Snell (guitars), of the cover. What it might mean is deliberately left
Robin G Breeze (bass,
something, what you have at the end doesn’t mean piano, organ, synth), open to interpretation, a quality that extends not
you can’t then keep on changing it. The studio album Joe Burns (drums, only to the artwork or the record’s title but to the
is simply a statement of how a given piece was at that percussion, piano, keys) name of the group itself. “I was quite
point in time.” SOUNDS LIKE “Guranfoe is just a word I made up,” admits Burns. reluctant to do
Drawing upon a substantial back catalogue of A contemporary “We don’t want anyone to come to the music with a studio album
convergence of Jethro
compositions, the album’s contents date from pieces Tull, Gentle Giant and any sort of preconceived ideas about what it’s about just because
written around 2017. Having spent about a year honing The Allman Brothers or how they should be feeling about something.
and refining the music before their 2018 recording getting it together in A few people have said it has an Old English or of how final
the countryside, man
session, Guranfoe decided to add some additional Nordic ring to it.” they can be.”
CURRENT RELEASE
instrumentation, bringing in vibraphone, woodwind, Sum Of Erda is out now Having enjoyed making this album they’re now
recorder and violin, adding an almost Canterbury- on Apollon planning a second studio record. “We think this one
esque feel to the record in places. “We wanted this WEBSITE will [contain] music from much earlier in the band’s
studio album to be something different from our gigs www.facebook.com/ history, probably stuff that we started writing when
and also the other live-in-the-studio sessions we’ve guranfoe we first got together but have since developed.” SS







Sum of parts:
it’s Guranfoe!





































progmagazine.com 23

HAVE A CIGAR

Saluting the scene’s supporting crew


Super sound:
SHOULD PROG BE Chris Edrich has
talented earlobes.
ON THE RADIO?
Prog writer Malcolm Dome analyses
the complex relationship between
progressive music and commercial.


There’s never been an easy relationship between prog and
radio. Or, more specifically, daytime radio. Let’s be honest:
daytime radio airplay was set up to appeal to those millions
who don’t want to think about music. It was to treat songs as
background noise that comes in simple, melodic, bitesize chunks,
And that has never been prog’s modus operandi, has it?
In the 70s, radio did offer the occasional outlet celebrating the
progressive genre: Rock Salad on Radio 3, as well as Sounds Of PRESS/LUCIE SONRIER
The 70s and Alan Freeman’s Saturday afternoon show, both on
Radio 1. But for the most part, mainstream radio ignored what
Yes, Genesis, King Crimson et al had to offer, and this was met by
a wave of indifference from fans of such bands. It almost became CHRIS EDRICH
a badge of honour to have the music we loved overlooked.
Eventually this indifference transformed into anger. How dare Having mixed the live sound of TesseracT, Leprous
those who compile daytime radio playlists overlook the brilliance and more, he’s why your prog heroes sound so good.
of the music coming from such masters! However, there was a flip
side in that any band who dared to have a hit single was accused If you’ve watched a modern day “I’ve been with bands that are a bit
of – gulp! – “selling out”. This happened to Yes in 1977, when prog band play live then there’s more rock’n’roll in partying, but even
Wonderous Stories cracked the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, a decent chance you’ve also seen with those it’s not that glamorous,”
and to ELP the same year when a massively edited Fanfare For Chris Edrich plonked in the middle of he says. “Especially with prog bands,
The Common Man hit No. 2. This was sacrilege – as it was for Pink the venue, studiously twiddling knobs I think the music they play is so
Floyd after the success of Another Brick In The Wall (Part II). at the sound desk. The Frenchman’s complicated that they can’t be
Such an attitude from these diehards (it must be stressed they prog certified credits include doing hungover! It doesn’t mean that it’s
were a minority) portrayed a belief that, in their opinion, this was the front-of-house mix for favourites less fun – it’s a different kind of fun.”
their music and that it had to be kept pure at all costs. And things like Leprous, TesseracT and Caligula’s Being among the most complex
got even more complicated in the 80s, as both Yes and Genesis Horse – all while finding time for genres out there, prog results in
adapted to the demands of a new era, streamlined their music and studio work, too! a thumb-tiring night for Edrich.
got huge radio support. Some saw this as undermining everything It wasn’t planned like that, though. You get the feeling, though, that he
they stood for – “they” meaning both the musicians and fans. But it Edrich’s association with prog came wouldn’t have it any other way.
was also the birth of a more interesting relationship between radio through nothing but pure grit and “With bands like Leprous, and prog
talent – and a bit of good fortune. “I’ve in general, there’s so much attention to
and prog – one that has been developed in more recent times. How
many new, younger fans have these bands won because they been pretty lucky with being in the detail. The prog crowd are expecting
right place at the moment,” he smiles. that. They want to hear all the details
heard a song repeated on the air? It all started in 2005, when the then they’ve heard on the albums.”
Mainstream radio has never been antagonistic to prog, it just
guitarist began fiddling around with It’s clearly a challenge: however, it’s
has a formula, and anything that doesn’t fit will be overlooked. his band’s recordings at home. An one that pays tremendous dividends.
Rosalie Cunningham, Steven Wilson and an increasing number of
unexpected turn, as Edrich had tended Well, beyond touring with some of
musicians have moved towards more concise songs; intelligence to keep things simple. “I was always the best bands in the world, that is.
in music isn’t measured by a track’s length but how you approach it. scared of even a guitar amp that had “Since I started working with prog
Some have criticised such artists for pandering to pop radio. too many buttons,” he says laughing. bands, I’ve never received so many
Yet the truth is that these are talented people who are evolving. Doing live sound takes Edrich compliments with the sound,” he
Never confuse being commercial with compromising integrity. across the world. As he says. “People pay more
Prog won’t ever be fully embraced by radio. Fans should accept speaks with Prog, he’s attention. It’s something
this. But when artists do get airplay recognition, can we please preparing to head to the that pushes me forward.
stop treating this like there’s been a death in the family? UK with Rendezvous The prog crowd is thankful
MALCOLM DOME Point, then South “The prog when it comes to that.” CC
Got an opinion on the matter that you’d like to share? Please America with TesseracT.
email us at: prog@futurenet.com. Opinions expressed in this But life on the road isn’t crowd want Check out Edrich’s mixing
column aren’t necessarily those of the magazine. always as exciting as you to hear all the at www.instagram.com/
might think. details on ChrisIsInTheHouse.
the albums.”


Amy Birks (right) will Post-rockers God Is An Instrumental progressive Math rockers Black Peaks
release her debut album, Astronaut have announced metal trio Toska will will embark on a headlining
All That I Am & All That a UK and Ireland tour for perform debut album Fire UK tour in April. The shows
I Was, on April 3. The April 2020, during which By The Silos in full on their will be the band’s first since
record features the single they will play their All Is UK tour in April. The band lead singer Will Gardener’s
I Wish, to which Genesis Violent, All Is Bright album also promise to unveil some lengthy bout of sepsis,
legend Steve Hackett in its entirety. Their musical new music during the 10-date which resulted in them
lends his talents on the jaunt starts in Dublin on run, which starts in Bristol on cancelling many of their
acoustic guitar. April 17. April 17. 2019 performances.
24 progmagazine.com

w e’ re h ere b e c a us e w e’ re h e re

1 0 ye a r s a n n i ve r s a ry s e t



FRIDAY SATURDAY


KATATONIA ANATHEMA
FAN VOTED BY REQUEST SET “WEʼRE HERE BECAUSE WEʼRE HERE” SET
ENSLAVED SONS OF APOLLO
HEARTH OF THE NORSE RHYMES SET
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LONG DISTANCE CALLING
SERMON SPECIAL SET: STUMMFILM

DILEMMA MASVIDAL
FROM CYNIC
THE FIERCE & THE DEAD
CELLAR DARLING
1 MORE TBC
BRUCE SOORD

RENDEZVOUS POINT

MARATON

SCARLET STORIES

THE NEW DEATH CULT


MARCH 20 & 21



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CLINICS ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY BY
MENNO GOOTJES • FREDRIK ÅKESSON • ROGER ÖJERSSON • BAARD KOLSTAD • BRUCE SOORD
BUMBLEFOOT • JEFF SCOTT SOTO • PAUL MASVIDAL

What got us all
US, THEM & YOU grooving this month…


A SET OF
SIGNED
ROGER DEAN
BOOKS


The prog top 30 albums


January 2020 Compiled by

1 PINK FLOYD The Later Years – 1987-2019 (RHINO)
2 JEFF LYNNE’S ELO From Out Of Nowhere (RCA)
3 WIRE Mind Hive (PINK FLAG)
4 TOOL Fear Inoculum (MUSIC FOR NATIONS)
5 FIELD MUSIC Making A New World (MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES)
6 GENESIS The Lost Radio Recordings (GOLDFISH)
7 PENDRAGON Love Over Fear (TOFF)
8 TANGERINE DREAM Recurring Dreams (KSCOPE)
9 BRIAN ENO Apollo – Atmospheres And Soundtracks (UMC)
10 WITHIN TEMPTATION Resist (SPINEFARM)
11 PETER GABRIEL Flotsam And Jetsam (REAL WORLD)
f you enjoy reading all about Roger Dean’s art in this issue and would like to
12 KING CRIMSON In The Court Of The Crimson King (PANEGYRIC) Ifind out more about his extensive portfolio, this month’s competition could be
13 OPETH In Cauda Venenum (MODERBLOGAT/NUCLEAR BLAST) just the thing. One lucky reader will win a set of Roger Dean hardback artbooks,
signed by the artist himself, courtesy of Trading Boundaries.
14 MIKE & THE MECHANICS Out Of The Blue (BMG) The fantastic three-book collection chronicles Dean’s art, from architectural
15 FRANK ZAPPA Hot Rats (UMC) concepts and aircraft livery, to stage sets and movie visuals, with previously unseen
pieces and sketches.
16 MARILLION With Friends From The Orchestra (EARMUSIC) The prize features:
17 HAWKWIND All Aboard The Skylark (CHERRY RED) A revised edition of Sunday Times bestseller Views. First published in 1975, the book
18 MARILLION Afraid Of Sunlight (RHINO) surveys the first seven years of Dean’s professional career and contains innovative
furniture designs as well as album covers such as Tales From Topographic Oceans.
19 DREAM THEATER Distance Over Time (INSIDEOUT) Magnetic Storm, originally published in 1984, explores his work on albums, film
20 STEVE HACKETT Genesis Revisited Band & Orchestra – Live (INSIDEOUT) projects, architecture, games, landscapes and books.
Dragon’s Dream, first published in 2008, includes highlights from a 20-year period
21 KATE BUSH The Other Sides (RHINO) covering key concepts and designs for opera and animated films.
22 MARILLION Clutching At Straws (PARLOPHONE) For your chance to win this fantastic set, visit www.bit.ly/DeanBooks and answer
the following question:
23 PERIPHERY IV – Hail Stan (CENTURY MEDIA)
24 SWANS Leaving Meaning (MUTE) Which fashion house did Roger Dean recently team up with?
25 ALCEST Spiritual Instinct (NUCLEAR BLAST) 1) Gucci
26 NEKTAR The Other Side (ESOTERIC/CHERRY RED) 2) Valentino
27 SIGUR RÓS Ágaetis Byrjun – A New Beginning (KRUNK) 3) Christian Dior
For more on Roger Dean and to visit his online shop, see www.rogerdean.com and
28 DEVIN TOWNSEND Empath (INSIDEOUT)
www.tradingboundaries.com/fineart.
29 MOON DUO Stars Are The Light (SACRED BONES)
30 YES Fly From Here – Return Trip (YES)
TERMS AND CONDITIONS: This competition will be open from March 5, 2020-April 3, 2020. By entering the
competition you agree to our competition rules (available at www.futureplc.com/competition-rules). The
Find out more at www.officialcharts.com winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received by the closing date. No employees of
Future Publishing or any of its group companies or the employees of any entity which has been involved with
the administration of this competition or any member of their households may enter this competition.
Now our turn…
The Editor The Art Guy The Deputy Ed The Musician The Writer The Reader
Jerry Ewing Russell Fairbrother Natasha Scharf Alexandre Gaudencio Alison Reijman Malcolm Carr










GREEN CARNATION PREVITE, SAFT AND CLINE MARIANA SEMKINA LEPROUS JOHN HOLDEN CYNIC
Music From The Early
Leaves Of Yesteryear 21st Century Sleepwalking Pitfalls Rise And Fall Focus
SEASON OF MIST RARENOISE RECORDS KSCOPE INSIDEOUT JOHN HOLDEN MUSIC ROADRUNNER
26 progmagazine.com

MOBIUS Limelight



East meets west for this Lyon-based five-piece who blend prog with African rhythms.



IN A DIVIDED world, prog metal experimentalists Mobius By its towering design, Kala could have sounded convoluted
are uniting sounds and cultures in a beautifully inclusive way and confused but it’s actually focused and thoughtful. Across
Expanding on the progressive metal vibe that defined their its nine tracks, oscillating sitars dance alongside the crunch
debut album, The Line, with a musical wanderlust, Mobius of heavy distorted guitars and the African-tinged pulse of
aren’t just pushing their boundaries with their second record; Réunion Island intertwines with Andre’s ritualistic singing in
they’re opening up their borders. On Kala they’ve iced a sound both English and Tamil, a language spoken in India and Sri
that takes in the crisp and thumping djent elements Lanka. These elements make Kala a macro-thinking,
of TesseracT and Dream Theater’s mind-bending shape-shifting entity that traverses the globe with
excursions with myriad globe-spanning flavours. The PROG FILE open arms. It’s a beautiful accomplishment.
result is a curiously unique blend of east and west, “We don’t take a massively intellectual approach,”
with Indian scales and African rhythms woven around says Gaudencio of their songwriting process,
a tapestry of jazz fusion and prog metal. “we just like to experiment. Sometimes it sucks,
“The band was born on a little island near sometimes it’s great; we just focus on what works.”
Madagascar called Réunion where you have many, Yet there’s tangible emotion behind the record’s
many different cultures that are all mixed together,” expansive palette too, as Andrea recounts.
says French-born vocalist Héli Andrea of their musical LINE-UP “My half-sister’s father was ill with cancer and
multiculturalism. “So with Guillaume [Deveaux, keys] Xavier Pompon he knew he was going to die. We found his body
(guitars), Alexandre
and Adrien [Brunet, drums] coming from such a mixed Gaudencio (bass), a few days after he died, it was black and badly
culture, along with us all listening to lots of different Adrien Brunet decomposed, but it wasn’t awful somehow. It wasn’t “We discovered
types of music from all over the world, our sound (drums), Héli Andrea what I expected. The song Abhinivesha is about the new sounds
developed naturally.” (vocals), Guillaume body we found; it had made me think about what we and wanted to
Deveaux (keyboards)
“It mostly comes from us all discovering new SOUNDS LIKE become after death and the very moment he died, blend that into
sounds and instruments and wanting to blend that TesseracT and Leprous because he had died alone in his apartment knowing our music.”
into the music we’re making,” expands bassist travelling the world and his cancer was killing him. I imagined that moment
Alexandre Gaudencio, who joined the band shortly making a cocktail from and I imagined him floating between life and death.
all the music they hear
after the release of their debut effort. He’s seen their It became the first song we wrote for the album.
CURRENT RELEASE
sound evolve firsthand. Together, the band began Kala is out now It all grew from his death, in a strange way.”
to interweave the world’s most colourful cultures, via Bandcamp With its lyrics steeped in spiritual musings and
concepts and musical interpretations into a sound WEBSITE music endeared by vibrant inclusiveness, within
that, in the somewhat divisive times we find ourselves www.facebook.com/ death Kala has found life and ignited the soul of
in today, feels celebratory and inclusive. mobiusofficialband a stunning new band. POW


Mobius: you’ll have
their music on loop.







































progmagazine.com 27

Limelight

































ZIO: Flower Torania
blooms in their hands.
ZIO



Ex-Karnataka drummer unveils videogame-inspired fantasy with new prog project.


“FROM THE AGE of 14, I was spending most of my time slowly adding up Franck [as the bad guy] and Heather [playing
KATJA OGRIN drumming. I wasn’t even doing my school homework!” Belbi] as the story progressed. Lzi was the rock I needed to
says Jimmy Pallagrosi, who was introduced to prog at a very
add a little punch to the music.
young age. “One of the very first prog albums I listened to “Hayley and I wanted to carry on making music together
was The Turn Of A Friendly Card by The Alan Parsons Project; after the split of Karnataka. She was supposed to do two
I remember liking the artwork, which I have tattooed on my songs though because she has her own project too but she
arm! However, from the age of five I was listening to Toto, eventually did the whole album! Joe was my first choice
which can be prog too, but as I was getting into too; as soon as I heard his voice I knew he would be
drumming my cousin got me to listen 6:00 from a perfect match with Hayley.” Other guest artists
Dream Theater because of that big drum intro!” PROG FILE include Richard Henshall (Haken) on lead guitar,
Pallagrosi’s DIY project, ZIO, have just released the Ça˘gri Tozluog˘lu providing orchestration and
vibrant Flower Torania and, while musically it’s heavily Pallagrosi’s uncle Alfonso Alfano on accordion.
influenced by the likes of Steven Wilson, Haken and One of Pallagrosi’s biggest dreams has always
The Beatles, it was birthed from a love of videogames, been to write a book, so creating the first draft of
sci-fi films and fantasy storytelling. the Flower Torania story, for which keyboard player
“All the classic sci-fi fantasy films such as Conan Olivier Castan has designed the artwork, came very
“Hayley The Barbarian, The Lord Of The Rings, Last Action Hero, LINE-UP naturally to him. He’s also toyed around with the
Griffiths and Tron, The Fifth Element and Star Wars inspired it,” he Jimmy Pallagrosi idea of designing a Flower Torania videogame, so
(drums), Hayley
I wanted says. “Our debut single, X-Ray, was basically inspired Griffiths (guest vocals), could that be the next big project for ZIO? “I actually
to carry on by an old sci-fi film I really like called Teenagers From That Joe Payne got the program and started it, but again there are
making music Outer Space. As for the videogames, Final Fantasy and (guest vocals), Franck only 24 hours in a day! I also built the ZIO console
Carducci (guest vocals),
together after The Legend Of Zelda are probably good examples, and Heather Findlay to play it!” he says with a laugh.
the split of Alex Kidd and Oceanhorn too. Halo for the sci-fi!” (guest vocals), Olivier ZIO are currently on tour with Flower Torania
Castan (keyboards),
Karnataka.” The huge conceptual project took two years of Marc Fascia (guitars), and they’re joined by That Joe Payne and Hayley
hard work in which Pallagrosi worked with former Alex Lofoco (bass), Griffiths. Pallagrosi fills us in on the rest of this
bandmate Hayley Griffiths, and That Joe Payne as well Lzi Hayes (bass) year’s plans: “I want to release a new song, which
as Heather Findlay, Olivier Castan, Franck Carducci, SOUNDS LIKE will be a spin-off of the story and probably going
Marc Fascia, Alex Lofoco and bassist Lzi Hayes to Supercharged spiralling to introduce a new character. Some live videos and
make it happen. space grooves, wrapped the making of the DVD at Under The Bridge; I want
around soaring synths
“I had most of the concept for Flower Torania in my and melodic opera rock to make this night something beyond a gig – an
head but some of the elements had been added along CURRENT RELEASE immersive night into the world of Flower Torania.
the way,” he reveals. “Hayley was the first one to sing Flower Torania is out Something special and unique. This on the top
on it as Flower Torania, but I quickly realised I needed now via Posh And Rock of producing the debut album of The Hayley
a male singer for the hero. Joe’s operatic voice fitted WEBSITE Griffiths Band and other collaborations. 2020 is
perfectly with the musical direction I wanted. Then www.ziosite.com going to be sick!” EM


28 progmagazine.com



INTRO





IN MEMORY OF brilliance on Focus’ blissful instrumental Textures and be in awe
of a still very young master at work.
Despite much critical acclaim, Cynic split in 1994, citing the
usual musical and personal differences. But Reinert soldiered
on throughout the next decade, adding his sublime skills to an
assortment of groundbreaking and wilfully left-field albums.
In 1996, he fully embraced his jazz training and sat behind the
kit for virtuoso bassist and Chapman Stick aficionado Sean
Malone (also a member of Cynic at various points), on that year’s
dazzling Cortlandt. Meanwhile, Malone’s newly formed new
RIP SEAN drummer that he recruited for the project was Bill Bruford: this
project, Gordian Knot, enlisted Reinert once again. The other
is the kind of company that Reinert was keeping, and he could
hold his own with the very best of them. Both 1999’s self-titled
debut and 2003’s Emergent are underrated gems, with Reinert
often the star of the show.
REINERT alternative rock crew Aeon Spoke, recording two well-received
The drummer reunited with Masvidal in 1999 to form
albums that showcased a different, subtler side to his finely honed
chops. The band’s second, self-titled record was particularly
gorgeous, but as the early 21st century prog scene began to gain
Cynic co-founder Sean Reinert was an momentum, demand for the return of Cynic grew in volume and
extraordinary percussionist who played a key frequency. In 2006, Reinert and Masvidal revived their alma
role in the development of heavy progressive mater: a band that, by this point, were enjoying the kind of
post-internet cult status that only the truly epoch-shattering can
sounds. His unexpected death earlier this year achieve. Armed with a magnificent second album, 2008’s Traced
shocked fans and fellow musicians. Prog pays In Air, they orchestrated their comeback with predictable finesse
tribute to the influential drummer. and toured extensively in support of their new opus, including
major tours as main support to both Opeth and Dream Theater.
Although Cynic’s work rate slowed over the next few years,
Words: Dom Lawson rummers have always been integral to Reinert continued to stand out as one of the most inventive and
D into fascinating new corners of the sonic spectrum, Reinert’s
forward-thinking drummers around. Both 2011’s Carbon-Based
Anatomy EP and 2014’s wonderfully strange Kindly Bent To Free
the potency of heavy and progressive
Us full-length took the band, and their rhythmic engine driver,
music, and even more so in the wildly
myriad disparate influences always feeding into his performances.
technical world of left-field extreme
Significantly, when he and Masvidal publicly declared their
metal. When legendary drummer
Sean Reinert passed away on January
homosexuality shortly after the release Kindly Bent To Free Us,
the response from the fans was overwhelmingly positive and
24 this year, the impact was both
supportive. As enigmatic as they were as musicians, Cynic’s
immediate and jarring; the response
from the former Cynic mainstay’s
personal and artistic honesty clearly resonated with a great
admirers and collaborators, effusive
Reinert quit Cynic in 2015, again citing musical and personal
and full of genuine love. A key figure
differences, and kept a low profile during the last few years of
in the development of progressive
heaviness and the man whose extraordinary percussive talents number of people.
his life, hooking up briefly with melodic proggers Perfect Beings.
graced numerous classic records, Sean Reinert’s untimely When the new broke that he had died at the absurdly young age of
passing has robbed prog and metal of one of its most gifted and 48, the list of prog and metal notables that took to social media to
daring protagonists. sing his praises and salute his contribution was huge.
Born in May 1971, Reinert was a precocious talent from a young “Absolutely shocked to hear of the passing of Sean Reinert,”
age. He formed Cynic in Florida with guitarist Paul Masvidal in wrote Mike Portnoy. “I watched him play every single night when
1987, just as the underground death metal scene was beginning Cynic supported DT in 2009 and was always in complete awe.
to pick up steam. Eschewing the gruff, thuggish and wilfully He was an outstanding drummer and a really nice guy. Way too
extreme approach of their peers, Cynic’s early demos may have young to leave us… RIP my friend.”
been primitive compared to their later efforts, but there was “Like many before me, we too want to give our condolences
something undeniably proggy and jazz-fuelled going on. As the to the family and friends of Sean Reinert,” wrote Opeth frontman
90s dawned, extreme metal pioneer Chuck Schuldiner enlisted Mikael Åkerfeldt. “His passing came as a big surprise and shock
Reinert and Masvidal to play on his band Death’s fourth album, to us. We toured together with Cynic in the past, as some of
Human. Instantly hailed as a classic, the album is widely you might know. I remember Sean as a great guy with a splendid
acknowledged as the moment when death metal embraced sense of humour. And a monster of a drummer! Very sad to hear
a progressive outlook for the first time, and Sean Reinert’s about his passing.”
drumming was absolutely fundamental to that Most poignantly of all, Paul Masvidal summed up his long-
evolutionary step. With the effortless fluidity time friend and former collaborator with this sweet tribute: “There
and swing of jazz informing his playing, Reinert will never be another one like him. Peace to his family and all of
turned Schuldiner’s music into something far his fans around the world. Listen to Sean play his drums and hear
braver and, as daft as it sounds, cooler. As a result, his heart sing.”
“He was an when Cynic finally released an album of their Not just an amazing musician but one of the most revolutionary
outstanding own, 1993’s majestic Focus, it came as little drummers of the last 50 years, Sean Reinert has left behind some
drummer and surprise that Reinert and Masvidal were pushing incredible music and a lasting legacy that continues to echo
a really nice guy. metal even further into artful, cerebral territory. through the ages.
Way too young The intuitive chemistry between the band’s “The truth is that we’re all lucky,” Cynic’s Sean Malone posted
to leave us.” founders led to music that still sounds out of on Facebook shortly after his former colleague’s passing. “Lucky
this world: listen to Reinert’s mind-bending to have been alive while Sean Reinert was making music.”
Mike Portnoy

30 progmagazine.com

progmagazine.com 31

INTRO





keyboards]. I met Stan in a jazz theory class. He’d just moved there
from Germany and he turned me on to all these progressive bands.
He played me things like Gentle Giant, Colosseum and Soft
Machine and I was like, “Holy shit! This is awesome!” I’d never
heard anything like it. It changed my whole world.
Was there any kind of prog scene in the US when Happy The
Man started, or did you feel isolated?
Oh, we definitely felt isolated. I don’t know that there were any
other bands doing this kind of music. After we signed to Arista, we
met Ethos out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, they were sort of progressive.
Bands like Kansas and Dixie Dregs, maybe? I don’t know, because
it’s a difficult genre to define. I don’t know if our music was ever
easily defined. It was pretty unique.

Legend has it that Happy The Man nearly became Peter
Gabriel’s backing band in 1975…
Yeah, it was right before we got signed. Peter came and spent
FRANK WYATT a couple of days with us in a rehearsal studio. I remember we
worked up Solsbury Hill, which he hadn’t released yet because he’d
only just left Genesis. That was a hoot! It was a fantastic day and
The super-powered US musician reunites with his I don’t think I’ll ever forget getting to play with him because he
Happy The Man bandmates and taps into the healing was one of my heroes.
powers of prog for his latest project, Zeitgeist. How did you end up missing out on that opportunity?
I think we were insisting that we would maintain our own identity
Words: Dom Lawson Portrait: Brian Tirpak and perhaps come out to perform a set as Happy The Man before
Peter joined us onstage. I’m pretty sure that’s what soured the deal!
B When those first Happy The Man records came out, did you
[Laughs] If we were given the opportunity again and with me
est known as the saxist and keyboard
knowing what I know now, I would vote for whatever we needed
player with US prog icons Happy The
to do to become that guy’s band!
Man, Frank Wyatt defied both his band’s
haphazard history and a long battle with
cancer to produce Zeitgeist, one of last
have high expectations?
Yeah. I don’t think we were realistic about anything! We had very
year’s most sumptuous symphonic rock
high hopes. After the first album came out [Happy The Man, 1977],
records. Credited to Frank Wyatt &
Friends, it reunited the Virginian with
we toured with Foreigner and Hot Tuna, which were not really
a dazzling cast of friends, including
good match-ups but I don’t know who would’ve been. Stan and
fellow Happy The Man alumni Stanley
able to tour Europe, it would’ve been a whole different story for us.
Whitaker, Kit Watkins, Rick Kennell
and even the band’s original vocalist,
Cliff Fortney. The latest in a series of low-key projects recorded I have talked about this a lot: we’ve always said that if we’d been
Arista Records dropped you in 1979 and that seemed to spell
at Wyatt’s own Crafty Hands Studio, Zeitgeist seems to represent the end of the band…
the start of a new era of creativity even if he is still kicking himself Well, disco was starting to take over and Arista were more
for screwing up a hot date with a certain Mr Gabriel… interested in Barry Manilow at that point! The band was done but
I was determined to stay in it. I took our epic composition Death’s
What inspired you to put the Zeitgeist project together? Crown [eventually released in 1999] up to Manhattan to try to
I decided that I wanted to do a reunion with everyone I’d ever put it in some off-Broadway theatre scenario. We put together
played with, so I reached out to everybody, wrote all these songs a production, re-titled The Hanged Man, and we’d lined up some
and put together Frank Wyatt & Friends. For the last five or six dancers and it was going swimmingly until the backers pulled
years I’ve been sick, so I’ve been fighting, trying to get the project out, so that was that. Now I was in Manhattan so I got a job as
completed. Now I’m in the studio writing another record called a carpenter and ended up in construction for the next 25 years.
Atlantis. I figure that music is the best medicine for me, so I’m
going to try to keep cranking it out for as long as I can. Happy The Man reformed for NEARfest in 2000, which led to
a new studio album, The Muse Awakens, in 2004. Did things
Is Zeitgeist where your head is at musically at the moment? go better second time around?
Yeah, I guess so. I’m leaning more towards orchestral and We were signed with InsideOut and again, if we’d been able to
symphonic ideas. It’s so much easier for me to create that way, go to Europe it would’ve worked out much better for us. Instead
because I have my studio with all the sampled instruments and we were still isolated in the US where there’s still no progressive
modular synths sitting around me. It would be market to speak of. So we didn’t really notice that much of
different if I could get a band to come in and play, a difference, and in fact we toured even less than in the early days!
so it’s out of necessity as much as anything. The
songs I wrote for Zeitgeist are pretty much typical If an opportunity arose to asked to reform the band again,
of me, but when you expose them to different would you take it?
“Happy The Man combinations of musicians, different feelings Well, I’m never going to say never again! I really don’t know. If it’s
worked up emerge. I’m really happy with how it turned out. a reunion in the studio or in the project sense, like Zeitgeist was,
Solsbury Hill where we’re trading tracks back and forth, I’d give that a much
with Peter You started off as a jazz musician, so how did higher probability than if it were to try and go out to perform live.
Gabriel. That prog sink its talons into you? But there’s always a chance that new music will come out of
was a hoot! It all happened at James Madison University in different combinations of those musicians again.
He was one Virginia. That’s where I met Stan [Whitaker,
of my heroes.” Happy The Man guitarist] and Kit [Watkins, Zeitgeist is out now. See www.frankwyattmusic.com for more.


32 progmagazine.com

progmagazine.com 33

Mood Now entering their sixth decade, Yes
show no signs of slowing down. This year,
they’ll be revisiting Relayer with a fresh
batch of dates. Long-serving guitarist
Steve Howe looks ahead to a busy
future both on sea and dry land.

For Words: Sid Smith Images: Will Ireland










A Day













hen Prog Yes have always been an albums
caught up band, says Howe of their ongoing
with Steve mission to play songs in the running
Howe he was order presented on the records. “The
e
W ting ready idea of coming to this one at this point
g
t
for a series of dates with rehearsals is not only exciting for us, but also
that would take him to Yes’ American a little bit tantalising because that’s
warm-up dates in March 2020. Those complicated stuff, you know? We’ve
shows, supported by Alan Parsons will had experience over the last five years
culminate in their now-annual Cruise of the album series and everybody
To The Edge event that leaves Florida has to do a lot of homework to show
for the high seas, taking in Belize and up at the rehearsal. We say, ‘Well, we
Honduras along the way. all know the song, we think’ and then
Despite Yes’ association with the play it together and see where we get
event, Howe hasn’t always been with that. There might be some new
comfortable with the idea of playing things to work on, such as the through things like you would not
on a cruise ship. “I did one in 2000 inclusion of an ending where the song believe,” he confesses.
and I said, ‘Never again!’ That was as fades or, you know, some other What changed that approach was
a solo artist. So when Yes got offered adjustment. But we like to keep as the arrival of bassist Tony Levin for
one I took a bit of persuading. They close to the record as possible because the Anderson Bruford Wakeman and
said I’d be getting my own room, that that’s our blueprint.” Howe tour in 1989. “I think Jon
there would be security and so on. However, there was a time when Anderson said to him, ‘So Tony, do you
So, I thought I would give it a go, did Yes weren’t always as together and actually know these songs?’ And Tony
a couple and kind of got used to it. at this suggestion he laughs. “Yes said, ‘Oh yeah.’ Very relaxed and laid
Now we’re going for our seventh. The weren’t really that disciplined as Yes, L-R: Steve Howe, back. We all looked at him thinking,
Jon Davison, Billy
only thing I’m not keen on is trying a band. We were a bunch of hippies in Sherwood, Alan White, ‘Yeah, we’ve heard that before.’ But he
to play when the boat moves around!” the 70s and we just kind of ploughed Geoff Downes. did, bless him. He knew all of it. Tony
he adds with a laugh. brought some real discipline to the
When Yes reach terra firma they’ll band and I’ve made sure that we’ve
have a couple of weeks’ shore leave carried on that way ever since.”
before heading out to Europe for the With everyone up to speed on The
first leg of their Album Series 2020 Gates Of Delirium, the main focus will
tour. There they’ll be performing the be getting on top of the notoriously
entirety of their 1974 jazz rock-infused complex sections and movements in
classic Relayer for the very first time. Sound Chaser and ensuring that the
“Last year we played The Gates Of delicate balance that gives To Be Over
Delirium so we kind of warmed up with its ethereal, lighter-than-air qualities
that, if you know what I mean,” says is present. Neither of these two pieces
Howe. “We love playing full albums have been played by anyone in the
but we thought we ought to get that far current line-up since the late 70s, says
with Relayer before we attempted the PRESS/YES/GOTTLIEBBROS Howe. Just 27 years old when Relayer
other tracks which we hadn’t done was released, the guitarist will have
since 1978.” turned 73 by the time he goes out

34 progmagazine.com

“We’re going

for our seventh
cruise. The only

thing I’m not

keen on is
trying to play

when the boat

moves around!”






































































Steve Howe exclusively
shot for Prog at The
Sanctum Hotel, Soho in
February 2020.
progmagazine.com 35

on the road this year. How does he
All In All cope with the kind of playing that
Steve Howe chats about made such technical demands on him
his upcoming solo album, as a young man? “Keeping my playing
up to speed is just something,
Love Is, and autobiography. fortunately, I’ve been able to do and it
hasn’t been a pressure,” he says. “I’ve
hen it comes to Steve Howe’s solo touched base with To Be Over in the
Wcareer, his fans have had plenty past because I wanted to keep that
to keep them busy. There’s been Rhino’s song alive in my spirit, so to speak.
Anthology series and the guitarist’s But looking at Sound Chaser, well, that
ongoing Homebrew collection, currently has been a challenge. Some of it falls
standing at six volumes of home demos off my fingers really easily: some of
and musical sketches, not forgetting the very fast stuff that Chris Squire
2019’s acclaimed New Frontier by the
Steve Howe Trio. However, it’s been nine and I played together and also the riff
years since Time, his last solo statement going on behind the main song. I’ve
proper. While that record focused on his never really lost it because I was part
acoustic work with a classical emphasis, of the writing. But rehearsing it’s like
Howe says his new album, Love Is, out awakening the history I have with the
via BMG on April 17, is more prog rock. song. I never was a hard-nosed practice
“I think it’s a really out-there record, person in that sense, but always
split between five instrumentals and jammed and improvised with myself.
fave songs. Dylan Howe plays drums, So that’s kept my fingers agile and of
and Jon Davison plays bass guitar on the course, the tours have certainly I’ve
songs side as well providing the harmony
vocals. It’s music I’ve been maturing, just kept my fingers agile!”
taking the view that it’ll be ready when It’s not just getting the notes right,
it’s ready, you know? Some of the tracks he says, but the actual sounds as well.
I’ve been working on for years. I think Using the album as a template, he
it’s a very deep record, not in the sense works at home with his guitar tech
of spirituality but rather its strength, getting it as close the original sound
musicality and the detail I’ve been able as is possible. “With Relayer, it’s
to bring to it. As well as composing all predominately the Telecaster so
the material and playing all the guitars I’m working with my Line 6 Helix
and bass on the instrumental tracks
myself, it’s very much a vehicle for my pedalboard to get that right. That can
writing and guitar work. I also step up take hours and hours to be honest but
as a singer a little bit.” it’s worth it.”
Howe says that while he doesn’t have
any plans to tour Love Is, he will be Yes’ Relayer tour begins in the UK on
appearing in selected book shops May 26 at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall.
promoting his new autobiography. For the full list of dates, visit the website
Published by Omnibus Press, All My www.yesworld.com.
Yesterdays will be out on April 16. “It’s
not ghostwritten like some things are,”
he says excitedly.
“I wrote it myself.
I found the process
of writing about my
life was harder than
I thought it’d be. Steve Howe: still
When I started out nimble-fingered.
I thought I could
just spin it out, like
what I was doing
as a kid, what my
schooling was like,
my upbringing and
so on. But when
I got into the meat
of the thing I realised that this
was quite an undertaking because I had
the opportunity to really speak my
mind, as well as show my appreciation
and discuss some of the problems you “Yes weren’t really that disciplined
encounter in your life as you go along.
I don’t go mouthing off about things as a band. We were a bunch of
I don’t like. I find those kinds of books
rather disappointing. I’m 73 this year
and most of that time has been spent hippies in the 70s and we just kind
playing the guitar because I started
when I was 12. There’s 60 years of guitar- of ploughed through things like
playing in this book, and I’m really
pleased with how it’s turned out. I hope you would not believe.”
readers are going to find it informative,
enlightening and entertaining.” SS


36 progmagazine.com



Going for





the
One
















We asked Prog readers to tell us what their favourite
Yes songs were. And boy, did you! Almost 50,000 of you
voted in our recent online poll, which is a massive count
in anyone’s book! So thank you to everyone who took
part. And now we’ve sorted through your responses and
compiled a Top 40. You can see the poll results over the
following pages. You might just find a few surprises too!

Words: Jerry Ewing, Grant Moon, Chris Roberts, Johnny Sharp,
David West





40. THE examples of which can be found on
REMEMBERING Yessongs and Live At Montreux. DW
(HIGH THE MEMORY) 38. HOMEWORLD

Tales From Topographic (THE LADDER) MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES
Oceans, 1973
The Ladder, 1999
Jon Anderson wanted “a calm sea of
music” for Side Two of …Topographic The Ladder saw Yes working with
Oceans, according to biographer Tim producer Bruce Fairbairn, who brought production; note the gated reverb on
Morse. But nothing ever turned out so much of the warmth and ambition of Alan White’s drums, a technique
simple with this band. The opening their classic 70s albums back to the that had become ubiquitous thanks
passages are dreamy, but Howe can’t music, evidenced in the grand scale to Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight.
help but disturb the peace with of Homeworld. “Yes seem to have There’s a live performance on 2005’s
emotive guitar lines and electric sitar. come round in a beautiful cycle,” The Word Is Live. DW
Squire’s lively bass offsets the singer’s says Jon Anderson in Stuart Chambers’
Hindu-influenced visions and vocal Yes biography. “It’s remarkable that The Ladder, 1999. 36. MOOD FOR A DAY
musings, to beguiling effect. JS we’re still making music, and it’s
viable music, and it’s very adventurous Fragile, 1971
39. THE FISH still. It is still, to coin a phrase, Steve Howe’s one-man contribution
(SCHINDLERIA progressive.” DW to Fragile is a classical gas. If his
signature showpiece Clap doffs its
PRAEMATURUS) 37. SHOOT HIGH cap to his guitar hero Chet Atkins,
Fragile, 1971 AIM LOW this three-minute marvel owes more
to another early idol, Spanish classical
A showcase for its composer Chris Big Generator, 1987 guitarist Andrés Segovia. Howe
Squire – the title came from Squire’s Big Generator, 1987. demonstrates some Flamenco-style
nickname as a result of his fondness Four years separated Big Generator from strumming, and that rangy left hand
for taking very long baths. It’s built 90125 and the album had a difficult of his fingers an ornate, baroque
around a groove in 7/8, with Steve gestation that saw Yes switching melody harking back to Bach. The
Howe picking out the harmonics on studios, countries and producers penultimate song on its parent
guitar as a backdrop. Live, the track before it was finished. Shoot High, record, Mood For A Day is a tasty
was a platform for Squire to stretch Aim Low is unmistakeably a product palate cleanser before the final course,
out with an extended solo, fine of its time with a slick, polished Heart Of The Sunrise. GRM

38 progmagazine.com

TOP 40
































































35. ENDLESS DREAM Yes recording Fragile Hold On manages to take the emerging groovy, Trevors Rabin and Horn
Talk, 1994 at Advision Studios in AOR, FM-friendly sound of Asia, contribute to the numerous catchy
London, August 1971.
From left: Bill Bruford, Journey, Foreigner et al and repurpose motifs and lyrics about the ‘pleasures’
Closing out the undervalued mid-90s Chris Squire, Steve it, while also adding a gutsy rock edge of touring, and Squire joins Rabin and
album is this three-part, 15-minute Howe, Jon Anderson echoing the increasingly dominant Anderson on those huge, Synclavier-
epic, fruitfully recalling Yes’ longer and Rick Wakeman. pop-rock sound of Bon Jovi and their enhanced choral harmonies. Horn’s
numbers of earlier times (it’s ilk. Trevor Rabin’s tidy guitar licks slick production and Godley and
effectively the title track). Trevor and way with a winning chorus are Creme’s 18 arty, upside-down MTV
Rabin, at the helm producing, wrote never in doubt, but Anderson and videos add to the 80s charm. GRM
the bulk of it, and both Anderson Squire’s harmonies and intricate bridge
and White have since sung its praises, section also stamp this song with an 32. LOVE WILL
the former likening it to Awaken. Its inimitable Yes identity as the band
shifts between busily robust and reinvent themselves for a new era. JS FIND A WAY
calmly chilled are consummately Big Generator, 1987
handled, with Squire and White 33. LEAVE IT
reminding us why they’re counted The first single released from the
among progressive rock’s most 90125, 1983 Big Generator album, this is as good
dazzling rhythm sections. CR After the incredible success of 90125’s a slice of progressive pop as you’re
first single Owner Of A Lonely Heart, likely to find, but, as with its parent
34. HOLD ON the pressure was on to repeat the trick. album, not one that finds much favour
with a certain section of the Yes
The follow-up, Leave It, didn’t reach
90125, 1983 the same giddy heights, peaking at fanbase. Written by Trevor Rabin
One of Yes’ less-heralded qualities No.24 in the US in April ’84, but it’s with Stevie Nicks in mind (the sort
has always been their versatility, and still a curious, clever piece. Squire’s of thing to drive Yes’ more narrow-
this is as good a reflection of it as any. bassline (the kernel of the song) is minded fans to utter distraction),

progmagazine.com 39

drummer Alan White heard the song,
liked it, and pushed it forward for Yes
to record. The single made No.30 on
the US Billboard chart, too. The band
would never feature so high in a singles
chart again. JE
31. DON’T KILL
THE WHALE
Tormato, 1978

That Yes were at each other’s throats
during the recording of Tormato is
well documented and goes a long way
to explaining why many of the Yes
faithful care little for the album.
This, the only single release from
Tormato, is certainly one of the most
consistent and coherent songs on offer.
It was largely written by Chris Squire
and Jon Anderson and based around
an environmental poem the latter had
penned, with Rick Wakeman chiming
in with sounds he conjured from his
newly acquired Polymoog that he
thought sounded like the titular
animal. The single breached the
UK Top 40, reaching No.36. JE
30. ON THE SILENT
WINGS OF FREEDOM

Tormato, 1978
Tormato was the divisive album that
precipitated Yes splitting up two years
later. The self-produced recording
sessions were difficult and not entirely
conducive – Alan White’s drums
sound thin despite being forward in the
mix. Nonetheless, On The Silent Wings
Of Freedom finds the band on vigorous
musical form, leaning towards fusion
in the density of the playing, with
Wakeman and Howe competing for
space, and Chris Squire’s lithe, melodic
basslines that suggest the influence MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES
of Weather Report and Jaco Pastorius.
Wakeman had expanded his arsenal to
include a Polymoog, which opened up
polyphonic voicings not available on
the Minimoog. DW Sorrentino’s melancholic 2015 film Yes in August 1980. the lyrics were “a message of hope,
Youth, starring Michael Caine and L-R: Alan White, Geoff and just making a way through the
Downes, Chris Squire,
29. ONWARD Harvey Keitel. CR Trevor Horn and world looking for the good route – the
one that suits you and leads on to
Tormato, 1978 28. IT CAN HAPPEN Steve Howe. better things.” The positive thinking
The album may have been described is infectious. DW
as a “tragedy” by Wakeman, and even 90125, 1983
the eternally positive Jon Anderson This song, penned by Chris Squire 27. TIME AND
told Classic Rock: “We threw tomatoes with additional input from Trevor
at ourselves before the audience could.” Rabin, had its genesis in the initial A WORD
Prog fan Fish once said, “Even I hated sessions for the Cinema project, Time And A Word, 1970
Tormato.” But hey, it’s not all bad. before that mutated into the line-up
Written by Chris Squire and with for 90125. A raga-like, sitar-laced Tormato, 1978. The title track of Yes’ second album
orchestral arrangements by his Fish introduction, accompanied by Squire’s honked of the psychedelic era that
Out Of Water ally Andrew Pryce bubbling bass and Jon Anderson’s birthed them. Recorded at Advision,
Jackman, this gentle ballad was shimmering, ultra-produced vocal, it was written in 1969 by Jon Anderson
among Squire’s favourites of all his seems to reflect a hippie-ish message and David Foster, his old mate from
songs. The Detroit Free Press agreed, repackaged for the MTV era, allied to Accrington band The Warriors. Yes’
calling it the strongest track. A cover a shiny new poptimism. Chris Squire then-guitarist Peter Banks added
by Mark Kozelek featured in Paolo later told the Songfacts website that some beautiful textures to the song’s

40 progmagazine.com

TOP 40



creation, the stems of which came
to Howe (who’s inspired here) while
he was boating on the Serpentine
lake. Anderson, talking to Stephen
Demorest in ’75, described it as
“strong in content, but mellow in
overall attitude: it’s about how you
should look after yourself when things
go wrong”. Its atmosphere blissfully
completes what Melody Maker then
called “one of the most satisfying Yes
albums”, and one whose reputation
only grows. CR

24. TEMPUS FUGIT
Drama, 1980
Drama may not have the most
prominent place in the hearts of
many Yes fans, but this album closer
did much to help evolve the post-
Anderson Yes identity, as Buggles
duo Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes
made a surprise entrance to the fold
and the vocals of Horn and Squire
proved themselves fully capable of
filling the gap at centre-stage. The
title is Latin for ‘time flies’, and it’s
hard not to get swept up in its sheer
energetic vim and Squire’s bass. As
Geoff Downes told Songfacts: “Because
the pace of the song is so fast, that was
all about the title. It’s an extremely fast
pace. The title almost picked itself.”
And now, when we can listen to it
without our judgement being clouded
by the dismay of not hearing the voice
that had previously embodied this
band, it also manages to stand up
proudly against the rest of the Yes
back catalogue. JS
23. MACHINE
MESSIAH
Drama, 1980

With Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman
having quit, Yes wasted little time in
showing that they had moved on with
Machine Messiah, the song that opens
the Drama album with a sludgy heavy
anthemic Beatles-y chord progression album – we were limited to 20 minutes metal riff that sounds more like Tony
(recently Anderson has interpolated per side of the vinyl long player – so Iommi than Steve Howe. The music
All You Need Is Love and She Loves when Yes went to Switzerland in 1976 doesn’t stay in doom territory for long,
You in his solo version). Tony Cox’s to start recording Going For The One, however, moving into a more familiar
brass and string arrangements on I put the song forward.” The track is vein that allows Trevor Horn to prove
the album may still prove a little dominated by Rick Wakeman, who is he could inhabit the upper register that
divisive, but they’re part of the vibe playing the pipe organ at St Martin’s Jon Anderson made such an integral
of this singalong love-in, which Time And A Word, 1970. Church in Switzerland and capturing part of Yes’ musical signature. The
glanced the UK Album Charts at all the natural reverb of the church’s instrumental mid-section alternates
No.45 that August. GRM high ceilings. DW between measures of six and seven,
with an underlying triplet pulse from
26. PARALLELS 25. TO BE OVER Alan White, proving that despite the
Going For The One, 1977 Drama, 1980. Relayer, 1974 arrival of The Buggles’ Horn and
Geoff Downes from the world of pop,
Chris Squire wrote Parallels intending Sure, The Gates Of Delirium is the the band still had formidable technical
for the song to appear on his Fish Out focus of the Yes album on which chops. Live versions can be found on
Of Water album, but as Squire told fans Patrick Moraz did such a great job In The Present – Live From Lyon, sung
in a Q&A on the Yesworld website in that Rick Wakeman felt left out and by Benoît David, and Topographic
2013, “back in the days of vinyl, there returned. Yet the nine-minute closer Drama – Live Across America, sung
was not enough space for it on the To Be Over is a lovely Anderson-Howe by Jon Davison. DW

progmagazine.com 41

22. CHANGES Yes, circa 90125. L-R: Alan White,
90125, 1983 Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Tony
Kaye and Trevor Rabin.
90125 was the album that brought Yes
back from the dead and, against the
odds, gave them a string of hit singles,
including Changes. New guitarist
Trevor Rabin brought a contemporary
rock edge to their sound that was
markedly different from Steve Howe’s
classical inflections. Changes was born
from one of Rabin’s ideas and it’s easy
to hear the influence of The Police’s
Andy Summers in the verse riff. The
lyrics sprang from Rabin’s frustrations
dealing with record executives while
a solo artist. “In a meeting I went to,
they played Foreigner to me,” Rabin
recalls in Tim Morse’s Yesstories,
“and they said, ‘You’ve got to start
writing stuff more like Foreigner.’
I said, ‘I’m not going to, but thanks
anyway.’ I thought, ‘I’m going through
all these changes, it’s very strange.’
And consequently I think that’s when
that song started coming to me. It’s
kind of a melancholy song.” DW

21. AMERICA
Yesterdays, 1975
An early live favourite once Howe
joined, the studio version first
appeared on a 1972 showcase sampler
before adorning this compilation.
Paul Simon’s original, as debuted
on Simon And Garfunkel’s Bookends,
is a real masterclass in evocative
understatement. Yes’ 10-and-a-half
minute version is not. Those who say
Yes were bombastically over the top?
This is where they have a point. That
conceded, there’s a manic genius to
the way Yes change time signatures,
elongate instrumental flourishes,
and shovel in some West Side Story
for good measure. Somehow, a four-
minute edit made the Billboard Pop
Singles Top 50. Influenced more by
The Nice and Crimson than by S&G
(of whom Squire and Anderson were
genuine fans), America remains one
of the most Marmite love/hate tracks
in Yes’ catalogue, and perhaps in the
history of progressive rock. Put it this
way, if it took Paul Simon “four days
to hitchhike from Saginaw”, this
manifestation of Yes would’ve taken
four weeks. CR

20. SOUND CHASER
Relayer, 1974
What Jon Anderson describes in the
lyrics as “electric freedom” finds
expression in Relayer’s truly frenetic,
jazz-rock workout. Patrick Moraz tells
of how, on meeting the band, he was EBET ROBERTS/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
played work in progress from this
track. “They blew my mind,” he said.
Then he was thrown in the deep end:
“Jon asked me to come up with some

42 progmagazine.com

TOP 40



kind of introduction to the whole the piano notes underscoring the ‘nous 15. PERPETUAL
thing. So I kind of instant-composed sommes du soleil’ refrain were the work
the intro on the spot,” he told Yes of Alan White, while Wakeman was CHANGE
biographer Tim Morse. The Swiss AWOL. Wakeman’s famously said he The Yes Album, 1971
newcomer’s Moog solo later on was hates it, but Anderson told Classic Rock,
also nailed “in one or two takes”, while “At least we tried.” And then some. CR With the band line-up in constant flux
Telecaster work from Steve Howe is over the years and their music ever-
equally mesmerising. He has referred Tales From Topographic 17. THE REVEALING evolving, this song title’s often used as
to the track’s “indescribable mixture of Oceans, 1973. a headline for articles about Yes. The
Patrick’s jazzy keyboards and my weird SCIENCE OF GOD song itself closes the embarrassment
sort of flamenco electric [guitar]”, but (DANCE OF of riches that is their third outing, and
Alan White (who has singled out from the opening stabs of guitar and
Relayer as his favourite Yes album) THE DAWN) keys to the triumphant instrumental
also stretches his drumming abilities Tales From Topographic fade, this Anderson/Squire co-write
to their limits in order to keep up. JS left listeners in no doubt they were
Oceans, 1973
witnessing a unique new voice in rock
19. TURN OF ELP might have introduced classical music. Having replaced Peter Banks,
compositions into the progressive
Steve Howe engages his full arsenal
THE CENTURY rock sphere, but Tales From Topographic here: country picking, pedal steel-like
Going For The One, 1977 Oceans went several steps further. swells, Wes Montgomery-style jazzy
It was a double album of four suites passages added to tough blues and
Few entries in the Yes catalogue with The Revealing Science Of God fusion lines. Online you can find the
compare with Turn Of The Century comprising the entirety of the first isolated tracks of Squire and Bruford’s
for sheer musical and lyrical unity. side. Artistically, it was a reaction to bass and drums – it’s potent stuff.
Written by Anderson, Howe and (in the success of Roundabout. “We weren’t Around the 05:35 mark, one odd-
a major role) White, it’s an elaboration really that concerned about having a hit metered section drifts to the left
on the Greek myth of Pygmalion – record,” said Jon Anderson to Songfacts. speaker while the right grinds out
a sculptor who fell in love with one “I didn’t feel as part of the band we the song’s main theme, and we’re
of his sculptures. Here, a sculptor’s should ever try to make another really not in Kansas any more.
beloved wife dies, he makes a figure Roundabout or make another Fragile Anderson’s opening lines: ‘I see the cold
in her likeness and she is seemingly Yesterdays, 1975. record. That’s why within a space mist in the night/And watch the hills roll
reincarnated. Howe’s acoustic, minor of time, three years, the record out of sight’ were inspired by the Devon
key intro sets the theme, guitars and companies got very upset with us, countryside where the writing sessions
voice intertwine, with Rick Wakeman’s because we were doing diverse music first began, and this expands into
piano and Chris Squire’s bass adding and …Topographic Oceans.” The main a meditation on the nature of the
ravishing colour and movement to the concept was inspired by Anderson universe, infinity and our place in it.
romantic narrative. With Wakeman reading about the yogi and guru This epic album coda points towards
replacing the ousted Patrick Moraz, Paramahansa Yogananda and after the musical adventures yet to come on
the song was recorded at Mountain his idea to record in a forest led to Fragile and Close To The Edge. GRM
Studios in Montreux, Switzerland naught, he brought bales of hay and
(Wakeman would record his Criminal flowers to the recording studio. DW 14. WONDEROUS
Record there later in ’77). Howe would
revisit this on his 1995 album Tales 16. GOING FOR STORIES
From Yesterday, with a sublime vocal Going For The One, 1977
from Renaissance’s Annie Halsam. THE ONE
One of Yes’ truly transcendent Going For The One, 1977 Although Yes had released singles,
storytelling moments. GRM and to some acclaim in the States, the
The lyrical theme of the opening title thought of them even doing suchlike
18. RITUAL (NOUS track of the 1977 album – the quest here went very much against the
SOMMES DU SOLEIL) for sporting excellence – seemed thinking of a large part of their fanbase.
That all changed when they released
surprisingly unproggy. Yet it also
Tales From Topographic symbolised a band in lean, fighting-fit the three minutes and 45 seconds of
Oceans, 1973 shape to meet the growing challenge Wonderous Stories. The shortest track
of the punk revolution. Steve Howe’s from Going For The One, it’s a simple
One of the most cosmic things ever broad strokes of Chuck Berry-style acoustic ballad credited solely to Jon
recorded in Willesden, Tales… is the boogie and steel guitar twang usher Anderson, emboldened by the rest of
point where Yes either went high into in the track and resurface throughout, the band joining in on the music, and,
the stratosphere or up their own back signalling a new songwriting style according to Steve Howe, written
passages, depending on your stance. willing to embrace pop hooks without during the singer’s “Renaissance
It’s certainly true that in recent years jettisoning heady experimentation. period”, with the song portraying
the herd mentality dismissal of it But this is no dumbed-down affair. the simple pleasures of a beautiful
has seemed less and less valid. The The increasing dominance of dizzying day. The demo, along with Going For
daunting double album’s sides One and synthesiser and guitar spirals and The One, were sent to Wakeman
Four, in particular, are winning fresh celestial harmonies turn this into an following Patrick Moraz’s departure,
admirers for their ambition and charm. Going For The One, 1977. alternative chamber pop vision that instigating his return as he liked what
Ritual – the 21-and-a-half minute is Yes, but not as you know them. he heard. Yes made their first ever
finale – sees the band strive to gather “We felt marvellously fresh and promotional video for the song (albeit
the threads together and bring it all excited, and the recording had a great one with them simply performing
on home with a bang, a vengeance feel about it,” Howe said about the live). The single reached No.7 in the
and a sense of transcendence. Howe album on the liner notes of its 2003 UK charts, no mean feat given bands
collates his guitar themes into reissue, and as a statement of intent, of their ilk were supposedly under
something approaching a narrative, and this was a formidable opening salvo. JS fire from the threat of punk rock

progmagazine.com 43

RON HOWARD/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES










at the time. Yet it was another fine it.” It was the producer who persuaded audience.” “When I showed them what
example of the fact that, when the a reluctant band to record it, and Squire was possible,” Horn revealed, “it was
mood took them, the progressive modified the music while Anderson fun to watch them run with it.” CR
legends of the 70s could turn their added new lyrics. Its overall impact,
hand to writing simple but catchy however, relies on the blend of Rabin’s 12. SOUTH SIDE
music with aplomb. JE heavy guitar and the Synclavier. Horn’s
said that Alan White, initially peeved OF THE SKY
13. OWNER OF by being displaced by a drum machine, Fragile, 1971
eventually played a part in the
A LONELY HEART programming (and played keyboards). Every so often Yes offered up
90125, 1983 It remains one of Horn’s favourite a reminder that they could do heavy
among his own productions, and hip- just as well as the Led Zeps and Deep
First drafted by Trevor Rabin years hop artists have acknowledged that 90125, 1983. Purples out there when the mood took
previously, Yes’ unlikely 80s comeback it pioneered the use of a sample as them – and weave those textures into
hit – an American No.1 – was radically a breakbeat (yep, we’re still talking a bigger, more unorthodox tapestry.
reimagined by Trevor Horn, who told about Yes!). Pushing the album to sales “This is a song about climbing
a Red Bull Music Academy event in of three million in the US alone, by far mountains,” Jon Anderson has said.
2011: “I was convinced that if we didn’t their biggest, Owner… gave Yes what “It’s dangerous, but we all must climb
put loads of whizz bangs and gags all Chris Squire said was “a phase two mountains every day.” The howling
over the verse, nobody would listen to audience… What we call our 80s wind that punctuates this eight-minute

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of a dying man, reflecting Anderson’s bass is busy, his harmony and
earlier counter-intuitive musings on counterpoint vocals crucial. Bill
the ‘warmth of the sky/of warmth when Bruford’s drumming is deeply detailed
you die’. JS throughout. Howe and Wakeman trade
licks across the Advision studio floor:
11. LONG DISTANCE dizzying, eclectic guitars countered

RUNAROUND by big Mellotron chords; twanging
electric sitar parried by stunning
Fragile, 1971 harpsichord lines. As with the album,
the song is the sound of Yes coming
One of the punchiest tracks from into its own as a unit, and the lexicon
Fragile was sufficiently concise that of progressive rock gaining form.
it was able to serve as the B-side Bruford left Yes for Crimson that July,
to the edited Roundabout single his replacement Alan White joining
without the need for any topping for the world tour that kicked off
and tailing. Despite its economy of that same month. That set regularly
length, it’s still packed full of bold opened with Siberian Khatru, which
ideas. It opens with one of Steve became a concert staple over the
Howe’s trademark classically flavoured years and features on numerous live
guitar introductions. Then there’s recordings. Steve Howe Trio recorded
a polyrhythm with Bill Bruford a particularly natty version on their
accenting every fifth note against 2010 album, Travelling. GRM
the steady 4/4 pulse of the keys, bass,
and guitar to lend the verses an off- 9. I’VE SEEN ALL
kilter lilt. The lyrics were born out
of Jon Anderson’s frustration with GOOD PEOPLE
religion, growing up in the Christian The Yes Album, 1971
faith. “It was how religion had
seemed to confuse me totally,” he The Yes Album, the first to feature
told Songfacts. “It was such a game Howe, was where the band truly hit
that seemed to be played, and I was their unique stride. Its highlights are
going around in circles looking for the numerous, and I’ve Seen All Good
sound of reality, the sound of God. People stands tall as one of their
That was my interpretation of that evergreen anthems. At almost seven
song, that I was always confused. minutes and two movements long,
I could never understand the things it opens with Your Move (chess as
that religion stood for. And that a metaphor for relationships) then
throughout the years has always ratchets up into the country-rock
popped its head up in the song I’ve riffing of the more radio-friendly
been working with.” A concert staple, All Good People. (While the first part
the song appears on live releases was a US Top 40 hit, stations soon
including Yessongs, The Word Is Live took to playing the whole thing, so
and Songs From Tsongas. DW enamoured were they of the later
groove.) The a cappella three-part
10. SIBERIAN harmony opening features Anderson,
Squire and Howe; the climax does
KHATRU complex things with simple chords.
Close To The Edge, 1972 Tony Kaye on Hammond organ
does what works rather than what
A mere bagatelle at just under nine shows him off.
minutes, this symphonic masterpiece The-then highly influential critic
occupies the second half of …Edge’s Robert Christgau, in Village Voice,
cornerstone of Fragile gives you a clue Yes on Top Of The Pops, second side. Jon Anderson brought hailed it as “a great cut” in which
as to the theme – a failed, ultimately March 31, 1971. L-R: Bill the bones of Siberian Khatru to Yes’ “arty eclecticism comes together”.
fatal mountaineering mission. But Bruford, Steve Howe, rehearsals, credited co-writers Howe Anderson again pondered the
Jon Anderson, Chris
elsewhere there’s also a brilliantly Squire and Tony Kaye. and Wakeman beefed up the song’s existence of God while dropping in
impressionistic quality to the music. main propulsive riffs and sections, a couple of homages to John Lennon.
The knotty tangles of guitar and and the entire band embellished the He shamelessly namechecks Instant
the insistent trudge of the tempo arrangement. Anderson uses the Karma – ‘send that instant karma to me’
set the scene in some style, while image of Siberia to add scale, exoticism – and Give Peace A Chance. Recalling
there’s also that climbing pitch to the and mystery, and his birds of prey, the album, he told Classic Rock, “It
verse sections and a sense of mounting rivers and blue tails root the song in started a new plane for Yes, where
desperation. But this was also one nature. As ever, he sells his oblique, we were completely original, creating
of the tracks that showcased Rick spiritual metaphors with the sheer our own music. When I’d joined,
Wakeman’s skill as a player and ebullience of his vocal delivery and I’d said: ‘Isn’t it time Yes did the
(uncredited in this case) composer, irresistible melodies. “The song builds whole thing?’ That became one of our
as his dramatic musical soliloquy, and builds and builds,” he said later. key strengths.”
accompanied by Bill Bruford’s “You’re taking the audience on an epic Howe, for his part, called this “post-
hesitant jazz percussion, offers adventure. People think it can’t get psychedelia”. Yes, he told Prog, now
a stark, quasi-classical contemplation bigger, but it does. A very cool song.” “stood out because we were quirky,
as a platform for warm harmonies As a musical ensemble, Yes purr like risky and kind of weird… Which is
and wistful lonely contemplations a Rolls-Royce engine here: Squire’s a very good thing.” CR

progmagazine.com 45

performed in its entirety on the
Relayer tour in ’74, though Alan
White may not be relishing the
prospect in 2020. “It was one of the
toughest pieces the band ever played,”
he said recently. “It demands a hell of
a lot of energy and precision. I look
back on it and I think, ‘Oh my God,
we were really crazy!’” GRM
7. YOURS IS
NO DISGRACE
The Yes Album, 1971

The Yes Album marked the arrival of
Steve Howe into the fold and the band
kicked off the record with the galloping
charge of Yours Is No Disgrace, a track
that begins with a refrain borrowed
from the theme to the TV show
Bonanza. Despite that pilfered Western
bounce, the song shows Yes really
pushing themselves compositionally,
using a huge dynamic range to build
plenty of drama into the music. “The
inventiveness of the group, because of
its musical potential, started to show,”
said Howe in a 2003 interview for the
Guitar Heroes DVD series. “We were
trying to formulate, as much as we
could, our own style.” Howe’s guitar
solo even lets him dip into Hendrix
territory, using his wah-wah pedal
to great effect. It was the longest song
Yes had recorded by this point in their
career, a testament to their orchestral
sensibilities and a signpost to where
progressive rock was going next.
The lyrics reference the Las Vegas
casino Caesar’s Palace. “Well, I’d just
been to Vegas and it was amazing
how crazy the place was and how silly
we are,” Jon Anderson told Songfacts
in an interview. “Silly human race. It
was something to do with how crazy
MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES we can be as a human race to be out
there flittering money around and
gambling, trying to earn that big
payout, when actually that’s not what
life is truly about. Our life is truly
about finding our divine connection
with God, if you like. You know, that’s
8. THE GATES Soundchasers: Yes in a true statement of intent. Inspired why we live.” DW
1974, with Patrick
OF DELIRIUM Moraz, standing centre. by Tolstoy’s War And Peace, the song 6. AWAKEN
began life as piano sketches from Jon
Relayer, 1974 Anderson, with the band pitching in, Going For The One, 1977
including Moraz. “[Jon] explained
Tales From Topographic Oceans was a lot of the conceptualisation,” he said For many Yes fans, 1977’s Going For
a hit but divided critics, fans and later. “He had some of the themes, but The One was the last great creative
the band. Rick Wakeman ate his last nothing was written down.” With statement produced by the classic
mid-show curry, and was replaced Moraz on board there’s definitely Yes Mk IV line-up, and its crescendo-
by Refugee keysman Patrick Moraz. a sense of experimental jazz in parts packed 15-minute final track is its
In the gloomy year of the three-day here. The band, unshackled from crowning glory. Keyboard player
week, double-digit inflation and deadly Relayer, 1974. studio time restraints, build an Patrick Moraz took part in early
IRA attacks, Yes repaired to Chris ominous sense of conflict, evoke the sessions during the album’s gestation,
Squire’s home studio in Virginia Sturm und Drang of a fierce battle, and told author Jon Kirkman, “I had
Water, Surrey, and doubled down on then linger camera-like over its already exchanged some of the ideas
the escapist prog/fusion grandeur smouldering aftermath. Later released for Awaken,” but it’s the returning
with Relayer. Sprawling over the by Atlantic as a single, Soon was the Wakeman’s baroque piano parts that
entire first side, the near 22-minute mournful coda to Yes’ longest piece open the piece with such a flourish,
behemoth The Gates Of Delirium was until 2011’s Fly From Here. It was and towards the end, an extraordinary

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church organ solo offers a riot of amount to the party, it’s Chris Squire particularly in the US, and its torch-
instrumental colour within an who delivers the most exceptional bearing herald was the magnificent
otherwise beatific, dreamlike piece. contribution. As well as writing the Roundabout. The edited, 7-inch single
Anderson told Circus magazine on sprightly acoustic folk interlude of version of the song went into the
its release that the lyric was inspired Disillusion he offers sublime harmonies Billboard Top 20, a chart peak that the
by Calvin Miller’s book The Singer, with Anderson, while the distorted and band wouldn’t surpass until the release
which he was reading while recording mutated bass sounds (employing bass of Owner Of A Lonely Heart in 1983.
the album at Mountain Studios in The Yes Album, 1971. tremolo) on the final Würm section Steve Howe and Jon Anderson started
Montreux, Switzerland. “It’s about shows how prepared he was to push writing Roundabout while on tour in
this Star Song, which is an ageless the boundaries of his own developing Scotland, sitting in a hotel room. “We
hymn that’s sung every now and sonic template and really unsettle the seemed to find a lot of time to do that
again,” he revealed. Fittingly, then, listener. Among the fans of this record in the 70s,” Howe told Guitar World in
there’s a distinctly hymnal quality was a young Trevor Horn, who later 2014. “We had a private plane. We got
to large swathes of the piece and told Jon Kirkman: “I’d never heard to places. People sat by the pool. And
Wakeman actually played the organ a bass sound like that before. Starship Jon and I were in this hotel room, kind
in a cathedral near Montreux. The Trooper – I wore the record out.” of going, ‘Well, what have you got
band took advantage of unusually As for the lyrical themes, talking to that’s a bit like this?’ We used to quiz
high quality telecommunications website Songfacts, Jon Anderson later one another like that. We did those
in Switzerland to record his part explained that the ‘talks by the water’ exchanges in our music, and lyrically as
over a landline to the studio. And section was “interconnected with the well. This was the era of cassettes, and
they make out that “phoning it in” realisation that the most peaceful I’ve still got all of them – Jon and me
is a bad thing. JS place is down by the lake, down by the fooling around in hotel rooms.”




























PETE STILL/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES










The lyrics were inspired by a drive
5. STARSHIP Rick Wakeman returns river close to water. I think that has through Scotland on which Anderson
to keys on the Going
something to do with our ancient
For The One tour at evolvement as human beings. I know was struck by the profusion of
TROOPER Wembley Arena, on that whenever I sing that, and I sing roundabouts [One can only imagine
October 28, 1977.
The Yes Album, 1971 that at every show, I’m always thinking what he’d have made of Swindon! – Ed.],
about my family, my connection with but his trippy approach transforms this
Quite apart from the fact that it’s one the royal family, the oneness of being.” drab, prosaic subject into something
of Yes’s first multi-part, extended song The royal family’s thoughts on Jon rather marvellous and magical. Rick
cycles of the kind that would define Anderson and Yes have sadly gone Wakeman was the newest member of
progressive rock as a genre, there’s unrecorded, but let’s hope they would the band, introduced on Roundabout by
something truly life-affirming about agree with him that “there are billions the sound of a piano played backwards
this nine-and-a-half-minute suite from of people out there that are all on a tape machine, before Howe’s
The Yes Album. The robust riff and star- connected on the same level”. JS classically inspired, baroque guitar
flecked guitar patterns that introduce paves the way for Squire’s wonderfully
the song represent such a fine how- 4. ROUNDABOUT chunky bassline.
d’you-do that it often seems more Forty-six years after they recorded
suited to opening the album rather Fragile, 1971 it, Roundabout was the song the band
than closing Side One. Although each Fragile was the album that helped Yes performed when Yes were inducted
of the five members brings a fair break out on the international stage, into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame,

progmagazine.com 47

with Rush’s Geddy Lee filling in for single in the US. A quarter-century
the late Chris Squire on bass. It remains later, Joss Whedon, the man behind
a vital staple of their live sets, one of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie
progressive rock’s greatest, most and television series and the first, all-
recognisable anthems. DW conquering Avengers film, named his
production company Mutant Enemy,
3. HEART OF quoting Jon Anderson’s lyrics from
the song. This was also, he has said,
THE SUNRISE the name of his typewriter. (There
Fragile, 1971 are other sly, oblique references to
Yes scattered throughout lifelong-fan
With his usual unerring precision, Whedon’s work.)
Bill Bruford hit the nail on the head While the recording sessions at
last year when speaking to Rolling Advision Studios were reportedly
Stone. “On reflection, the band hit its stressful, with Bill Bruford driven to
real template with Heart Of The Sunrise. distraction, what ultimately emerged
That seemed to have it all. That was was serene. Led by Anderson and
a shorter version of what was to Howe, the band created the album
become Close To The Edge.” Clocking commonly perceived as their
in at more than 11 minutes, Heart Of masterpiece. And You And I began as
The Sunrise closed out Fragile and a folk theme strummed by Anderson,
quickly became one of Yes’ most which blossomed outwards, Howe
enduring and beloved signature pieces. and Wakeman interacting beautifully.
Those opening salvos – tattoos of Jon claimed its working title was
bass, guitar and snare in relentless The Protest Song. Then again, he told
lock-step – hurtle towards you like NME in ’72 that he felt it was hymn-
a juggernaut, harking back to the brain like, and was “secure in the knowledge
and brawn of King Crimson, or to the of knowing there is somebody… God,
fizzing intensity of The Who or Cream maybe.” In recent years he happily
in their pomp. With Howe’s guitar confided to Prog that “I was in Heaven,
now subdued and shimmering beneath and that still comes off this record,”
him, Jon Anderson takes the song to adding that despite disputes and
the other side of the dynamic spectrum debates the band “were all very
with his lovely, pastoral lyrics: ‘Love connected to each other” and “in love
comes to you and you follow/Lose one on with pushing the envelope”.
to the heart of the sunrise.’ Anderson’s explanations are always
“At that time I was exhausted with nicely nebulous so listeners will read
the city of London,” Anderson recalled their own meanings into the piece’s
in 2009. “I wanted to get out of there four sections: Cord Of Life (“Okay,”
and live in the country. We just wrote, announces Howe at the top, MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES
and the music became about that.” pragmatically), the well-paced Eclipse
Call them fey, call them hippie-dippy, (which is reminiscent of Sibelius),
but the sentiment is clear, and there The Preacher, The Teacher (with
are actually academic theses exploring Wakeman scorching out a synth solo)
Anderson’s lyrics here, with the city and the 40 seconds of Apocalypse Yes, playing at London’s title track, which reinvented the
as a symbol of Man’s alienation from (chirpier than that sounds). To this Crystal Palace Bowl in notion of a Side One and somehow
the natural world. Wakeman was the day, for all his scepticism, Wakeman September 1972. gave Yes a million-selling Top 5 album
new boy on Fragile, having replaced plays this live. CR on both sides of the Atlantic. Written
the apparently synth-sceptical Tony by Anderson and Howe, who were in
Kaye, and makes his nimble presence 1. CLOSE TO something of an imperial phase, its
quickly felt, notably on the noodly inspirations, said Anderson, included
back-and-forth of the mid-section. THE EDGE The Lord Of The Rings and Sibelius’
He has recalled going along for an early Close To The Edge, 1972 Symphony No.6 and No.7.
rehearsal and the band assembling As the pair worked on ideas at
Roundabout and a large part of Heart “I mean, how hilarious is it that Bill Howe’s home in Hampstead, it
Of The Sunrise too. Given the Bruford left after Close To The Edge was the guitarist who came up with
composition’s complexity, that speaks because he thought it was too a variation of the lyrical refrain,
volumes to the band’s technical facility commercial? Ha!” Steve Howe told ‘Close to the edge, down by a river’ (he’d
in ’71. A live staple and fan favourite, Prog in 2018. “We put the music first. previously lived near the Thames, in
Heart Of The Sunrise really does have Kept building, kept pushing on to the Battersea). Anderson then ran with
it all. GRM next story.” It’s also been said that the words and themes, also motivated
Bruford left because he thought Yes by Hermann Hesse’s novel of self-
2. AND YOU AND I had now peaked, and couldn’t build discovery, Siddartha (an influence, too,
on Nick Drake’s River Man). “It’s all
anything greater. While fans of other
Close To The Edge, 1972 albums will disagree, Close To The Edge Fragile, 1971. metaphors,” Jon told MusicRadar. Its
Side One is a tough act to follow, but is more often than not cited as the climax seems to sing of not fearing
the Close To The Edge album refuses band’s musical zenith, with even death, no less.
to fall off a cliff. And You And I keeps grumpy old Rick Wakeman calling The opening tape loop, of sounds
the momentum and magic flowing, it their best. “No one has ever come drawn from both nature and
shaping into a 10-minute, four- close to it,” Trevor Horn has revealed. keyboards, took two days to record:
movement rock opera. Implausibly, Of course the album’s altar, its pièce the loop itself was 40 feet long. Wendy
an edit, snipped halfway, was a Top 50 de résistance, is that almost 19-minute Carlos’ highly experimental Sonic

48 progmagazine.com

TOP 40


1 Close To The Edge
2 And You And I
3 Heart Of The Sunrise
4 Roundabout
5 Starship Trooper
6 Awaken
7 Yours Is No Disgrace
8 The Gates Of Delirium
9 I’ve Seen All Good People
10 Siberian Khatru
11 Long Distance Runaround
12 South Side Of The Sky
13 Owner Of A Lonely Heart
14 Wonderous Stories
15 Perpetual Change
16 Going For The One
17 The Revealing Science Of
God (Dance Of The Dawn)
18 Ritual (Nous Sommes
Du Soleil)
19 Turn Of The Century
20 Sound Chaser
21 America
22 Changes
23 Machine Messiah
24 Tempus Fugit
25 To Be Over
26 Parallels
Seasonings, regarded by many as the And Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled
first New Age album, is another source Water album was seen as the one to 27 Time And A Word
Anderson has referenced, as well as beat. If the American duo had spent 28 It Can Happen
Mahavishnu Orchestra, with whom 10 weeks recording that, Yes were
Yes had toured. As for Wakeman’s intent on spending longer on this, as 29 Onward
ominous yet uplifting organ solo, if that was the measure of stature.
he was playing an idea Howe had Their time had come to shine. 30 On The Silent Wings
originally composed for guitar. Both “Even if we’d just done that and Close To The Edge, 1972. Of Freedom
agreed it sounded better when played then stopped,” Howe once told Prog,
on the pipe organ at the St-Giles- “I think people would still be talking 31 Don’t Kill The Whale
without-Cripplegate medieval church about it today.” It even got good 32 Love Will Find A Way
in London’s Barbican. Awkwardly, reviews in its own time, albeit with
Eddy Offord accidentally inserted the the NME writing, “not just close to 33 Leave it
wrong take into the mix, binning the the edge, they’ve gone right over it”. 34 Hold On
agreed best one. Oops. Billboard reckoned that Yes had
That said, Offord’s splicing was weaved “dainty fragments, glimpses 35 Endless Dream
ingenious for its time. He crafted of destinies yet to be formed… 36 Mood For A Day
a successful through line amid so transcending the medium”, while as
many (often conflicting) ebullient recently as 2018, Rolling Stone named 37 Shoot High Aim Low
ideas, patching together a rich, it the fifth best prog moment ever. 38 Homeworld (The Ladder)
resonant tapestry. And if in the It doesn’t want to stop dancing on
studio there were inevitable debates, the edge, and each time you hear it 39 The Fish (Schindleria
ego clashes and fraught moments, you wonder how they can start at Praematurus)
the album captures Yes revelling in such a high pitch and keep on rising
a shared ambition – to ignore without imploding. That’s the beauty 40 The Remembering
boundaries, to boldly go. of this song, though: it never does (High The Memory)
It may seem rather strange now, topple over that edge. It gets up, but
but the grandeur and scale of Simon not down. CR

progmagazine.com 49

The Silence






Of The







Valley














He’s the artist whose otherworldly visions have became
synonymous with Yes, but Roger Dean’s career had humble
beginnings. Prog finds out the stories behind his most iconic album
covers and discovers which of them Yes guitarist Steve Howe has
hanging on his living room wall.

Words: Sid Smith Portraits: Will Ireland Artwork: Roger Dean




young boy is when the country was still dealing
climbing a steep with the privations of post-war
hill at night. austerity, and fondly remembers
Carefully, he makes walking in the countryside as a child.
i
A s way through Later, as the 1960s got underway, he
h
the tangles of sparse scrub became a student at the Canterbury
that cling to the side of Lion College Of Art and later still, joined the
Rock; from his vantage point he can Royal College Of Art. Every available
see Kowloon spread before him, the minute that wasn’t engaged with
name of which comes from the term filling sketchbooks with ideas, would
for nine dragons. Immediately be spent outdoors with friends.
below, the very last house “We climbed all over
of the accommodation Scotland and Wales and
reserved for British army I just loved pathways and
personnel in Hong Kong, landscapes. It was burned
where he lives with his into my soul, if you like,”
parents, huddles into he recalls.
the mane of Lion Rock. Those landscapes made
Beneath his feet, time a deep impression on Dean,
stands still, the passing whose work in turn has made its mark
of millions of years on countless music fans since the late
solidified in granite. Above him, 1960s. His visionary worlds, where
a scattering of distant stars wink Roger Dean is also magic, nature and retro-future
through the pearlescent glow of the man behind the technologies combine with a poetic yet
iconic Yes logo.
a glorious moonlit night. unwritten epic narrative, have been
“It was just magical,” says Roger adopted and exploited throughout
Dean with a sigh, he’s clearly moved elements of popular culture. For more
by the memory of a night that in all than six decades his designs have been
probability sealed within in him part of the cultural terrain, a companion
a desire to connect with both the built to record buyers through the covers of
and natural environment. It’s a passion numerous albums and bands, the most
that remains undiminished to this important of which – Yes – began
day. Leaving behind Lion Rock and with 1971’s Fragile. His association
the nine dragons at the age of 14, he has continued, with only a few
returned to the UK in the 1950s, interruptions, until the present day.

50 progmagazine.com