Saturday 27 October 2012

LINK: Interesting German review of ABWH

http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/album_12897.html




Reviews


By: Nik Brückner @ (Review 1 of 2 )


During the tour of Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe Tony Levin was sick (hepatitis A) and missed some concerts. For these performances, he was replaced by Jeff Berlin, who quickly got two and a half hours of material and abliefete a bravura performance that is at "An Evening of Yes Music Plus" documented.

For twenty years it was the only live document of the band and some fans felt Tony Levin, the actual tour bassist would, done by injustice. Gonzo, successors of Voiceprint corrected this now. The word "correct" in this company has a very unique Bedeuteung. The credits on the box were a dice, also got messed up both the order of the songs on the second CD, as well as the printed order.So you went from "Order of the Universe" unnecessarily (and accidentally?) With a bonus track (in fact, the song "Roundabout" played), its own track made from an announcement and printed also a completely wrong song order on the cover. Gonzo just. Anyway: Above the actual song order the CD is shown.

But they lead the next great idea, they had some time ago had with the Yes-Release "Union Live": The box contains a small-scale reproduction of the former Tour Books. Cheers arias, sure, but for the collector and certainly not uninteresting. Not a bad idea for the furnishing of live albums

Now what is it? Well, the set list is like that of "An Evening Of Yes Music Plus ..." And here it is the same thing that was already for that concert: The idea to put the solos in the beginning, is still brave, great, and a great match to the atmosphere of the concert. The combination of the classics (especially, as always, when Wakeman is out of Fragile-/Close-to-the-Edge-Zeit) works fantastically with the new ABWH songs, the band is relaxed and easy as they are rarely has experienced. Complements the set list is now through the schnuckelige "The Meeting", which could be heard only on the video version of that album, and the duet between Bruford and Levin, which was at the concerts with Berlin not played naturally. Both give everything and engage in duels like there's no tomorrow. Unfortunately, the coordination between the two is not perfect (the show was one of the first after recovering Levin) and the remainder of the curious listener gewesene back a bit unsatisfied.

What interested in this release, most of all, of course, is the comparison between Tony Levin and Jeff Berlin. And Levin cuts do surprisingly weak, but above all is the sound of "Live at the NEC."For he is audibly weaker than that of "An Evening of Yes Music Plus." "Live at the NEC", after all, a recording of BBC Radio I will be plagued by constant noise and the fact that momentum is abundant pale. At the beginning of CD I hear even some brief glitches. You often hear Levin not even in the mix. When you see him but listen, it sounds familiar soft and restrained. Berlin as he takes very stylistically back and plays almost continuously after the originals by Chris Squire, from the jazzy walking bass intro of "Close to the Edge" to the idiosyncratic melodies of "Long Distance Runaround". Even the sounds are different in two almost identical. Berlin is more present in the overall sound of his album, which is due to the better sound quality, but also plays audible rougher and more muscular than Levin, surprisingly. Wherein more on jazz-oriented bassist On the other hand, Levin plays to "Heart of the Sunrise" a richly funky bass, unusually, is not likely to please everyone.

Nice, some small additions: So Anderson sings a few bars of "Soon" at the end of "Disillusion", sometime play Wakeman and Bruford just a bit nimble jazz and even the 25-minute film by Julian Colbeck, the and the band before shows during the concert on 25 October, is a nice addition.

Finally, a dose of trivia: Bill Bruford had left the band just two weeks before the start of the "Close to the Edge" tour. Consequently, the concert, which was held on "Live at the NEC", one of the first in which he played the songs "And You and I" and "Close to the Edge" ever live! Maybe some interest to keep the listening in mind.

"Live at the NEC" is all in all a nice addition ABWH the catalog, but that it should now be content. Seven publications (I'm counting on Jon Anderson's "Watching the Flags That Fly" which included the demos for the second-ABWH ALbum "Dialogue") are truly enough for a band that only one studio album presented.

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