"Tales from Topographic Oceans" Being Remixed by Steve Wilson

If you like Close To The Edge, Relayer is in that same vein... Tales is a whole different animal. Having said that, there are parts of Tales that are among my favourite of Yes, but IMHO the compositions as a whole just don't have the coherence.

 

Hope this really happens. I got some catching up to do still don't have Relayer or Fragile done by SW. That will be remedied.
So I guess this will render my Tales 'edit' obsolete.

I feel side 1 and 4 are near top tier Yes and the middle sides much not so much but still interesting for a fan.

 

Relayer is white hot, going to places no other mainstream succesfull prog rock band ever did. It still amazes me what unfettered disregard for convention Yes had at this point, carefree to the point of recklessness. And they still sold a bucketful of records and packed houses round the world.

 

Makes me wish even more that SW would get the rights to do the Genesis catalog.....

 

Has there ever been talk of doing vinyl releases of these SW Remixes?

Love,
Billy

 

I'd like to see the first two LPs as well. I do think the first is very underrated. Whereas I think the second's poor reputation is earned – which is why I'm hopeful a Steve Wilson remix could make something interesting of it!

 

IMHO this is one of Anderson's finest moments but not Yes's; Squire is a bit muted and lukewarm, Wakeman disliked the album and White was finding his feet. Anderson and Wakeman have both said that there was too much material for a single LP but that to fill four sides there was a lot of padding. Anderson has mentioned that he'd like to edit it to a single CD, presumably 60 min or so, which would be interesting.

 

I agree on seeing the first 2 albums done as well, but I feel exactly the opposite, although I'm not crazy about the strings or some of the mix on Time and a Word, I pretty much love just about every song on there. Whereas although I like a lot on the first album, it does have that 'first album' quality to it where I feel a lot of the songs would have been a bit better if they were recorded a little later.

 

I get people who dislike Tales, I get people who love it and I get people who are in between.

I think "The Revealing Science of God" is wonderful, but it's the kind of wonderful that needs to grow on you. It doesn't ever get to the crazy dynamic of things like "Close to the Edge" or "Heart of the Sunrise", but the melodies and different transitions are like a bunch of really great rock/pop songs together to make one dynamic piece. I love that one.

I feel "Ritual" is an exciting ride and it's really the live versions that made me realize how great of a piece that is as well. I think part of the problem is the nature of how it was put together but they were able to make it more cohesive live, which in turn makes me appreciate the studio version.

"The Remembering" has some beautiful melodies and great work, but I can see where maybe it was a great idea stretched out with not-as-great ideas to fill a side. Almost like it could have been better if it was worked on as it's own piece as opposed to this bigger concept.

"The Ancient" is something I personally love a lot, because there are so many cool moments and great ideas, but as an overall piece I can see how it doesn't work. And it probably suffers from some of the same elements that I mentioned in "The Remembering" comments. But I still love it and of course the whole "Leaves of Green" section is beautiful.

 

Small hijack - went to see them last week. Prior to the concert I kept worrying about the old saying "Never meet your heroes". Nothing to worry about, even w/o Jon and Chris, they were absolutely fantastic. Even went for "America" and got it perfectly right - absolutely album ready. Such a pleasure to watch real musicians do their thing - even old ones!

 

Claus is here to piss in everyone's Wheaties.

 

It's about friggen time. This has never sounded good in digital. It's about time it's done right.

 

So... I read this post from SW as a challenge to the YES team to go ahead and release Tales. "Come on, guys, this work is in the can... get it out there for people to hear." After 40 years, this is still a very divisive record.

 

I love the album and would welcome a Wilson remix.

 

I fear that this topic will be like the Kate Bush topic on the release of a concert DVD from her shows just over a year ago.

That is that I'll keep looking at every new post here with the hope that there will eventually be an official announcement with a release date - but all I'll find are comments about the album and speculation that it will be announced one day.

 

I'm definitely IN !!!!!!!!!

This album has never sounded good on CD, IMHO

It's about time

 

I hope he includes the long intro on 'The Revealing Science of God'.

 

I don't know what his remix is going to do to de-flabbify the thing, unless he remixes ten minutes off of each track. And I say that as a fan.

 

Why wouldn't he? It's on the Rhino so I assume it's what the band intended.

 

I expect he will but I'll chop it off. I always thought the vocal coming straight in was a great start to the album - one of its best features - and not what I was expecting when I first heard it. Then again, the long intro wasn't what I was expecting when I heard the Rhino, but I prefer it without.

 

Seems like he started Tales but doesn't sound like it was finished?

http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/for...r-Yes-reissues&p=257153&viewfull=1#post257153

 

I don't expect the new remix to include the extended intro but I'm sure it will be on the blu-ray!

 

Conceptually I've always loved Tales. In reality, it loses me, I think due in part to a sort of muddy mix. If Wilson can clean that up, it may become an all-time favorite. No matter what, ya gotta love that someone is working to make this creative endeavor even more enjoyable.

 

Mine shipped yesterday

 

Their best album