"Tales from Topographic Oceans" Being Remixed by Steve Wilson

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by rstamberg, Nov 24, 2015.

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  1. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    Listen to it on the live Yesshows. Anything but silly. The best ever! :cool:
     
    pdenny likes this.
  2. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I will probably not spend much time listening to the 5.1 of this, as I don't have the tech to edit it down to the 55 minutes or so of worthwhile music in a 5.1 format.

    An edit would be the perfect bonus feature for me. Lose the chanting bits in particulate and some of the percussion and noodling interlues to focus on the great stuff in other parts.
     
    kenbefound likes this.
  3. You make it clear you are not fan of the album. It's a concept album and the development of the pieces both musically and lyrically are critical to the experience thematically.

    I just don't see this album as the "USA TODAY" of 70's art rock.
     
  4. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I am a fan of some of the music on the album. It's concept does nothing for me. I understand it has something to do with Hindu scripture but beyond that get nothing from it. I have tried, but I really don't get it.

    Really Jon Anderson's early to mid 70s lyrics work for me on a level somewhere between pure sound and evocation of images. I don't understand what he is talking about 99% of the time. In the late 70s, when he started writing lyrics that were comprehensible to me, I honestly liked them less than his older style of aural sound and imagery.

    But the highlights of this and Relayer make up a CDR that I find every bit as compelling as the one I compiled with all of CTTE and the highlights of Fragile.
     
    vinylphile likes this.
  5. PJayBe

    PJayBe Forum Resident

    Oceans is an album that will always divide opinion. It took the band to new heights of conceptuality (is that a word?) and took listeners patience to an extreme. I play it a lot, but don't always have the time to listen to the full album, so rather like watching a TV series boxset, I have to remind myself of where I'm up to!!!

    I'm sure that had it been released in the era of 75 minute CDs would have been vastly different. No need to make each side a similar length, but a more classical structure of making each part the right length. I wonder if the more noodley bits were added at the time to give a more balanced LP, and just what would we have been given 15 years later.

    A 5.1 mix will appeal to some and quite probably turn as many away.

    Philip
     
  6. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    It doesn't seem to frustrate all of us. I have no frustrations with it, like it as is, would enjoy the clarity and subtle differences Wilson's remixes bring.
     
  7. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    The feral growling there is pretty darn silly, IMO. Though I like most of "Ritual", particularly that live version, I've always found that part to be an ill-judged, self indulgent climax.
     
  8. milco

    milco Forum Resident

    I've never seen 'ritual' performed live, but am happy to concede that the percussion section probably works quite well with plenty of dry ice and a decent light show. On TFTO itself it's a huge mis-fire and completely interrupts the flow of the track. It also gives prog-haters the perfect stick to beat the entire musical genre with.
     
  9. CheezCache

    CheezCache Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florence, Alabama
    A remix of the album won't rewrite the music, but it might help us actually hear some of it. That alone might make it easier to understand the album.

    Those of you who seem keen on cutting out bits and pieces of Tales might need to spend more quality time with the whole album. I listened to it on a long drive the other day, and ended up enjoying a lot of it that I didn't find particularly interesting last time I listened to it. The more complex the art is, the more time and effort is required to understand and appreciate it.
     
    Saganomics, Lonson and Rne like this.
  10. Rne

    Rne weltschmerz

    Location:
    Malaver
    Well spoken.
     
  11. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    I've always been ambivalent about Tales. There are enough compelling ideas throughout to capture my imagination but also enough missteps to frustrate me (most notably the aimless noodling of much of "The Ancient" and the above mentioned drum freak out from "Ritual") and it's hard for me to shake the feeling some ideas were half baked. Still, I've reached the conclusion that no amount of editing would make Tales considerably more appealing to doubters. It is what it is and you just have to take the good with the not so good.
     
    vinylphile and Lonson like this.
  12. milco

    milco Forum Resident

    Agree. As McCartney would say, 'It's the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!' :agree:
     
    PhoffiFozz and Larry L like this.
  13. ledsox

    ledsox Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    I'm not holding my breath for this remix job and I'm now happy with my 72 min edit of the album made from a UK LP needledrop.

    Most of side 1 and 4 (minus most of the Ritual drum interlude) are intact in my edit but sides 2 and 3 did lose some padding. Works for me.

    I would be shocked if the band played the entire album in concert again. Maybe highlights and all of Revealing. That could down well.

    I would love a complete live version from the 70s to be released as I think this material improved in concert.
     
  14. The band is trying to take you somewhere, and if you hack it up, you'll never get there, or even close. It's not an album of instant gratification, if you want that, then just listen to Fragile. If you don't like Tales, then it's a reflection of you, not the band.

    What is it about? Read some Paramahansa Yogananda, or Pirsig.
     
  15. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I've tried to make edits of the Tales sides a couple of times and actually found it quite difficult to do too many seamlessly. There may seem to be an obvious thing to remove, like the drumming interlude, but then the music on either side of it doesn't fit together. They'll often repeat a section but go into and out of it in a slightly different way, so if you remove something the transitions don't work anymore. And even where it works, it's the kind of thing where you may think it should move along faster, but when you listen to an edit you realize it now jumps too quickly from one idea to another. Basically "it is what it is" was the conclusion I drew.

    I think you could rewrite it to make it shorter, that would be different.
     
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  16. pdenny

    pdenny 22-Year SHTV Participation Trophy Recipient

    Location:
    Hawthorne CA
    The promo LP of Tales was banded (not that it gained the album any air play at the time) and if it ever sees light of day via Steve Wilson I'm hoping it will be indexed so one could easily get past any section they don't enjoy.
     
  17. vinylphile

    vinylphile Forum Resident

    Really? It all sprung from the tangent inspired by your dissing of modern musicians and their use of computers. We appear to be back on track now.
     
    Lonson likes this.
  18. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I have spent more quality time with it now that I have edited out the amelodic chanting and soporific drum solos.

    There is some good music there and in the modern age no need to do penance by each time listening to chanting somehow related to Hindu scriptures in order to get to it.
     
  19. PhoffiFozz

    PhoffiFozz Forum Resident

    I agree with this. I made some edits years ago, worked a long time on how to get them to work out right. Ended up really proud of what I did and I loved it, for about a week when I realized that I just end up missing all the parts I edited out. And realized things that I thought weren't that great, really need to be there to continue to accent the greatness of the great parts.

    Now many years later, I just listen and love the whole thing.
     
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  20. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    Agreed. As much as I think that the drum freak out section from "Ritual" falls short, it was obviously conceived as the dramatic climax for the whole piece. If you take it out, there's just a big gaping hole in the composition and the tender closing bit that follows is robbed of some of its power.
     
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  21. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Yes I miss out on the whole excitement of listening to good music again as I cut out the 10 minutes of rhythmic noise. It is the price I pay for listening to uninterrupted good music.
     
  22. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    So where did you cut so removing it sounded seamless?
     
  23. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I can't tell you exactly where I cut. I kept the beginning and end of the percussion segment and tried to cut out the middle on the beat so I got a percussion segment that is under a minute long. If there is a bit of a mismatch in the percussion segment it is less annoying to me than sitting through the whole thing.
     
  24. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Ah I see. I couldn't be bothered to analyze the percussion section closely enough to cut it down -- by that time you've listened to it so many times you've lost the point of editing it!
     
  25. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    What chanting are you talking about? The only thing I can think of is the immediate opening to the whole album.

    That's how his lyrics work for everybody! Did you really think people try to figure out the cosmic meaning behind the words?
     
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