Yes - Tormato*

There's really only two things that suck about Tormato. Side 1 and side 2.

I love ELP up to and including their big live album....everything after that, not so much.

 

I really like "Big Generator".

 

Listened to "Tormato" again this morning while at the gym. Headphone listening always reveals so many more of the layers and intricate parts that maybe get pushed back in the mix (or pushed UP in the case of Wakeman and Howe at times). My take-away on the album (as many have probably mentioned over the years):

1. Overall, some melodic catchy songs following up GFTO's push towards slightly more accessible, commercial music.
2. There are some really good bass lines, guitar parts, and drumming throughout.
3. The keyboard sounds are dated and feature, in my opinion, the less-desirable aspects of synth players in prog: overly-busy playing and dodgy-sounding synth patches.
4. "Circus Of Heaven" is bad. : )

Some of us have mentioned over the years a desire for a "Steven Wilson remix/remaster" for Tormato. Probably never happen in a million years, but I, for one, would be all over it! As I was relistening, I kept hearing cool guitar parts, backing vocals, etc. that I thought could be brought forward, mixed better, and simply "re-imagined" (with the original parts) for a more palatable album. If I was doing the remix, I would consider the following ideas (for starters)

1. Bringing up/out Chris Squire's backing vocals on....everything!
2. Adding a little more presence to Jon Anderson's vocals - at times it sounds a little dry and maybe some slight use of effects/ambiance might liven it up at times.
3. Reposition the Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman's parts throughout the songs. Too often they are competing for space and both players are guilty of over-playing throughout the album.
* "Future Times/Rejoice": try to better balance the interplay between the two. Give each part more separation in the mix, and also reduce the times when they are playing over each other.
* "Don't Kill The Whale": similar approach.
* "Madrigal": bring down the synth washes in the back, and focus more on the harpsichord and the classical guitar. Bring the Howe's nylon string up more in the mix.
* "Release Release": again, bring down the synths and focus more on the electric guitars and the rhythm section

 

Every single Yes album has some wonderful moments. Every single one.

 

I've always enjoyed this album the day it came out to now. There's nothing wrong with it in my opinion, it holds my interest, and is a nicely diverse piece of work. The Yes Album to Tormato is Yes to me!

 

Tormato ?

Darn...I thought it was

Tormatoe !

I never did much pay attention to it. Least favorite of all Yes material thru Drama.

 

Indeed, and for Tormato the subtle charm is 'Onward'.

 

Love Beach is a very good album. Being as you like it you might like Tormato too.
I think Tormato is much better, it is more true to the Yes sound than Love Beach is to ELP. Although it really doesn't stray far from the typical ELP sound.

 

You can use the Dan Quayle spelling if you like.

 

Tormato, like so many albums before and since, has some good songs and some, er, not so good songs. I prefer to spend my time listening to the good songs. No "hate" involved.

That said, I liked Yes up through Tales From Topographic Oceans. After that, things got rather too inconsistent for me.

 

Have you heard Magnification? Much of the later Yes material could have very well been written in the early seventies. Much of it has an early Yes vibe to it except with far better production.

 

Between GFTO and Tormato I save Awaken and Onward and nothing else. Two quite forgettable records by a band that at the time was more cheesy than Spinal Tap.

 

Here's an interesting fact from XTC's Andy Partrige!!
XTC ‏@xtcfans Jun 17
THE CORRECTOR-Before seeing the GO2 cover we were offered many at Hipgnosis,one of them being what ended up as TORMATO by Yes.

 

An album that sounds refreshing after the longform material on the previous albums. I'm not putting down Going For The One etc., but I just think Tormato was a necessary step for the band to make.

 

Interesting., but probably incorrect..I thought the cover was shot at Yes Tor, to tie in with the original planned title?

Also, Tormato was released a month before Go 2.

 

Well its not quite as bad as its reputation suggests, but then I've never heard anything that was. Every album I've heard - no matter how bad its reputation - will have something to recommend it - even if its just one song <cough> 'On The Silent Wings Of Freedom' <cough>

Its got a couple other decent songs, but its unlistenable for me as a full album (listening from beginning to end in one sitting).

I'd rate it last among the first pre-breakup/hiatus era albums. Yes - I prefer the first two albums, Drama and even TFTO (very slightly) to Tormato.

Some of the keyboard sounds are terrible (I'm assuming the worst sounds come from Wakeman's newly aquired Birotron (which I believe he invested in the development of) - a Mellotron-type keyboard that used 8-track cartridges for its sounds). Apparently it floundered because shortly after its first (only?) production run, polyphonic synths came on the market and rendered the Birotron (not to mention the Mellotron) pretty much obsolete.

Anyway IIRC the Tormato remaster CD booklet said that Wakeman and Howe weren't working together as they had in the past to create complementary gtr/kbd sounds and arrangements. I wonder if Steven Wilson (if he's hired to remix it) can redeem it a bit, but maybe not as it would likely require changing some of the individual instrumental sounds pretty significantly (which is probably possible to do, but has no precedent that I'm aware of in Wilson's previous remix work for Yes - or anyone else he's remixed for that matter).

 

Really like Future Times, Madrigal and OTSWOF (despite the awful drums sound in the first 30 seconds are so), but Circus is twee and Onward is a dirge. Arriving UFO would have made a perfect Yesyears or Rhino bonus track. Release suffers from that horrible fake crowd noise - what was that all about? - and the keys and production are horrible.

Nevertheless, I would love for Steven Wilson to have a crack at it. Brian Kehew mentioned that the thin production is down to wrongly calibrated Dolby issues, so it would be nice to hear how it should sound.

 

The production for me too. Also, what do you think of Steve's guitar tone? To me, it just lost all of its personality on this album. It had no edge to it at all. I guess it has to do with the Les Paul tone.

 

Obviously it's subjective like anything else, but Love Beach is in my opinion one of the worst albums of all time, by any band. So bad you have to wonder if it was intentionally done as humor....especially the lyrics! I don't think Tormato is in the same league.

 

The Yes Album by Album Thread (Part 2)

Tormato

Released Released September 1978
Produced by Yes and Brian Lane

Jon Anderson: vocals, percussion, Puerto Rican cuatro (mistakenly labeled as an Alvarez 10-string guitar) (tracks 1, 6 and 9)
Steve Howe: Gibson Les Paul Custom, Martin 00045 (track 2), Spanish Guitar (track 4), Fender Broadcaster (track 5), acoustic Gibson guitar, Gibson ES-175 (track 9), mandolin (track 7), vocals
Chris Squire: Rickenbacker bass guitar, Gibson Thunderbird bass guitar (track 5), piano (track 3), bass pedals (tracks 1, 4 and 6), vocals
Rick Wakeman: piano (track 6), Hammond organ (tracks 1, 2 and 5), Polymoog synthesizer (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, and 9), Birotron (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9), harpsichord (track 4), RMI Electra Piano (track 9)
Alan White: drums, glockenspiel (track 1), crotales (tracks 1, 4, 7 and 8), cymbals (track 4), bell tree (track 4), drum synthesizer (track 6), gongs (track 6), vibraphone (track 8), vocals

"Future Times/Rejoice" (Yes)
The verse progression is a simple G-D affair and signals a changes from the start. The chorus is the same progression. The themes are pretty good but Steve sounds a little mechanical at times. The verse arrangement changes and is pretty interesting but stays pretty simple. There is an interlude section where the theme is played in variation by Steve. Not bad but somewhat different for the band.

Don't Kill The Whale(Anderson/Squire)
Jon's most straightforward lyrics. B Minor key gives it a somewhat sad/passive sound I guess to go along with the sad lyrics. A weepy sounding D Minor chorus section follows with sounds from the synth that mimic Whale calls. Ok I guess.

Madrigal(Wakeman/Anderson)
A baroque sounding tune in D Major. Steve is pretty good in this one. I think the lyrics are about aliens walking among us. Ends with a whimper like they did not know where to take the song.

Release,Release(Anderson/White/Squire)
A pretty good intro goes thru some key changes and the verse winds up on a Db boogie. The chorus is pretty good though and goes thru some key changes. A stupid descending vocal line leads to an even more stupid drum "solo" and bad guitar fills by Steve who sounds like he barely makes it thru them.

Arriving UFO(Anderson/Howe/Wakeman)
A G Major based tune that has some really cheesy sounding themes that steal from Ravel. Pretty lame if you ask me. I guess Rick's fills are OK but the whole band sounds so weak that the keyboard fills drag along. Pretty bad IMO.

Circus of Heaven(Anderson)
Another song that sounds like Jon had a bad melody day. Tries to sound too psychedelic. Crappy E-B progression that sounds like the band is trying to polish a turd.

Onward(Squire)
F Major orchestral sounding tune from Chris. Has a pretty good little motif based on a static sounding line in seconds that takes the place of the strings. The bassline is pretty good too. The first great melody on the entire album. The chorus is nice with A minor-Bb-C and ascends nicely. Modulates to G at the end. Probably my favorite song on the album.

On the Silent Wings of Freedom(Anderson/Squire)
Starts off like a limp. With drums that sound really bad and oh well....everything sounds bad. Overblown echoey lines from Steve. The intro goes on for too long. Everything is too processed sounding. By the time the first verse shows up, I really don't care what it sounds like. However, it is not too bad but sounds like it needed more work. This has to be one of the worst cases of lack of ensemble playing to date.

Their first misstep in some ways. Could have been a lot better with some changes to production and the melodic lines. Chris Squire sounds lost on this one. I guess you have to give them a break for experimenting with different structures and such. Onward is a great tune though. It sounded really bad production wise on the vinyl copy I had the first time I heard it. It just sounded weak and thin. Steve's guitar has no edge to it IMO. I guess I like his crackly sounding tone better. I think the overuse of the Les Paul did not help but that is strictly my thing. However, IMO the guitar tone weakens the sound of the album. Very little edge in the whole affair.

 

It's never particularly bothered me, but you're certainly not alone in thinking this.

 

Other fans have said the same thing to me.
I had to go back and see what I said about the album on the ABA Thread. I pounded it pretty bad.

 

Much of Wakeman's cheesy sounding synth on Tormato should be attributed to the Polymoog, which was Moog's first commercial stab at making a polyphonic synth. I remember playing one in instrument stores at the time, and I thought it was decent at making organ, string and choir sounds...but not much else.

 

Yes I do have Magnification, and I like it a lot, and some of the other later albums too. My point, I guess, was that there's Close To The Edge, Fragile, TFTO... and then there's everything else. To me, they never again matched the level of those three records.

(and yes, I intentionally left Relayer out. Never took to Relayer at all, and always felt that Patrick Moraz was a complete mis-fit, musically, with Yes)

 

Precisely whey I love Tormato.

I prefer the sound of Howe's guitar runs, Wakeman's Keys, Squire's bass and backing vocals, and the percussion of White (or Bruford) over Anderson's vocals.