Aamu-TV {(2005-11-25)} dvd movie.|
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Aamu-TV {(2005-11-25)} description The music of Yes has an almost otherworldy sound that is occasionally hard to reconcile with the sight of five very ordinary blokes standing on a stage. As a result, Yes were arguably always better to listen to than watch. Keys to Ascension attempts to bridge the disparity between the band and their music with cutaway footage of forests and waterfalls and plenty of Roger Dean artwork. Sometimes it works; more often it feels contrived, as in "Turn of the Century," where attention is distracted from Steve Howe's fretwork by a pop video-style presentation of the Pygmalion story as told by the lyrics. This is the classic Yes lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, and Alan White, captured in concert in California in 1996 (the same concerts spawned no less than two double-CD albums). In a very generous 150 minutes of music making, they give what amounts to a greatest-hits tour of the classic Yes canon from "Time and a Word" through The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans, Going for the Once, and Tormato. For enthusiasts, it's a treat to watch Howe swapping from Martin six-string to Gibson semi-acoustic to electric mandolin to 12-string to pedal steel, sometimes all in the same song; or watch Chris Squire's apparently effortless bass technique. Occasionally they drift into Spinal Tap territory (Squire's triple neck in "Awaken"!) and overall there's a polished politeness to proceedings that hints at a band going through the motions, which is hardly surprising given that the latest material here dates from 1978. --Mark Walker |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | YES THIS IS WORTH IT! Are you kidding? |
| If every YES release was just another common concert dvd, we would be wishing for more concert visuals and psychedelic atmosphere, as this band is known for. Keys tries, albeit in an awkward way, to fill that void, and for me it succeeds pretty well (many of the most atmospheric songs are presented just for that purpose).
A good chunk of the inserted video are close-ups of various leads (over the full-stage image, or half screen), which I find invaluable for the glimpses of key moments of these great songs. Wakeman and Howe get most of the cameos appropriately, since they are the primary soloists (Squire is not forgotten, don't worry). Many other cool shots and angles are shown for a standing on the stage feel - you often feel you are right there with the drums. The flowery additions are not overwhelming ... just interspersed for trippy effect. I'm watching on a very large front projection screen with a nice audio system, so maybe that makes all the difference (so the visual clutter can be sorted out) ... I find it to be very enjoyable! As others have said, this is a set-list to die for basically and all of the performances are spot-on for the most part, in my opinion. I have Philly too - if you think there is ANY comparison in quality to this, I would wonder where you came up with that crazy notion, Philly is very short with very low quality production and nothing close to this song selection (it is STILL worth getting though). Symphonic is a superior production in many ways, as is Tsongas and House of YES when comparing the more recent offerings, but the actual playing and pure YES magic here is at a very high level in my opinion. Someone else pointed out that the old YES feel is very present on these performances: ALL OF THE CLOSE TO THE EDGE ALBUM, THE REVEALING SCIENCE OF GOD (up close and personal, really fantastic), the heaviest bits of the Going for the One album, America (the long version), beautiful renditions of Time and a Word, Roundabout and Onward, AWAKEN, the ever fun and jammin' I've Seen All Good people and Starship Trooper... I ask you again, WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE? I enjoy floating around with the visuals as I watch the individual performances (I am a musician and have always been totally inspired by this band). They show close-ups of hands (YES, all of us musicians would like a multi-angle option to focus on any player at will ... that would be sweet) more often than most concert dvd's, and I have many. By the way, Steve's performance is excellent, as usual; they all seem to be completely dialed-in. It is astonishing how well they have preserved the YES magic! No, it's not sheer perfection by any means, but all big fans of 70's YES should be halfway to the Pearly Gates and ready to open them with these keys. The so-called huge flaws everyone seems to be obsessing about just aren't an issue in my mind. YES members don't need to cheat to perform their great songs, they are consummate professionals in every way. Enjoy this great slice of the YES journey (on Amazon, 5 stars simply means I LOVE IT); thank you YES for this great offering. If they release another cleaned up or expanded version someday, all the better and I will certainly get it. Hearing your wonderous stories - all for the price of a cheap t-shirt, @*#^ YES THIS IS WORTH IT! |
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