Send "Yes " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 The story of Fly From Here certainly earns its prog-rock brownie points. It is, after all, a piece of ancient Yes history, no matter how insignificant: Downes and Howe put the “Fly From Here” epic to the band thirty-one years ago now, prior to Downes joining the band for Drama, their last record as heroes of their genre. Lifting the track from the archives so late in the band’s existence seems like obvious prog-rock gratification, much in the same way no one really wants to see Genesis play Twickenham unless Peter Gabriel is present to bat Phil Collin’s pop-rock to the side. Fly From Here, instead, keeps its promise to the faithful by giving its crowd a categorically Yes piece of music. It’s got keyboard geekery to the left, Spanish guitars to the right, and twenty-five minutes of the same song split into parts because, well, the song makes no sense as a cohesive piece. That is about as Yes as “Starship Trooper” or “Close to the Edge” ever were, and even if the lyrics occasionally show what love-sick way Yes might have been with 90125, this is a prog-rock record that keeps its unabashedly nerdy promises. So yes, weirdly enough, 2011 is a kinda classic Yes year: Downes is back to play keyboards, Howe is present to make true the concepts of their epic, and even Chris Squire hangs about to play bass, if only to maintain that he has played on every Yes album in existence. Fly From Here certainly gives being Yes a good go.Of course, that’s all it can really give. This isn’t Yes even if Downes and Howe are proudly digging up their musical venture, even if Squire is eternally present. This is, regardless of that, the Replacement Yes Act, created with some bizarre wish to replicate rather than develop. Any fan will immediately reflect on the absence of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, the arguable pull of what made Yes a cinematic prog-rock band in the first place: the iconic vocals of Anderson and then innovatively fragmented musical song writing of Wakeman is really the band’s legacy, so it feels both suitable and laughably weird that for this record, an imitator of the former sings and the son of the latter plays keys. Benoît David, hired for his performance in a Yes tribute band of all things, gives a vocal performance that certainly plays near to his idol's styling, but as a result the record fails to update what was good about Yes to their new era, and also reads as a stupid move for a track that was proudly stamped as the work of Downes and Howe. This seems to kind of be the point in this demo- that it plays so obviously like “Close to the Edge” or even a less epic, shorter trademark Yes track, but the fact it has been revamped by Replacement Yes, or Yes 4 Teens, that it has started disputes between the new band (with Oliver Wakeman leaving during recording), suggests that Yes are attempting to make fresh music by remaking the tired and out-of-tune 70s. And not in the typical prog-rock way: this is a literal reading, given keyboard noises that make it sound as stupidly old as possible to offer a new (yet definitely old!) piece of Yes. Fly From Here can’t help but feel built on a lot of head-spinning contradictions....full text |
| Guitarinternational |
| Progressive rock giants Yes are one of the the most influential bands in rock ‘n’ roll history, and they are making a comeback. They are set to release a new album, entitled Fly from Here, and it comes out via Frontiers Records on July 1st in Europe and July 12th in North America. Fly From Here is the decade-in-waiting follow-up to Yes’ 2001 album Magnification, and a return to 1983′s 90125 producer Trevor Horn. This incarnation of Yes includes singer Benoit David, guitarist/vocalist Steve Howe, bassist/vocalist and founder Chris Squire, keyboardist Geoff Downes, and drummer Alan White. This will be Benoit David’s first studio recording with the band. Steve Howe gives some insight into what the album will sounds like: “At last we have some shape and dynamics within these tracks that are truer to the original idea of what a Yes recording is about.” Squire continued, “The new album represents the best of Yes from the ‘70s and the ‘80′s with a current twist.” With Fly From Here, we see Yes get back to what they do best: epic proportions. The first single, which will be digitally released on June 13th, is “We Can Fly,” and it came from a musical idea from a while ago, but it has taken on a life of its own. Over the course of writing this record, it has transformed into a giant, six-part epic of a piece of music. It, and the rest of the album, feature the virtuosic performances that Yes has become known for over their long and storied careers....full text |
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