Relayer

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Relayer
Studio album by Yes

Publication
(s)

5th December 1974

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

3

running time

40:27

occupation

production

Yes and Eddie Offord

Studio (s)

Eddie Offord's mobile studio

chronology
Tales from Topographic Oceans
(1973) 		Relayer Yesterdays
(Compilation 1975)
Going for the One
(studio album 1977)

Relayer is an album by the British progressive rock band Yes from 1974. With the 8th album in total, Yes released their 7th studio work.

Emergence

After keyboardist Rick Wakeman left the band for good in 1974 because of the dispute over the creation of the previous album Tales from Topographic Oceans , the four remaining musicians Jon Anderson , Steve Howe , Chris Squire and Alan White were looking for an adequate replacement for the accomplished keyboardist . At the same time they worked together with producer Eddie Offord, who now owned a mobile studio, in Squire's "Barn" studio (Squire's own equipment was not yet built in) on first ideas for Relayer . Anderson came up with the idea of ​​basing the entire album on Tolstoy's novel War and Peace , but was overruled by the rest of the band given their experience with Tales from Topographic Oceans . It was agreed to work on the topic in a page-long piece, as already happened in a similar form in the piece Close to the Edge on the album of the same name , which was based on Hermann Hesse's stories Siddharta and Die Morgenlandfahrt . Anderson then approached the band for the first time with a largely finished song idea: The Gates of Delirium . The piece was then created in collaboration with all musicians involved.

Even while the four were already looking for a successor, the contact with Wakeman did not break off, and they asked several times whether he would like to contribute his keyboard playing to the new record. A final attempt by manager Brian Lane to get Wakeman back was on May 18, 1974, on Wakeman's 25th birthday. But he refused again, saying he no longer had access to the music that Yes was now producing. On the same day, Wakeman's solo album Journey to the Center of the Earth reached number one in the UK charts. For Wakeman, who remembers well to this day, it was a day with very mixed feelings, because he didn't like to leave Yes. At the same time, however, he was already concentrating on his new solo project, The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table , his fourth solo album. When he was in the hospital a few weeks later with a heart attack and Jon Anderson visited him, the two spoke again about the situation and Anderson realized that he had no chance of bringing Wakeman back.

Allegedly every candidate was considered. Steve Howe, for example, would have liked to see Keith Emerson in the band, but this was never actually an option because of his involvement with Emerson, Lake and Palmer . Other names traded were Nick Glennie (von Wally) and Jean Roussel. One candidate came from Sweden, another from Greece: Vangelis Papathanassiou. The latter rehearsed with the band for two weeks, but concentrated work was hardly possible with the eccentric keyboardist. Since his fear of flying also spoke against him, it was decided against him. Howe in particular had not gotten along with the Greek, but Anderson stayed in touch with Vangelis and in the 1980s they released a number of successful albums under the name Jon & Vangelis .

At the beginning of August 1974, when work on Relayer was already well advanced, Yes' manager Brian Lane approached refugee keyboarder Patrick Moraz and invited him to an audition with the band. The musician, who was born in French-speaking Switzerland , was reluctant to accept, as his own band had recently released a successful debut album and was in the middle of an equally successful tour of England. After a life-threatening start (Lane almost ran over Moraz when he was about to pick him up to take him to the Chris Squires Barn Studio in Rickmansworth), the first session was very encouraging. Moraz knew the music of Yes inside out and played some of the Refugee album. The band disclosed their current project. Anderson asked Moraz to come up with an intro for the song Sound Chaser , whereupon Moraz improvised the introduction that can be heard on the album today. Despite the supposedly cool, distant and tense atmosphere in the band, Moraz decided on Yes. He asked Brian Lane to compensate his fellow musicians Lee Jackson and Brian Davison financially and dissolved Refugee. Relayer was completed in the following weeks . The band took their time as they were independent of a rented studio with Offord's mobile studio. Anderson, Howe, Squire and White did their best to help Moraz familiarize themselves with the band's music, including the older albums. Apart from the intro to Sound Chaser , Moraz had little influence on the compositions, as they had already been developed quite well by the time he joined.

Track list

  1. The Gates Of Delirium (21:54) (Anderson / Howe / Squire / White / Moraz)
  2. Sound Chaser (9:30) (Anderson / Howe / Squire / White / Moraz)
  3. To Be Over (9:03) (Anderson / Howe / Squire / White / Moraz)

The album was remastered and re-released in 2003 by the record label Rhino Records . This edition contains the bonus tracks:

  1. Soon (Single version) - 4:18
  2. Sound Chaser (Single version) - 3:13
  3. The Gates of Delirium (Studio run through) - 21:16

In 2014 a remixed version of the album was released by Steven Wilson . Compared to the 2003 remaster, the CD version lacks the track The Gates of Delirium (Studio run through). The Blu-Ray version contains the CD as well as the remixed version in 2.0 and 5.1 and the "Studio run through" version in 24 bit / 96 kHz, the original mix in 24/192 and bonus material such as Needledrops of the original Records and an instrumental mix of the three main tracks.

Remarks

  • The concept of The Gates Of Delirium developed by Jon Anderson is based on Tolstoy's novel War and Peace . The idea of using non-musical noises ( musique concrète ) came from Patrick Moraz.
  • The intro of Sound Chaser was improvised by Moraz during the first rehearsal together. Another part was not taken over, it ended up in the song Warmer Hands on Moraz's first solo album The Story of i . Moraz's harmony ideas for the accompaniment of Steve Howe's guitar solo were not taken up either.
  • To Be Over is based on a musical idea called The Serpentine by Steve Howe, the lyrics are by Jon Anderson. Howe's original version has now been released on his solo album Homebrew 2 . The contrapuntal keyboard solo, reminiscent of a fugue, is Moraz's contribution.

Single releases

  1. Soon (Single Version) / Soon
  2. Soon (Single version) / Sound Chaser (Edit) August 1, 1975

Cover

The fold-out cover in shades of gray and brown was once again designed by fantasy artist Roger Dean . It shows a stony rock landscape in which two riders, with another pack horse, coming from a gothic rock fortress, pull over a bridge. At the bottom left you can see part of a presumably oversized snake, whose body continues on the back. The album title and the Yes logo are centered at the top. In the center of the back there is a second snake and the rock fortress also continues in a kind of Gothic cave. Roger Dean describes the Relayer picture as his most successful Yes album cover.

On the inside left is the Yes logo above, below it is a group picture, taken in Chris Squire's garden, from which a shed in the background was retouched. Below is the album title, the song title and some other album information. Centered on the right is a poem inspired by Roger Dean's cover by Donald Lehmkuhl, who had previously written the texts for the tour program for Tales from Topographic Oceans .

In 2003 the record label Rhino Records Relayer reissued. Because a DigiPak is a different format than an LP cover, some parts of the original Dean image have been added to the edges that cannot be seen on the LP cover. In addition, a picture of a bee, also drawn by Roger Dean, is now part of the inner cover, which was also intended for the LP, but was not realized.

reception

The album was released on December 5, 1974. It reached number 4 in the UK and number 5 in the American charts. Although structurally a step backwards in the days of Close to the Edge (a single, long composition on the first LP side, two songs on the second), it is considered a high point of the band's work and a milestone in progressive rock . Besides Tales from Topographic Oceans, it is the band's most demanding and most difficult to access album: No other work by Yes is so aggressive, and the band has deliberately taken a step back with the next, more accessible album, Going for the One . In this respect Relayer is definitely a turning point in the musical career of Yes, to this day none of their albums have ever been as consistent and uncompromising again.

Relayer is characterized by an aggressiveness that is unusual for Yes . This is not only expressed in the sharp, metallic sounding production, but also in many compositional details, such as at the beginning of Sound Chaser or in Steve Howe's guitar solo in the same piece. The lyrics are also unusual for Yes. The song The Gates Of Delirium says: "Kill them, Give them as they give us / Slay them, Burn their children's laughter on to hell!". Only in the final section Soon and To Be Over there are quieter passages. The last verse of To Be Over is "Be ready to be loved". In this piece, Howe and Moraz both play with Spanish / South American and even Polynesian influences, the title becomes a musically very individual, but fully in the spirit of the early 70s masterpiece.

Relayer's sound is controversial. Despite many different pressings and digital remasters, the sound quality of Relayer's songs is far behind other releases by the band. This is most evident in Soon and To Be Over . One of the reasons could be Eddie Offord's technically limited studio equipment, which was actually only designed for live recordings.

Concerts and solo works

Concerts 1974/75

The concerts on the Relayer tour were mostly sold out. Part of the success is certainly due to Roger Dean's stage set. Since the Tales from Topographic Oceans tour , he and his brother Martyn have been developing the band's set-ups.

The concert program was switched to the new album. The introductory Firebird Suite followed Sound Chaser , subsequently Close To The Edge , To Be Over, The Gates Of Delirium and And You and I . Ritual was added from the previous album , Roundabout was the conclusion or the first encore. Some other titles were changed again and again. One concert was filmed for later release:

Live 1975 at QPR

On May 10, 1975 Yes performed in front of 25,000 spectators at the Queens Park Rangers stadium in London ( Loftus Road ). This concert was filmed as the second release after Yessongs . In addition to the standard program, I've Seen All Good People , Long Distance Runaround , Clap and, as encores, Sweet Dreams and Yours Is No Disgrace were offered. This recording was released on video , laser disc and double DVD and documents the impressive live band.

Song list on DVD No. 1 : Sound Chaser, Close To The Edge, To Be Over, The Gates Of Delirium, Your Move / Mood For A Day, Long Distance Runaround / Moraz Piano Solo, Clap.
Song list on DVD No. 2 : And You And I, Ritual, Roundabout, Sweet Dreams, Yours Is No Disgrace.

In the surveys of English music magazines in 1975, Yes did extremely well. Relayer was voted the second best album of the year, Jon Anderson was third for the singers, Rick Wakeman was the best and Patrick Moraz was the third best keyboardist, Steve Howe was the second best guitarist, Alan White was fifth on the drums, Chris Squire was the best bass player and Anderson / Howe won the category " Composers ". Yes were voted the best music group.

Solo and solo tour 1976

In coordination with all band members, all musicians have now released solo albums, sometimes with mutual support. Howe and Squire released their albums first, followed by Moraz, White and Anderson. Especially Patrick Moraz's album Story Of I (often just I ) and Anderson's Olias Of Sunhillow received a lot of attention.

The tour that followed was initially shaped by these publications. Each musician played at least one song from his solo work, later this was restricted in favor of the band compositions, as the audience did not react to the solo material with the same enthusiasm. This tour was also very successful and a concert on June 12, 1976 brought 130,000 people to the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia . It was the biggest concert in the world that year.

Excerpts from this tour can be found on Yesshows , Yesyears , The Word Is Live and have been broadcast on various radio shows.

At the same time Yes were already working on the follow-up album Going for the One (1977). In July 1975 they played an early, almost three-minute version of Awaken (under the title High Vibration ) in Philadelphia and on June 6, 1976 the new song Wonderous Stories was performed once on the solo album tour (ur).

live

Live recordings of tracks on Relayer can be heard on Yesshows , Magnification (bonus CD) and The Word Is Live , among others .

Web links