A FB Message from Steven Wilson

[Jerjo]

Really? I have always thought that original mixes of Yes and ELP albums are very good. Among the finest of seventies progressive rock. I mean I have nothing against Steven Wilson remixes generally but there was not anything inherently wrong about original mixes in these cases.

ELP fares better than Yes IMHO. Offord was great at helping the band in the studio but I've never been that impressed with the sound of a Yes album. Part of it is the band itself: Howe's tone is pretty thin and trebly, Squire plays in the upper register instead of providing a solid bottom. White/Bruford might be driving hard, but they're pushed back in the mix. So compared to some of the other British bands of that era, they sound thin and trebly. And then there is the atrocity of Yessongs, which takes definitive performances and makes them sound no better than what a fan could get with a single microphone fifteen rows back from the stage.

[Kcrimso]

ELP fares better than Yes IMHO. Offord was great at helping the band in the studio but I've never been that impressed with the sound of a Yes album. Part of it is the band itself: Howe's tone is pretty thin and trebly, Squire plays in the upper register instead of providing a solid bottom. White/Bruford might be driving hard, but they're pushed back in the mix. So compared to some of the other British bands of that era, they sound thin and trebly. And then there is the atrocity of Yessongs, which takes definitive performances and makes them sound no better than what a fan could get with a single microphone fifteen rows back from the stage.

Yessongs is of course failure. I was thinking studio albums. And mainly The Yes Album, Fragile and Close To The Edge which all sound great.