Bacon, Lettuce and TORMATO

[JJ88]

Crazy fool and dreamer.

But you just knew that was coming, surely?

[Farpoint Kevin]

Disagree. While far form their best, half of the album is good. The good songs are:

Onward (exceptional)
Future Times/Rejoice
Release, Release
Silent Wings

This being said: Drama blows it away.

My thoughts EXACTLY. Except I kind of like Madrigal too. I think it's lovely.

[Sputnik]

Never will understand how the music put out by a band later in their career can negatively impact one's enjoyment of the music that came before. That's completely beyond me.

Well, not sure what to say, but that's been my experience. I guess all the acrimony and the poppy music just left a sour taste in my mouth, and when I put on an old Yes alum now, I can't help thinking what a mess it all became. I wish it weren't so, but that's how it is for me, and apparently some others. Glad you're immune.

"Rejoice, Rejoice" is wonderful.

Is this one of those bonus tracks on a reissue?

Bill

[StevegSr]

Even the music press squares dissed this album:

AllMusic Review by Paul Collins


The '70s model of Yes runs out of gas. Recorded in a morale slump and an impending haze of drink, Tormato's decent tunes are sabotaged by Rick Wakeman's increasing penchant for cheesy textures and the band's thin overall sound. "Don't Kill the Whale" was their last successful single for years; the soaring "Onward" almost but not quite redeems the twee silliness of "Arriving UFO" and "Circus of Heaven." Of special interest is the pounding "On the Silent Wings of Freedom," which pushes Chris Squire and Alan White to the front of the mix, establishing the kind of aggressive and straightforward rhythms that would propel the band through the '80s. Bass freaks, take note: this tune also marks one of the few appearances of the Dipthong pedal, accounting for Squire's distinctive "bow bow bow" sound.

[Adrian]

It was the first studio album from the "Classic" era that I heard after discovering Yes in late '83. So I have a bit of a soft spot for it. But I can also understand why those who'd been along for the ride throughout the '70s would have given the whole album a kind of sideways glance.

It always struck me as the opposite of TFTO. Where Tales had too few ideas being bled to death, Tormato had too many ideas scattered around and being crammed into shorter song structures. It feels like Rick and Steve spend most of the album stepping over each others' leads.

Still has some nice music, regardless. My favorites:

Future Times/Rejoice
Madrigal
Release, Release
Arriving UFO

I know "Onward" is a favorite of many fans, but it's never done much for me. "Silent Wings" has its moments but feels like it never really goes anywhere.

[DTA]

If they had expanded Silent Wings a bit, and given it a really climactic ending, it certainly would've improved the album overall. It's their first really weak ending to an album after a string of excellent closing songs. I'm of the opinion that stupid song titles can paint a negative opinion of the actual song regardless of whether the music is good or not, and this certainly is the case with Don't Kill The Whale and Arriving UFO, two really dumb song titles with very good music. Future Times/Rejoice is a good opener, but that synth is just ear-piercing and annoying. A less obtrusive synth would've certainly made it even more enjoyable. Release Release is great, though I might remove the crowd noise. Onward and Madrigal are actually pretty good as they are. Madrigal could've been expanded as well and developed more, but Onward is perfect IMO. Circus of Heaven should've been left off and replaced with a couple extra minutes on Silent Wings and Madrigal.

[aith01]

No, it doesn't, but I think a band can be tainted for some by their later activities. I think some of the shenanigans with line-ups has done this with Yes, more than the music they've put out.

Now that's something I can understand.

Well, not sure what to say, but that's been my experience. I guess all the acrimony and the poppy music just left a sour taste in my mouth, and when I put on an old Yes alum now, I can't help thinking what a mess it all became. I wish it weren't so, but that's how it is for me, and apparently some others. Glad you're immune.

The acrimony and drama between the band members is off-putting to me as well, so I can understand where you're coming from. But cognitive dissonance being what it is, it can be possible to enjoy the music made by a person or people even if they are complete and utter jerks in real life.

[moecurlythanu]

But you just knew that was coming, surely?

Oh yes.

[Rufus]

Oh yes.

ATTWT was when they sold out, fans jumped ship & attracted a new audience that the majority had no idea they use to be a prog band! FACT!

[Bruno Sampaio Barbosa]

"Brian Kehew (bonus): Digging in the Vaults
BY LARRY CRANE

Have you had any crazy technical issues?

We were going through Yes' Tormato tapes. Producer/engineer Eddie Offord had started the album -he had done most of the Yes records and I know from working on his tracks that he used Dolby A a lot. These tapes don't say Dolby A, but Tormato is a famously bad-sounding record. They parted ways with him mid-course and somebody else finished the record. So I'm looking at the tapes and it doesn't say Dolby A anywhere on them — it's typical that they note that when encoded — but I said, "Hold on a second, let me put Dolby on this." And everything — except for some of the later overdubs — sounded amazing. I went, "Aha!" I think we realized what happened. They went to somebody else and the other person didn't see Dolby on the tapes.

Because that record did sound kind of murky...

Thin, flat and terrible. I accidentally discovered the bad secret of it: that it could have sounded a whole lot better. "

http://tapeop.com/interviews/93/brian-kehew-bonus/

"Sergio Mallorga
Hi, Brian. I’m a Yes fan from Chile and I want to thank you for making this project a reality; I regard it as a restored mega-yessongs and I’m looking forward to buy it (as well as your Recording The Beatles book!). After reading with amazement the technical info about Progeny, I’ve got two questions for you: 1) Would it be possible to make this same restoration treatment to the whole of Yessongs?; and 2) I read your comment on the Dolby NR issue on Tormato. Do you know if Steven Wilson is aware of it in case he remixes that album? Best regards.

1) We think Yessongs stands on its own, it’s still one of the great live records of all time. It is very likely that some of the songs have no Dolby issues as they were recorded on different tours. So they could not be easily “improved” as we did here. However, you can hear a newer version of some of those Yessongs tracks – they’ve just been done for you in this box! And many more to hear…

2) I don’t know if Steven knows of the Tormato issue – it’s rarely been discussed anywhere. That’s certainly an album that would benefit from a remix with corrected Dolby issues. Too bad they didn’t catch it back in the day! "

http://yesworld.com/2015/03/yes-prog...m-seventy-two/

[JJ88]

^Very interesting. (As an aside I wonder whether Tarkus had something similar go wrong.)

I think GFTO would benefit more from a remix, though. Not least because there are other issues with Tormato.

[Phlakaton]

Disagree. While far form their best, half of the album is good. The good songs are:

Onward (exceptional)
Future Times/Rejoice
Release, Release
Silent Wings

This being said: Drama blows it away.

Pretty much opinion too.

[Yodelgoat]

I think from Tales up until Drama, Yes basically produced some very poorly mixed/produced albums. I am interested in picking up an un-remastered version of Tormato, since I dont have it in my collection. I'd like to run it through some software I have and see if it can be salvaged. I recall the album sounded so bad I could not even make it through a single full run. Like GFTO, Tales and Relayer the production just turned me off of Yes and I had to stop listening. It was like someone was out to destroy them by screwing up their album sound. I had great luck with Tales by using software called Har-Bal. many of you who are musicians have similar software that does compression, eqing, exciting noise reduction... So its nothing revolutionary, but its great for what it can do. I am looking forward to trying it on Tormato as well. Yes IS a great band and they are great songwriters, and great musicians. The supporting staff around them - management and Technical just let them down horribly, by allowing inferior products to be released. IMHO...

The link where I discussed this more at length is:
http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...ering-software

The results are truly worth hearing. now I absolutely love Tales as much as any other Yes album.

[moecurlythanu]

ATTWT was when they sold out, fans jumped ship & attracted a new audience that the majority had no idea they use to be a prog band! FACT!

Not a fact at all. The rot didn't show up until Duke, and the full on "sell-out" didn't take place until the albums that followed, in increasing degrees.

The loss of Steve Hackett on ATTWT was a major blow, but it doesn't equate to a "sell-out."

[yamishogun]

Indeed, a few other songs were around in these sessions that were far better...songs that Anderson used after leaving the band.

Which songs were those?

[mozo-pg]

I saw the tour (In the Round). It was a wish come true.

[jazz2896]

I rather enjoy this record, the only song I can't stand is "Circus from Heaven". To me this album is kind of a transition from the 70's to the 80's, especially technology wise. It sounds like Wakeman and Squire found some new space-age synths and auto-wah pedals that were cutting edge at the time and just had a field day with them. There's still plenty of charm to it, and I would much rather listen to this album than anything after Drama (minus Keys).

[SteveSly]

Disagree. While far form their best, half of the album is good. The good songs are:

Onward (exceptional)
Future Times/Rejoice
Release, Release
Silent Wings

This being said: Drama blows it away.

Like Kevin, I would also add "Madrigal", but this pretty much sums up the best parts of the album. I would also agree that "Drama" is a much better album overall.

[Fracktured]

I revisited this today and my thoughts on this festering turd hasn't changed. It's a fucking mess from beginning to end. To my ears, it sounds like a tape being dubbed at high speed.

So you figured it was a good opportunity to take a shit on the album?

While I don't find it to rank high amongst their classic material, I do find it like all Yes albums through Drama to have a separate entity of it's own. While so many bands were re-writing the same songs over and over Yes tried to produce something different every time and Tormato was no different. Madrigal is a beautiful piece of music with wonderful lyrics. It has cheese but I still enjoy it and play it once in awhile. It takes me back to an earlier time in my life when I didn't need a reason to smile. To me it's the last Yes album that I truly enjoy. Future Times has such a great guitar keyboard intro.

[Progbear]

I know "Onward" is a favorite of many fans, but it's never done much for me.

I absolutely detest that song. It’s the Yes version of 70s easy listening MOR pop drivel. Seriously, stick it on a playlist in between “Torn Between Two Lovers” and “Annie’s Song” and nobody would bat an eyelash.

[jake]

Its about 50/50 great/shite and its the first of many non-essential Yes albums. A massive comedown from Going For The One. After that they just got louder and more declamatory a journey which reached its ugly end with Owner of a Lonely Heart.

[strawberrybrick]

I was a huge fan of this album when it came out.

For me, the problem with a lot of these 70s records is that I've been listening to them since the 70s. I'm just worn out on them. The only Yes I really enjoy now is first few albums... they still have excitement for me, especially Time and a Word. IMHO, of course.

[Sputnik]

The acrimony and drama between the band members is off-putting to me as well, so I can understand where you're coming from. But cognitive dissonance being what it is, it can be possible to enjoy the music made by a person or people even if they are complete and utter jerks in real life.

Surely true, and often I find that to be the case. But I guess Yes just meant a whole lot more to me at one point, and it's been hard for me to watch them devolve into this erzatz half-life. For me, it just subverts a lot of the positivity of their greatest music. It's not like I can't listen to them and enjoy it, but it's tinged now with some negative feelings, so I don't play their stuff as often as I otherwise might.

I saw the tour (In the Round). It was a wish come true.

Word. Without a doubt the best show I ever saw, absolutely blew my mind and changed my life. They definitely brought the goods on that tour, even the Tormato material gets some fresh life. I still think the Wembley version of Madrigal/Silent Wings is one of the best live recordings I've ever heard. I wish that Philadelphia DVD had better sound and a better setlist, but it's still cool to see the band just a night or two after i saw them in Springfield, MA in 1979.

Bill

[YESHEAD777]

Dont understand the hate for this album, never will. Love everything on it except circus of Heaven. When this album was released and they toured it, I was 16! i'll never forget it! but its not just fond memories. I can still listen to it today as much or more than the 6 that preceeded it and appreciate it!

[Svetonio]

Tormato is the last great Yes' album with, sadly, another anti-Roger Dean artwork.