DPRP Poll 2012

The Dutch Progressive Rock Pages do an annual poll and their 2012 results were recently announced with a total of 723 votes. So I thought I'd review how Yes-related acts performed last year. While Yes etc. did well in 2011, Yes-related acts were less prominent this year, although The World is a Game by Mystery and I am Anonymous by Headspace (Adam Wakeman's new band) did well and there were some positive results by Squackett, Asia and daddy Wakeman.

In the Best Album category, the winner was Big Big Train's English Electric (Part One), with The World is a Game #11 and I am Anonymous, #20. Squackett's A Life Within a Day was the next highest album with a Yes connection at #37. The Flower Kings' "Numbers" won Best Track. Mystery came #23 with "Pride" and #24 with "Another Day". Headspace's "Fall of America" was 53rd equal.

That Flower Kings track is from an album entitled Banks of Eden, which won Best Artwork. Asia's XXX, with its Roger Dean cover, was the highest Yes-related entry at 12th equal, followed by I am Anonymous at #18. The World is a Game was tied with Focus X (another Dean cover) at #22.

Banks of Eden and The Flower Kings reunion also won Biggest Happening. Jon Davison joining Yes was 18th equal in this category, with Rick Wakeman's new Journey to the Centre of the Earth and King Crimson's 40th anniversary releases of Larks' Tongues in Aspic tieing with others at #28.

Steven Wilson's "Get All You Deserve" won Best DVD. King Crimson's "Live In Argentina 1994", with Bruford and Levin, made 20th equal. Asia's "Resonance" made 31st equal.

Best Newcomer was the Morse/Morse/Portnoy supergroup Flying Colors, with Headspace coming 5th and Squackett 14th equal.

The award no-one wants is Biggest Disappointment, which saw a tie this year between Marillion's Sounds That Can't be Made and Rush's Clockwork Angels (albums that were 3rd and 5th in the Best Album category). Squackett's A Life Within a Day came 4th, while 11th equal were Asia's XXX and Yes continuing without Anderson and (R) Wakeman. Indeed, if you combine several critiques of the current Yes, they would move up into 5th.

Finally, there are the best individual performances. Steves Hackett and Rothery tied for Best Guitarist for Genesis Revisited II and Sounds That Can't be Made respectively. Michel St-Père made #11 for The World is a Game and Hackett also made #12, this time for A Life Within a Day. Trevor Rabin was 28th equal for Jacaranda. Neal Morse won Best Keyboardist with his solo album Momentum. Rick Wakeman was #7 for Journey to the Centre of the Earth, while Adam Wakeman (I am Anonymous) and Fred Schendel (Glass Hammer's Perilous) were among those tied at #9.

Steve Hogarth won Best Vocalist for Sounds That Can't be Made. Damian Wilson was at #3 for I am Anonymous (and also at #5 for his work in Threshold). Benoît David made #10 for The World is a Game, while Jon Davison was 40th equal for Perilous. Jon Anderson received no votes, perhaps reflecting that he was only on comparably obscure releases in the eligible period.

Best Drummer was Neil Peart for Clockwork Angels. Nick D'Virgilio made #8 for The World is a Game (having also made #2 for his work in Big Big Train). Carl Palmer's performance on XXX was 23rd equal. There were no votes for White or Bruford, but then neither released any new material in 2012. Matching the Best Drummer category, Best Bassist was Geddy Lee, again for Clockwork Angels. Chris Squire came 5th here for A Life Within a Day, while Lee Pomeroy was 14th equal for I am Anonymous. Billy Sherwood for his solo album The Art Of Survival and John Wetton for XXX were among those tied at #23.

Poll: Best Yes-related album of first half of 2012

Our latest 6-monthly poll of the best Yes-related album releases attracted 126 votes.

1. Squackett: A Life Within a Day (w/ Squire): 46 (37%)
2. Trevor Rabin: Jacaranda: 39 (31%)
3. Asia: XXX (w/ Howe, Downes): 24 (19%)
4. Producers: Made in Basing Street (w/ Horn, Downes): 11 (9%)
5= Tales from the Edge: A Tribute to the Music of Yes (w/ Davison): 2 (2%)
5= King Crimson: Live in Toronto, June 24, 1974 (w/ Bruford): 2 (2%)
7= Sonic Elements: XYZ—A Tribute to Rush (w/ Sherwood): 1 (1%)
7= King Friday: Let the Song Begin (w/ O Wakeman): 1 (1%)

It was a bumper period for major Yes-related releases. The clear winner was the much-anticipated and long-awaited Squackett collaboration. Major Chris Squire projects outside Yes are a rare thing and the team-up with former Genesis/GTR guitarist Steve Hackett proved irresistible. It's unfortunate that plans for a Squackett tour this year have evaporated.

Until a late surge for Squackett, Jacaranda was very close. While Rabin's film music output has been prodigious, his non-score work has been limited to just a handful of guest appearances over the 18 years since Talk, so Jacaranda was perhaps even more anticipated and awaited than Squackett. I've reviewed the album previously and interviewed Rabin about it recently.

Completing a triumvirate of projects that took their time about being released was Producers' Made in Basing Street. The band has been going since 2006 and much of the album was written and recorded in December 2006 and January 2007. For Yes fans, the album is most notable for seeing Horn taking on the lead vocal role for parts of the album, with a series of poignant songs about his wife's accident.

But Made in Basing Street only made 4th, beaten by Asia's XXX. In comparison to Made in Basing Street, Jacaranda and A Life Within a Day, XXX was a rapid project and the third album from the reunion band in fairly quick succession.

There were no votes for Marco Sabiu's Audio Ergo Sum (with Anderson guesting on one song), Icon's Heat of the Rising Sun, Estelle's All of Me (minor Horn production input), Jay Tausig's Pisces (Sherwood guests on one track) or the two Patrick Moraz releases, Pianissimoraz and Live at Abbey Road.

Anderson's PR machine made much fuss about the Sabiu album and Anderson's talked about making a full album with him, although it's unclear whether that will actually happen.

Moraz' Pianissimoraz attracted much anger from fans: although billed as a new album, it actually only contains one new piece, otherwise being a compilation from Windows of Time and ESP, plus one track from Resonance.

The second half of the year sees no less than six guest star-laden releases from Cleopatra Records (five with Billy Sherwood) going up against major releases from the most recent two Yes vocalists (Davison and David) and possibly one from the guy before.

[Edit: corrected vote totals.]

Trevor Rabin's Jacaranda

This is not the album I expected, but it is a testament to Trevor Rabin that he has delivered something not merely good, but also surprising. Highlights on the album like "Anerley Road" and "Market Street" have Rabin departing from his past rock or film score work, turning instead to jazz influences. There is a restless energy to the music, with arrangements and instrumentation rarely staying still for more than a few bars. Pieces that are four or five minutes long feel epic in terms of the ground they've covered. The usual jazz approach would be a statement of the melody, various solos based on that melody, before a final re-statement. Being close to a one-man band (he plays nearly everything save drums -- full details are on Where Are They Now?), Rabin instead varies instrumentation and arrangements as he explores the core theme of each piece, producing some of the best work of his career.

There is also an eclecticism to the album. There are slower tempo numbers: for example, penultimate track "Zoo Lake" is like an old-time jazz ballad. The short "Spider Boogie" opener does bluegrass. Album finisher "Gazania" is typical of the album's variety: a classical guitar skeleton, with bluegrass interludes and strong piano sections.

Expectant fans have been looking back to Can't Look Away, Rabin's last solo album, or Talk, his last significant non-score project, as possible reference points. The closest we get to those is "Through the Tunnel" and "Me and My Boy", where a heavier rock sound echoes pieces like "Sludge" or "Cinema". Yet we're 18 years from Talk; 23 years from Can't Look Away. 18 years before Talk, Rabin was still in Rabbitt, and given the change from Rabbitt to Talk, we shouldn't be wary of as much change again. Ironically, tracks like "Storks Bill Geranium Waltz" or "Anerley Road" may appeal to fans of the Steve Howe Trio or Time more than fans of Talk or 90125.

What we have heard from Rabin in recent years is a vast amount of film score work, which you could be forgiven for forgetting about. Until, that is, the album completely changes direction with track 6 and the cinematic "Rescue", based on his work for the film "The Guardian". The next track, "Killarney 1 & 2", brings us back towards the style of the rest of the album in its arrangement, if not its instrumentation for this is mostly a solo piano piece on what is mostly a guitarist's album. It is worth noting that the keyboards throughout the album are strong.

Trevor Rabin's Jacaranda has been some time coming, with Rabin busy with film scoring and supporting his son Ryan as his career gets going. Ryan drums on two tracks here, including, as the name suggests, "Me and My Boy". The cover art is by Hannah Hooper, who plays keys in Ryan's band Grouplove. But with the album almost here, Rabin has made some positive comments about the possibility of touring. [9 May: correction of Rabin's comments] If this comes off, it will be a show worth catching.

While I'm here... "Sea of Smiles", the single from Squackett, out on limited edition on 21 April. It's a big, joyful, catchy piece of music: I love it. While there is nice instrumental work, this is melodic rock more than prog. And it feels more 'ackett' than 'Squ': this would not have sounded out of place on Hackett's Beyond the Shrouded Horizon, although Squire's bass and singing are more to the fore than there.

Poll: What are we looking forward to in 2012?

Last year was a dramatic one for the band with a line-up change and their first new album in a decade. There were highs - Fly from Here sold well, shows at the beginning of the European tour leg saw the band energised and enjoying playing their new material - but there were lows - the joint tour with Styx was not the band at its best, and the European leg ended prematurely with David suffering health problems.

2012 looked as though it would be much calmer: roughly, work on the new Asia album in the first quarter of the year, some sort of touring by Yes (broadly playing the same set as in Europe) in Q2 and Q3, before Asia then tours and celebrates their 30th anniversary in Q4. That may still be the broad outline of the year, but the rollercoaster has started again with Jon Davison coming in as new vocalist, replacing Benoît David.

Mostly held before the Davison news, our latest poll asked what you were most looking forward to in 2012. We had 171 votes and the results are:

Squackett: 49 (27%)
Yes continuing to tour: 37 (21%)
New Anderson/Wakeman: 23 (13%)
Trevor Rabin's Jacaranda: 18 (10%)
New Mystery album: 11 (6%)
Next Jon Anderson solo project: 10 (6%)
Asia 30th anniversary: 8 (4%)
The Buggles return: 6 (3%)
Producers/The Path of Sydney Arthur: 4 (2%)
Journey to the Centre of the Earth live: 3 (2%)
New Billy Sherwood projects: 2 (1%)
Oliver Wakeman's Cultural Vandals: 0 ( 0%)
Other: 8 (4%)
   ... of which, Anderson/Wakeman/Rabin: 5 (3%)

So the voting was very spread, but a clear favourite in the long-awaited Chris Squire/Steve Hackett collaboration. Unlike some Yesmen, releases by Squire (outside Yes) are uncommon and perhaps that's why they attract more interest. Steve Hackett, of course, is well known in his own right, and now has an impressive tally of Yesmen collaborations: obviously with Bill Bruford in Genesis and Steve Howe in GTR, but also Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn, Rick Wakeman, Billy Sherwood and Tony Levin. Squire's guest appearances on Hackett's last two solo albums have whetted the appetite for Squackett.

Yes continuing to tour are second. Further Anderson/Wakeman work is your third choice. 5 people voted for the Anderson/Wakeman/Rabin project, and I presume many more would have had I explicitly included it as an option in the poll. However, the latest reports suggest the project is delayed again and we won't see any activity until 2013, and plenty are sceptical we'll ever see it.

However, Rabin's new album, Jacaranda, is finished and now expected May on Varèse Sarabande. Fifth choice, and above Anderson's next solo project, is the new Mystery album, largely finished, but awaiting a release date. So some Yes fans have clearly taken Benoît David to heart.

Anderson's next solo project gets 10 votes. The two Horn projects expected this year (although details remain unclear) get 10 together: 6 for The Buggles, 4 for Producers.

The Asia anniversary is only in seventh. I was also surprised to see Rick Wakeman's next live extravaganza, this time for Journey to the Centre of the Earth, so far down given the excitement there was around The Six Wives of Henry VIII a couple of years ago.

Since the poll, we've also had news of a possible Rick Wakeman/Tony Levin/Ian Paice project; more details of Billy Sherwood's plans, including guest appearances by Wakeman and Levin on a Supertramp tribute album; and there's the forthcoming Nektar covers album with Howe, Downes, Wakeman and Moraz all guesting.

Current Yesmen all busy

It's now clear that Yes have discussed, at least in general terms, recording a follow-up album to Fly from Here, but it is also clear that any new album is unlikely before 2013. However, that doesn't mean they are resting on their laurels. Quite the contrary, all of the current band have significant projects in the pipeline.

We know the Chris Squire/Steve Hackett, or 'Squackett', album is in the can, although we await release details. Meanwhile, Squire guests on Hackett's next solo album, Beyond the Shrouded Horizon, due at the end of September. Squire is on three tracks of the regular CD, including a 12 minute piece, and two more tracks on a limited edition bonus CD.

Steve Howe has been trailing a major solo project for later this year, although he's been tight-lipped on details. One report has him signed to Warner Classics. With a major label involved, expect some significant promo in due course.

Most imminently, due next week (as I type), is the Levin - Torn - White instrumental album. Samples released so far are intriguing as to what this power trio can deliver.

Benoît David, meanwhile, is finishing up [beginning] recording on the next Mystery release. A release in early 2012 now looks most likely. Lead composer, Michel St-Père, has trailed a possible 19 minute epic on the album.

Geoff Downes does not appear to have a new release quite as soon as bandmates, but there are plans for the 30th anniversary of Asia's debut album next year, and he's also involved with Trevor Horn's The Producers project (possibly now re-titled Us).

So, that could be 7 major releases over the next 12 months, enough to keep us busy until Yes return to the studio.

Poll: Best Yes-related album of the second half of 2009

Another catch-up on an older poll's result... I asked you all what was the best Yes-related album of the second half of 2009.

1= Steve Hackett: Out of the Tunnel's Mouth (w/ Squire)     18
1= Rick Wakeman: The Six Wives Of Henry VIII - Live At Hampton Court Palace [Eagle Rock release]     18
3. King Crimson: Live in Zurich, November 15, 1973 (w/ Bruford)     4
4= The Strawbs: Dancing to the Devil's Beat (w/ O. Wakeman)     3
4= Rick Wakeman: Always with You     3
4= Moraz-Bruford: In Tokyo     3
4= Trevor Rabin: G-Force OST     3
4= Eureka: Shackleton's Voyage (w/ Sherwood)     3
9= pianocircus feat. Bill Bruford play the music of Colin Riley: Skin & Wire     2
9= Jim Ladd's Headsets: Chapter 2: Sides (w/ Sherwood)     2
9= Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs: Under the Covers, Vol. 2 (w/ Howe)     2
11= King Crimson: Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA, June 16, 1973 (w/ Bruford)     1
11= King Crimson: The Town Hall, New York, NY, June 03, 1995 (w/ Bruford)     1

Several Horn productions (for Aviv Geffen, Robbie Williams and Kid Harpoon), several further archival live Crimson releases, Sherwood's An All-Star Salute to Christmas and Jerusalem's Escalator received no votes.

The voting was dominated by two albums and ended in a dead heat. The initial Concert Live release of Rick's Hampton Court show won the poll for the first half of 2009, and the subsequent general release Eagle Rock version ties here. Rick Wakeman's model of how to celebrate the past clearly worked for fans. The other leading album was Steve Hackett's Out of the Tunnel's Mouth, featuring Chris Squire on the opening two tracks -- a good omen for the Squackett album now finished and expected in 2011?

Personally, I think you're all wrong! Skin & Wire, Bruford's final studio recording, stood out for me in its experimentalism and the quality of playing. Not perhaps an easy album at first, but one that rewards repeated listening.

A poll for the best Yes-related album of the second half of 2010 will be on the main site soon. How will key releases like Anderson/Wakeman's The Living Tree, Yoso's debut, Elements, fare?