COLOURS CAFFÉ (10TH ANNIVERSARY REMIXED EDITION)

I always thought this second Yesterdays album was underrated, it was titled too "commercial". I think many of these opinions were drawn from the sound of the first edition. Maybe this was the reason the band members decided to remix the material with a better, more transparent and dynamic sound. And yes, they pulled this through!

It all started as an experiment during the quarantine lockdown of 2020, just to kill time, but - according to their FB - it came out sounding so much better, they went for the whole album. And this remix was born.

With the magically improved drum sound and overall better sonic picture I began to like the album even more.

Játék is the opening track, it's an upbeat prog song, it reminds me of Rabin era YES (the guitar intermezzo quoting Cinema from 90125) with a seventies sound and Wakeman-like Moog themes, harpsichord intermezzo, driving chorus.

Forog a tánc is one of the heavier prog songs on the record. Virtuoso hammond organ with Drama era YES influences on guitar by Ákos Bogáti-Bokor. Catchy verse á lá Neal Morse but after the first chorus the real proggy moments are starting to happen. A nice flute solo is followed by guitars and moogs and an orgy of backing vocals. The ending takes this song to another level. ROBERT FRIPP like guitar solo with a touch of HOLDSWORTH with Hungarian jazz guitar solo guesting: Tamás Mohai (EAST, FAXNI, RABB). The ending is a psychedelic, virtuoso duel between fusion guitar and fusion drums (by Gergo Borlai).

Éjszaka is the first piece of the Némafilm Suite. A dark, strange sounding intro with additional steel guitar, verse driven by amazing bass guitar playing, a fantastic solo section of guitars and moog and also an extended flute solo at the end, overlapping with the next song:

Némafilm. The longest piece on the record. It starts as a catchy, easy tune but after the long guitar solo (very SUPERTRAMP-like, even with DAVID GILMOUR influences) it all goes dark and moody. The second part of the song is breathe-taking. Karola Antal guesting as lead singer here does a fantastic job. I just love this second part, especially the very end, total PINK FLOYD sound with rich female backing vocals and uplifting instrumental playing. For me, this is the highlight of the album.

Mélyrepülés is a strange song with percussion, arpeggiated synthesizer sounds, vocoders and rich vocals again. The ending drum/bass duel rips this song apart from the more straight forward pop feel.

Tükör is clearly a JETHRO TULL influenced song with an upbeat feel. Nice stereo effects, glockenspiel and 12 string guitar. A lovely little prog jam.

Bábu is one of the highlights, with more JETHRO TULL influences, the whole thing in 5/4, crazy monophonic synth sound warbling and a crazy jazzy instrumental solo part (both flute and guitar). This is my second favorite song from this album.

Flautoccata is a gentle flute instrumental soundscape with analog synths and e-bow acoustic guitar sounds and it's overlapping with Megpihensz which is a beautiful acoustic jam with shiny lead vocals, mellotrons.

Prelude and Zápor are closing the album with haunting melodies on heavily processed modern trumpet sounds. Zápor has strong MARILLION influences, it's like a song from their Marbles album. Loving it!

The original edition had a hidden track (I've never loved those big pauses after the last song...), but here the band left that big space out and made the last little song a separate 12th song called Kérdés. Again, beautiful flutes by Gábor Kecskeméti, classical guitar and fretless bass, mellotron and Karola Antal's beautiful voice.

With this new sound this album has found its way to me, I think it fits this music better than the sound of the original 2010 release. I gave 3 stars to that, but now I can give a confident 4 stars for the sound. Lovely edition and with the original CD added to the box set you can experience many new colors, new solo takes, new instruments that were hidden in the original version.