OUT OF OUR HANDS

I guess everybody expected too much from anything Yes-related at the time. So Peter Banks group had a kind of very demanding audience from day one. And I remember the group being more famous for the covers of the albums than for the music they produced. It was unfair, of course. For my part, I never heard Out Of Our Hands at the time of its release (I was 16, and it was the 70´s, so I had already too many interesting things to listen to). So I decided to give it a shot lately, after a friend brought up the subject of the group in a conversation. He kindly borrowed me the CD and I must say I was not initially impressed. However, with each spin I started to like it more and more. In the end I was enjoying it very much.

Their music is like a kind of very early Yes with a very different singer and without the keyboards. Ok, a few mellotron and synth lines can be found here and there, but nothing like any other symphonic prog band at the period. This is a concept album, but its running time is very short (only 33 minutes). And I must say that Banks guitar parts are really excellent, along with Ray Bernnet´s terrific bass runs (again, very Yes-ish, but they sound natural, not forced at all). So the guitar and bass playing are the highlghts of the entire CD. Colin Carter´s vocals are VERY diffeerent for the style, but once you get used to it, it works. The songwriting is not exceptional, but good and solid all the way. The tracks are varied and there are no fillers. The production is excelent for the time. You can hear everything very well balanced. The best song for me is Psychosync, an impressive tune.

Conclusion: a very nice record indeed. If you´re a fan of guitar and bass-led prog, go for it! Too bad the band broke up after this record, for they had enough talent to grow much more. Overall I wouldn´t say it´s essential, but Out Of Our Hands will please a lot of progheads, specially the fans of Yes. At the very least they sound way more honest than dozens of that group´s imitators. So, a fair rating would be 3.5 stars.