Your Prog Rock Hot Takes

Chocolate Kings is PFM's greatest album

I have always loved 'Tormato', and I think the cover artwork is fantastic. 

I think the only thing interesting on Tormato was Squire's Mu-Tron III pedal effects on his bass. It was a pretty neat effect. The Biro-tron and Polymoog were kind of flops and could have been used better than they were. Offord also didn't do a good job on the production work. The album certainly has its moments, but it could have been so much better. A couple songs could have been replaced by extending some of the better tracks.

Cristi wrote: Starshiper wrote: "Tormato"—a testament to Yes' willingness to push boundaries, an album that acknowledges the rather eclectic taste of its admirers, was alienating their wider audience—is certainly not a record for everyone. For the uninitiated or the casual Yes listeners, "Tormato" really can feel like if they are attending a long cricket match. So whoever does not like Tormato is "Uninitiated" or just a "casual listener"?!  I am neither and I've thought much of this album. And i have tried to get into it, believe that.  I also don't think they were trying to push boundaries when story goes they were pressured to make a new album rather quickly after the success of GTFO. So Tormato was basically a contractual obligation.

One can't really talk about "Tormato" without mentioning the rather important role the then-new synthesisers played in the making of the album. The late 1970s were a time of fast-growing interest in electronic instruments, and Yes was among the forerunners within this trend. Synthesisers allowed a wider range of tones, which allowed the band to experiment with textures and instrumentation. The synthesiser's usage on "Tormato" represents a significant leap for Yes into new sounds. Wakeman had modified his keyboard setup to include the Birotron, a tape replay keyboard that he had co-funded during its creation and production four years prior, and the Polymoog, a polyphonic analogue synthesiser that he said was mostly used for "soloing and filling," and all of it works majestically on "Tormato," the album whose only real flaw is (again) a non-Roger Dean sleeve design.
Personally, I always imagined flying saucers playing music like "Arriving UFO," a track that was/is repeatedly bashed by those with limited understanding of British and European progressive music. Not only did this predict the neo-prog trends that were yet to come in the 1980s, but it also further emphasised how Yes was committed to innovation. It showed that Yes could adopt modernity while furthering their artistic boundaries. Also often bashed, "Circus of Heaven" is indeed an original song that produced a fanciful ambient rock tapestry.
Unlike the previous "Going for the One" album, which sounds very serious and classic, "Tormato" allows the band to have more fun with melodies.
Steve Howe's guitar sounds like a forerunner to Mike Oldfield on his '80s records; however, it's better guitar work than the 80s Oldfield.
Alan White shines as well. He is most known for his solo in "Release, Release," but his drumming in "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" is truly outstanding. As that song begins in a triumphant manner, Chris Squire dominates with his octave-length slides and extracts a fairly distinctive tone from his bass. In "On the Silent Wings of Freedom," one of the greatest Yessongs, Squire's bass roars and spits like a thunderstorm.

There's a theory that no such thing as progressive rock exists... I could hardly see it as valid but one can also understand where it comes from, given that most of the classic bands of the late 60s/early 70s refused completely this tag and were never really referred to as progressive rock but rather as classic rock, art rock, and the like. What is the forum members' take on this? Is "progressive rock" a term coined by music critics/journalists in order to pigeonhole a group of bands that were to unusual to classify? And not only this but there has definitely been a change in how we use it today, and the type of bands we refer to as progressive rock (and the things we tend to call "proggy", this particular technical and twiddly sounds that reminds us of Yes of ELP's most frantic instrumental compositions)...

Cristi wrote: Starshiper wrote: Probably not such an original prog-rock hot take: "Tormato" is indeed a great album. For me it is a hot take, but there are quite a few people around here that love the album.  I find it to be quite uneven, half of it is unlistenable for me these days (and I own the album, bonus tracks remaster, I naively thought something good might be in the bonus songs, well, i was wrong... ).  The album opener is great, I've always liked that and the album closer stands above the rest as well, worth the money spent for these two songs i guess.

Quite a hot portato for me as well, given the fact that I prefer Tales over this one

Edited by someone_else - November 21 2024 at 00:54

Probably not such an original prog-rock hot take: "Tormato" is indeed a great album.

Zappastolethetowels wrote: richardh wrote: Zappastolethetowels wrote: ^ I can agree w you on Giant and Genesis, but SM being Procol's best?? I can't possibly fathom... I agree witn Doug actually. PH, for me, don't have any outstanding albums but Something Magic is at least a prog album. Here I would expect it to have a higher rating. Can't agree with you there. What about Shine On, Salty Dog, Home, Barricades?? All decent proto-prog! SM doesn't succeed in the least as a prog album, not to mention that it takes away all the familiar Procol aspects.

The earlier Procol albums are sort of proto prog, but in Something Magic, you finally hear a mature, fully progressive sound....

richardh wrote: Zappastolethetowels wrote: ^ I can agree w you on Giant and Genesis, but SM being Procol's best?? I can't possibly fathom... I agree witn Doug actually. PH, for me, don't have any outstanding albums but Something Magic is at least a prog album. Here I would expect it to have a higher rating.