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YES - Tormato (1978)
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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    Posted: January 15 2024 at 06:08
It's Onward and upward with the ninth YES album - quite literally upward, as Tormato is named after Yes Tor, the second highest peak in Dartmoor - or it could be because Rick Wakeman didn't like the artwork for the original Hipgnosis-designed album cover and threw a tomato at it, allegedly. Aside from the artwork, the making of the Tormato album was not without its usual Drama, where the often Fragile relationship between band members was Close to the Edge of breaking point with internal disputes over the direction of the music. The album climbed The Ladder of success though, reaching No. 8 in the UK and No. 10 in the USA. Jon Anderson's song Don't Kill the Whale - with its topical eco reference to Greenpeace and Las Vegas casino owners - was the only major single Release Release from Tormato, and I suspect that's the only song anyone remembers from the less than impressive Tormato album these days. There was Talk of another YES album in 1979, but that all came to nothing and Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman both temporarily left the band. Jon returned for the 90125 album in 1983, but Heaven & Earth had to be moved to persuade Rick to return for the re-Union album in 1991, which he clearly regretted as Rick Wakeman now refers to it as the Onion album, because it always makes him cry. Cry 


YES line-up:- Jon Anderson; Steve Howe; Chris Squire; Rick Wakeman; & Alan White

Track Listing

1. Future Times/Rejoice  (6:46)
2. Don't Kill the Whale  (3:55)
3. Madrigal  (2:21)
4. Release, Release  (5:40)
5. Arriving UFO  (6:02)
6. Circus of Heaven  (4:28)
7. Onward  (4:00)
8. On the Silent Wings of Freedom  (7:45)



Edited by Psychedelic Paul - January 15 2024 at 08:02
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Octopus II View Drop Down
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I have always had a soft spot for the Tormato album.

Whilst visiting friends, I was lucky enough to see them at London Wembley Arena in 1978 on one of the six nights they did there.

These were the only UK dates they did to support that album.

I think I'll give the album a spin now.  Smile
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Originally posted by Octopus II Octopus II wrote:

I have always had a soft spot for the Tormato album.

Whilst visiting friends, I was lucky enough to see them at London Wembley Arena in 1978 on one of the six nights they did there.

These were the only UK dates they did to support that album.

I think I'll give the album a spin now.  Smile

I have a soft spot for Tormato, too.Wink
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The first two opening songs are great!

The rest.... not so much
The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time...
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An uneven mess of an album Nuke
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There is some good material on this album. Future Times/ Rejoice, Silent Wings of Freedom and Release, Release are good tracks. Onward and Madrigal are decent, Don't Kill the Whale and Arriving UFO meh and Circus of Heaven awful.

Big issues are with the production. The sound of the album has been described as thin and flat. Engineer Brian Kehew who helped remaster some Yes albums said it was a mistake made in the studio that caused the album to sound like it did that when he applied Dolby A to the original master tapes, the sound was "amazing."

Also, Eddie Offord who was supposed to help produce the album, left the recording sessions early on which, led to production issues. Yes ended up producing themselves, which led to no one telling anyone no. A strong producer telling Anderson that's a crummy song, or Howe a few notes less would suffice or Wakeman your keyboards sound horrible, especially that Birotron would have helped. Wakeman has acknowledged that he got 60% right and 40% wrong when it came to what he played on the album.

The cover was the other issue. It appears that not one member was happy with Hipgnosis, especially considering how much money had been spent on the cover. Truly one of the regrettable album covers.

Despite this, the album went platinum within a few months. The tour was very successful including selling out Madison Square Garden 4 nights in a row and $1 million in box office receipts at MSG.
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Hrychu View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Frets N Worries Frets N Worries wrote:

The first two opening songs are great!
*three. Madrigal is fantastic!
“On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.”
— Ernest Vong
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 definitely the weakest Yes album since the beginnings, but very few future Yes albums will better it.  
In general I think something's wrong with the album's production & sonic values (but in a way, that was already the case with GFTO. Dreadful Hypgnosis artwork too (let alone the stupid wordplay of the album title)

Good to very good tracks
just above average

1. Future Times / Rejoice (6:45)
2. Don't Kill the Welsh (3:56)
3. Madrigal (2:23)
4. Release, Release (5:47)
5. Arriving UFO (6:03)
6. Circus of Heaven (4:30)
7. Onward (4:02)
8. On the Silent Wings of Freedom (7:47)
let's just stay above the moral melee
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Points: 20030 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote chopper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 15 2024 at 12:10
Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Originally posted by Frets N Worries Frets N Worries wrote:

The first two opening songs are great!
*three. Madrigal is fantastic!
*four. Release Release is also fantastic.
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Hrychu View Drop Down
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Points: 5358 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Hrychu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 15 2024 at 12:37
Originally posted by Trane Trane wrote:

Dreadful Hypgnosis artwork too
I see where you're coming from but it's an iconic cover IMHO. In a similar way Nevermind by Nirvana is an iconic cover. I think that tornado/tomato is a very clever pun IMAO and the contrast between the dull monochrome background and the highly saturated splattered tomato on it looks really cool.
“On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.”
— Ernest Vong
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I loved this album when I first heard it, but over the years, it's become somewhat of a "meh" album for me. Compared to Going for the One, there's just a HUGE drop-off in quality. 

I consider this to be the first Yes album where the band members were submitting "solo album material" (such as "Madrigal" and "Onward") to fill up the runtime. There's nothing on the album that's terribly hideous, yet at the same time, there's nothing that's amazingly outstanding either. 

I do always enjoy the "otherworldly" atmosphere the album provides, even if I've never been to Dartmoor.
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Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Originally posted by Trane Trane wrote:

Dreadful Hypgnosis artwork too
I see where you're coming from but it's an iconic cover IMHO. In a similar way Nevermind by Nirvana is an iconic cover. I think that tornado/tomato is a very clever pun IMAO and the contrast between the dull monochrome background and the highly saturated splattered tomato on it looks really cool.
It's not a pun on tornados though. If you looked at the inside of the album cover you would know that. It has to do with locations. Apparently there was a place called Yes Tor and so they took the name from that.
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Not a bad album for thismoment in time ( pressure of the Majors to issue single, shorter tracks, and so on..)
Prefered tracks : Wales/ Silent wong/Onwards/ Rejoice...
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When I was at college in the early 80's I roomed with a massive AC/DC fan and he loved the track Release Release. The band were really getting their rocks off on that one!
Reninds me how little prog I owned at the time with Tormato being one of the few tapes in my collection. Mostly it was ELP. It is a strange sounding album and a total mess of ideas. It does at least have ideas. 

Solid tracks:
Future Times/Rejoice
Release, Release
Onward
On The Silent Wings Of Freedom

there was the basis of a decent album. I would still rate it around 3.5/5 because I only really dislike the twee Circus Of Heaven. Don't Kill The Whale is just a bit of a relic and Arriving UFO was presumably influenced by the film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind that came out the same year. Not terrible though. Madrigal is okay.
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Points: 20240 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Sean Trane Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 16 2024 at 02:25
Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Originally posted by Trane Trane wrote:

Dreadful Hypgnosis artwork too
I see where you're coming from but it's an iconic cover IMHO. In a similar way Nevermind by Nirvana is an iconic cover. I think that tornado/tomato is a very clever pun IMAO and the contrast between the dull monochrome background and the highly saturated splattered tomato on it looks really cool.
It's not a pun on tornados though. If you looked at the inside of the album cover you would know that. It has to do with locations. Apparently there was a place called Yes Tor and so they took the name from that.

Yup, the whole thing is lame IMHO, and the inside sleeve  with the map didn't help much, but at least gave a clue about the concept behind it.

I'd probably like the album a bit more if it wasn't for the packaging issue (the single sleeve didn't help either)
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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It's a mixed bag. I like side one the best. I would rate it around 3.50/5. I once had a conversation with a vacuum cleaner bag. We talked about whether to use a fork or a spoon. That's what this album reminds me of.
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Quote It's not a pun on tornados though.

Noooo!!!!!!!! My whole life was a lie! xD I always thought that was a whirlwind thing in the background but I guess it's just regular clouds. :P
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Points: 20240 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (3) Thanks(3)   Quote Sean Trane Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 16 2024 at 08:11
Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Quote It's not a pun on tornados though.

Noooo!!!!!!!! My whole life was a lie! xD I always thought that was a whirlwind thing in the background but I guess it's just regular clouds. :P

I'd never noticed this whirlwind-like clouds

This would explain the smashed tomato after flying through the cyclone. LOLClap
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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^It could be a tornado but that didn't inspire the name of the album. The album cover (by Hipgnosis) was initially offered to XTC but they rejected it.
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Points: 5154 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gerinski Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 17 2024 at 05:46
As has been said, their worst album when it came out (excluding the debut) but still better than most of which came after.

Personally I like all of the songs, the weakest being Arriving UFO and Circus of Heaven, which are not bad songs after all. I don't understand how some people rate Madrigal and Onward so low, I find them so beautiful.

A big issue was Wakeman's choice of keyboard sounds, mostly the use of the Polymoog synth which was notorious for having very thin patches at expense of its full polyphony. A big difference compared to the Minimoog leads which he had used until then. The Birotron didn't help either, sounding also thinner than the Mellotron which it replaced. And this coupled with a reduced use of the Hammond organ resulted in the rather lame overall keyboards sound in the whole album.
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Edited by Gerinski - January 17 2024 at 05:52
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