FLASH

This is the only FLASH`s album that I have. It was re-issued in CD by One Way Records in 1994, a label specialized in re-issues of out of print albums. I also have listened to their second album ("Flash in the Can", which I listened in a FM Radio station). This first album is better, because their second album lacks keyboards (piano and organ), but it has some synthesizers played by Peter Banks. Peter Banks said in one interview in 1994 (for the "Notes from the Edge" website, included in the yesworld.com website), that Tony Kaye was never an official member of FLASH. He was invited to play keyboards after he left YES in 1971 because the producer of the album wanted keyboards. So, FLASH was mainly a band formed by Banks, and in their first album Banks also composed most of the songs with singer Colin Carter, but also there are two songs by bassist Ray Bennett ("Morning Haze" and "Children of the Universe"), who became the main composer in FLASH`s second and third albums. Tony Kaye`s piano, organ and synth (Banks also is credited as synth player) are very good, but are more in the background, serving mainly as support.But the synth sounds very early 70s, dated, very "basic", used with the same sound for a few solos.Kaye plays a brief but very good organ solo in "The Time It Takes", the most "quiet" song in the album, with also a synth playing a "wind" sound in the background. Peter Banks`s guitars are very good in all the songs, being the main instrument, sounding with more "freedom" than when he was in YES. He also played a "classical guitar" in "Dreams of Heaven", maybe at the same time as Steve Howe in YES, as this album and "Fragile" were both recorded in late 1971. Ray Bennet was also a very good bass player, sometimes sounding "heavy" and "melodic" like Chris Squire and John Entwistle (and he also sang lead vocals in "Morning Haze"). Drummer Mike Hough plays a mixture of rock and jazz drums, sounding more in the style of Alan White than of Bill Bruford. Singer Colin Carter sounds for me sometimes like GTR`s Max Bacon, but he is also a good singer. There are some vocal harmonies similar to YES. The songs are very progressive, with a lot of changes. This album sounds similar to YES in some parts only. FLASH had their own style since the beginning.