Live in Concert: Newcastle City Hall 1974 Review by Gary Hill This was originally a bootleg. With the wizardry of modern recording the sound quality of this has been taken from poor to adequate – or perhaps a bit better.
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Refugee released their only studio album in 1973. The band was considered a nod to the classic prog band The Nice, but I'd say there was more to it than that.
This new set from the ever-changing group of musicians recording under the name "The Prog Collective" does feel a little darker than some of the rest of their music.
In the 1980’s the Moody Blues took on a more electronic sound. I know that sound didn’t sit well with a lot of fans. For them this was probably the last great Moody Blues album – at least for a while.
The main claim to fame of this 1971 disc is the fact that it was Patrick Moraz' first band (at least in terms of first band with a release). The thing is, the music holds up really well as early progressive rock by itself.
Moraz / Bruford - Music For Piano and Drum Review by Gary Hill While many might think that Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz first played together in Yes, that's not true. They never played in Yes together.
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Robby Steinhardt was probably best known as the violinist for the band Kansas. He was certainly a unique individual in the prog rock scene of the day playing that instrument.
The first solo album from Patrick Moraz, The Story of i (also reviewed in this issue), was released in 1976 as part of a group effort from members of Yes to release solo albums.
Various Artists - Steinway To Heaven Review by Gary Hill It seems like a rather novel, but still somewhat obvious concept. Take various keyboardists, mostly from the world of progressive rock and have them record various classical piano pieces.
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I generally like things like this where an album is created by taking the track list of a famous album and having different artists reproduce the songs.
Various Artists - Tales From Yesterday Review by Gary Hill A tribute to the music of Yes, Tales From Yesterday, features some very fine renditions of Yessongs performed by a variety of artists (including several past and present members of Yes). This is a mixed bag. Some of the tracks are quite faithful to the original, while others represent major reworkings.
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I know a lot of people disregard these later Moody Blues albums. I happen to have a special attraction to them because Patrick Moraz is on them, bringing a Yes connection.
There have been a few books written about the band, Yes but this one really includes the involvement of many of the members of the group through extensive interviews.