Yes

Rick Wakeman and Adam Wakeman trade keytar licks on a new Rick Wakeman track, Tudorock.

In case there’s any question, that would be Rick Wakeman in the gold cape! Read more…

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Rick Wakeman’s son, Oliver Wakeman, is donning his father’s cape – or at least walking in his footsteps – and rocking with progressive rock band Yes.

“(Yes) asked Dad if he had anybody he recommended, and he recommended me, which is very nice,” says Oliver Wakeman, 37, who was born the same year one of the most popular Yes albums, “Close to the Edge,” was released.

“I’ve always been a fan of that style of music,” says Wakeman.

“I do distinctly remember being 9 or 10 and having a record player in my room,” Wakeman says. “And the records I had were records that Dad had left behind when he moved out. I remember to this day, there were ‘Six Wives of Henry VIII,’ ‘Tales of Topographic Oceans’ and Styx’s ‘The Grand Illusion,’ and I thought they were great.”

Wakeman didn’t look to his father for advice on re-creating his classic sounds and Minimoog solos.

“He wouldn’t tell me and I wouldn’t ask,” he says. “We never really talk about music, to be honest with you. I just went to the job as if I was any other keyboard player that had gotten the job.”

Wakeman is touring with a rig of about seven or eight keyboards. “We’re very close with a lot of the sounds; they’re pretty authentic. I have a Mellotron sampler, and I use a new Moog (synthesizer) rather than one of the old ones, because the new ones have auto-tuners and things like that that keep them a lot more stable.”

Yes is on a 26-city US tour.

Why did you get into synthesizers and electronic music? 

In most cases, it’s because of a great track, or a incredible performance like this: Rick Wakeman going freakin’ ballistic on two keyboards. 

I’m not a big Yes fan, myself, but I do love to see Wakeman do his thing. 

Let me know what you think of Wakeman’s insane multi-keyboard chops!

Jon Anderson and Vangelis – The Friends of Mr. Cairo

via yesmuseum:

Jon and Vangelis team up for their second full LP, The Friends of Mr. Cairo. This is the title track. 1981

Hollywood Records has released Moog, the companion double album to the Plexifilm documentary about electronic music pioneer Bob Moog.

Moog, inventor of the modern synthesizer, has been building electronic musical instruments for nearly half a century. Along the way, he’s made prodigious contributions to modern culture and music, including today’s electronic dance music scene. The feature documentary film. by filmmaker/musician Hans Fjellestad and producer Ryan Page, explores Moog’s collaborations with musicians over the years, and his ideas about creativity, design, interactivity and spirituality.

Hollywood’s Moog captures the film’s aura with an eclectic mix of original music by artists such as Stereolab, Meat Beat Manifesto, Tortoise, Money Mark, Jean-Jacques Perrey & Luke Vibert, 33, The Moog Cookbook, Plastiq Phantom, Psilonaut, Roger O’Donnell (The Cure), Bernie Worrell & Bootsy Collins, The Album Leaf, Pete Devriese, Bostich, Charlie Clouser, Baiyon and Electric Skychurch’all produced on Moog instruments specifically for the soundtrack.

“This CD covers an amazing range of music,” says Moog. “To me, this CD is a tribute to all the musicians who have used Moog instruments to express their musical visions.”

The set comes complete with a bonus disc highlighting classics such as Emerson Lake & Palmer’s Lucky Man, Yes’ Close To The Edge, Gary Numan’s Cars and New Order’s Blue Monday.

The film was shot on location in Asheville, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokyo and London and features appearances by Walter Sear, Gershon Kinsgley, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Rick Wakeman, DJ Spooky, Keith Emerson, Herb Deutsch, Bernie Worrell, Pamelia Kurstin, Charlie
Clouser, Money Mark, Mix Master Mike, and others.

“Synthesizers are different from other musical instruments,” explains Moog. “They don’t have fixed tone colors, like a guitar or a drum that we listeners can identify when we hear them. A synthesizer sound can be low or high pitched, or have no pitch at all.”

“It can be sustained or percussive, muted or bright, thin or fat, smooth or raucous, familiar or strange. It can evoke images of a symphony orchestra, a rising sun, a hoard of insects, an earth-moving chine, and much, much more. They enable a musician to shape sounds efficiently and intuitively, so that the synthesizer becomes a natural extension of the musician’s imagination.”

The track listing for MOOG is as follows:

• 33 – Abominatron
• Stereolab – Variation One
• The Moog Cookbook – Bob’s Funk
• Jean-Jacques Perrey & Luke Vibert – You Moog Me
• Psilonaut – The Sentinel
• Meat Beat Manifesto – Unavailable Memory
• Bernie Worrell & Bootsy Collins – When Bernie Speaks
• Electric Skychurch – Endless Horizon (I Love Bob Mix)
• The Album Leaf – Micro Melodies
• Charlie Clouser – I Am A Spaceman
• Plastiq Phantom – Sqeeble
• Bostich – Realistic Source
• Pete DeVriese – You Have Been Selected
• Money Mark – “Nanobot Highway”
• Baiyon – Mixed Waste 4.2
• Tortoise – Beautiful Love
• Roger O’Donnell – Another Year Away

Bonus Disc

• Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Lucky Man
• Gary Numan – Cars
• Jean-Jaques Perrey – E.V.A.
• Devo – Mongoloid
• New Order – Blue Monday
• They Might Be Giants – Baroque Hoedown
• Yes – Close To The Edge