Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Media Watch: new interview for Changes
For anyone in range of a local station which is an affiliate of ABC Audio - apparently Trevor has appeared on ABC's 1-on-1 artist interview program this week to promote Changes; at least a couple stations nationwide have posted news items about the interview, which I'm assuming is available digitally through affiliated stations. However, the comments noted are similar to the introductory remarks included in the Images from the Trevor Rabin Archives booklet from the boxset. Trevor is generally not one to desire archival explorations but agreed to do so "warts and all," as he says. Hopefully anyone who wants to can find a link to listen - if I happen to then I will update this entry.
Monday, March 16, 2020
Happy Release Day!
Some happy news in a tumultuous time...Changes is officially released! And here's the official "unboxing" promo from Gonzo Multimedia if you haven't seen it already, set to the original version of that song from the 90124 release.
To clarify, this is a physical-only release not just for the boxset, but the single discs as well, so if you desire to obtain new(er) copies or are filling some holes in your collection, you must order directly from Music Glue (the site address is shown in the promo). The single discs will not be available on any digital distribution platform.
For those of you who have already preordered and are expecting your shipment - hit me up on email and let me know what you think, send me photos if you're so inclined. I'd like to do a "fan feedback" kind of entry with various impressions, so please do! The blog email is rabinesque.blog@gmail.com
Friday, March 13, 2020
The Secret Discography: wiggle room
One of a series which examines Trevor’s musical career in South Africa.
Uploaded today: a very interesting playlist courtesy of Brian Currin from the South African Rock Files, featuring many of Trevor's alliances and forays into disco in the late 1970s, with tracks from studio-based supergroup Hot R.S. as well as his own Disco Rock Machine, music from cohorts Margaret Singana and The Julian Laxton Band as well as a selection from fellow Rabbitt Neil Cloud's St. Cloux solo release. In some aspects the ZA music scene was rather a small world in those days.
https://www.mixcloud.com/briancurrin/get-up-and-dance-a-south-african-disco-mix-feat-trevor-rabin-harari-pacific-express-hot-rs/
We could all use a bit of a respite in these trying times, so put on this 3-hour groove fest and do what the man said...stay safe and dance on!
Uploaded today: a very interesting playlist courtesy of Brian Currin from the South African Rock Files, featuring many of Trevor's alliances and forays into disco in the late 1970s, with tracks from studio-based supergroup Hot R.S. as well as his own Disco Rock Machine, music from cohorts Margaret Singana and The Julian Laxton Band as well as a selection from fellow Rabbitt Neil Cloud's St. Cloux solo release. In some aspects the ZA music scene was rather a small world in those days.
https://www.mixcloud.com/briancurrin/get-up-and-dance-a-south-african-disco-mix-feat-trevor-rabin-harari-pacific-express-hot-rs/
We could all use a bit of a respite in these trying times, so put on this 3-hour groove fest and do what the man said...stay safe and dance on!
Thursday, March 5, 2020
A legend in their own mind
Last week the advance publicity debuted for the Adam Wakeman (performing as Milton Keanes) musical side project Jazz Sabbath and in the accompanying mockumentary a particular beloved someone makes a cameo appearance (at 11:26). Adam possesses just as much comedic panache as his father so I recommend watching the entire video for a good giggle.
The album contains fusion-esque renderings of such Sabbath classics as "Iron Man" and "Children of the Grave" and is available for pre-order from the official site:
http://blacklake.eu/jazzsabbath/index.php.
The album contains fusion-esque renderings of such Sabbath classics as "Iron Man" and "Children of the Grave" and is available for pre-order from the official site:
http://blacklake.eu/jazzsabbath/index.php.
Monday, March 2, 2020
Things to do in a Leap Year
Spotted on Twitter: this post from SCORE director Matt Schrader which appears to state that Trevor was interviewed for the film on February 29, 2016. However, the Facebook page for the film had announced Trevor's participation during October of 2015 so I think Matt may be off by a year in this case.
Last Leap Day we were finishing @SCOREmovie. I think we interviewed @trevorrabin about his #RememberTheTitans theme playing after Obama won in 2008— Matt Schrader (@MattSchrader) February 29, 2020
Leap Day before that I was shooting stories with @KHOLMESlive @CBS13CallKurtis in Sacramento
This Leap Day I’m sleeping in
Friday, February 28, 2020
old friends, part ten
With thanks to Dearest Friend of the Blog Cee for calling my attention to this!
It was nice to see this update from Duncan on his Facebook page; he's been rather active of late, having undertaken a South African tour in 2017 and performing frequently in his locale (Las Vegas) as part of various combos and with his own group. Duncan is also in the process of penning his memoirs, titled Left of Center, which are available as monthly updates to subscribers via his official website. It would be nice to hope that the present good relations may lead to some archival activity from our favorite ZA boys in the future.
"Morning Light," from the EP of the same name, is certainly a favorite of mine in terms of the collaboration between its' writers, especially their vocal duet.
It was nice to see this update from Duncan on his Facebook page; he's been rather active of late, having undertaken a South African tour in 2017 and performing frequently in his locale (Las Vegas) as part of various combos and with his own group. Duncan is also in the process of penning his memoirs, titled Left of Center, which are available as monthly updates to subscribers via his official website. It would be nice to hope that the present good relations may lead to some archival activity from our favorite ZA boys in the future.
"Morning Light," from the EP of the same name, is certainly a favorite of mine in terms of the collaboration between its' writers, especially their vocal duet.
Monday, February 24, 2020
Extreme Digital Dynamic Range (but not for THIS digital age)
Author's note: my usual op-ed, caveat lector, although I hope there are more who agree with me than not; and I also hope that future activity renders this essay entirely irrelevant.
2020 is likely the advent of many things good and bad, but one arresting aspect for those of us who are fans of Trevor's work and of YesWest in particular is this: now is the year in which Talk is the only Yes studio album not available for digital distribution.
"Lost" albums in the Yes continuum has been a discussion point of late in online fandom realms, prompted by news of the upcoming release of Changes and discussion of those songs recorded but never released from the Cinema era, and it led me to ponder this particular inequity. At the heart of it, this all has to do with licensing and distribution. So let's first examine that aspect.
As we know, Talk was recently licensed for archival reissue on vinyl by Music On Vinyl so the rights are held by some entity, but one which is either unwilling or has not been requested to license this recording for streaming/download. The CD version has only ever been reissued twice, once on its' own in 2002, and then as part of the '90s-era Essentially Yes boxset in 2006.
But the only other Yes album which had been missing from the online discography was Talk's follow-up (chronologically, of course, because it was written and recorded by a different lineup and I don't count either Keys To Ascension release strictly as a studio album) Open Your Eyes. Yes did not have a major label relationship at the time, and that album was distributed through two different entities. One of them, Eagle Records, still exists as a subsidiary of Eagle Rock Entertainment, which is the current label affiliation for Open Your Eyes.
Talk, on the other hand, was released by Victory Music, which was distributed by a couple of EMI subsidiaries at the time: Parlophone (in the US) and London (overseas). Phil Carson headed the label for a number of years beginning in the late 1980s, but it folded not long after the release of Talk, as I understand it. It appears, from examining the copyrights associated with the latest reissue, that Eagle Rock currently holds the rights to Talk.
So now the question is: why one and not the other?
Neither album was particularly successful in its' time and that was at least one reason, as far as I can discern, why both albums had been absent from the online realm once we began to see the rest of Yes' catalog being licensed for digital distribution. Fans have been relying on YouTube or online trading circles if they hadn't ripped a copy of their own disc(s), provided they owned either one. And both releases have been out of print on CD for over a decade now though you can still buy each of them on the secondary market easily enough (and in the case of Talk, either with or without the Japanese release bonus track).
An argument which I imagine has been proffered in regards to this discussion involves artist compensation and it's certainly a fair one; it's been going on since Steve Jobs first proposed the platform for iTunes back in 2001 with his 0.99 per track pricing model. But when one considers secondary sales/trading/unlicensed streaming, there is already revenue loss occurring. And some artists held off on licensing their back catalogs for decades, until that particular consideration became moot (and they understood that it was). Because in the 21st Century, it's not so much about your continuing legacy as it is about your continuing relevancy.
A good example of this phenomena is the progressive metal band Tool. Tool professionally debuted with the release of their EP Opiate in 1992 and gradually built a following as one of the world's biggest cult bands - an ensemble which has fans in both the industry and the general populace - wholly devoted to going their own way, doing their own thing. And that philosophy served them well for over twenty years. However, last year leading up to the release of their latest album Fear Inoculum they announced they were finally releasing their entire back catalog (with the exception of the limited edition audio/video box set Salival) for digital distribution, and thus at least one entire generation was now able to discover the band for themselves via Spotify and/or whatever other platform they utilize for listening to music.
And the results were astounding not only for a legacy band, but especially a legacy rock band.
If an artist/band cares about continuing relevancy then making one's back catalog available for digital distribution is crucial. And so I can't help but think that there is something - someone - else holding Talk back from further discovery. There are thousands of views racked up on each of the uploads I see on YouTube. And perhaps the revenue isn't substantial or even compensatory, but it is there to be exploited. Thus I can conceive of no reason, no excuse, why the licensing of Talk didn't occur concurrent with the licensing of Open Your Eyes through Eagle Rock Entertainment.
The legacy of YesWest cannot merely lie with 90125, there is so much more to that lineup as both a recording and performance entity and it is entirely shocking and sad that we are not privy to more cultivation in this regard. Long-time and current fans deserve it, and future fans need it if they are to become devotees.
ALL of it.
~ * ~ * ~
2020 is likely the advent of many things good and bad, but one arresting aspect for those of us who are fans of Trevor's work and of YesWest in particular is this: now is the year in which Talk is the only Yes studio album not available for digital distribution.
"Lost" albums in the Yes continuum has been a discussion point of late in online fandom realms, prompted by news of the upcoming release of Changes and discussion of those songs recorded but never released from the Cinema era, and it led me to ponder this particular inequity. At the heart of it, this all has to do with licensing and distribution. So let's first examine that aspect.
As we know, Talk was recently licensed for archival reissue on vinyl by Music On Vinyl so the rights are held by some entity, but one which is either unwilling or has not been requested to license this recording for streaming/download. The CD version has only ever been reissued twice, once on its' own in 2002, and then as part of the '90s-era Essentially Yes boxset in 2006.
But the only other Yes album which had been missing from the online discography was Talk's follow-up (chronologically, of course, because it was written and recorded by a different lineup and I don't count either Keys To Ascension release strictly as a studio album) Open Your Eyes. Yes did not have a major label relationship at the time, and that album was distributed through two different entities. One of them, Eagle Records, still exists as a subsidiary of Eagle Rock Entertainment, which is the current label affiliation for Open Your Eyes.
Talk, on the other hand, was released by Victory Music, which was distributed by a couple of EMI subsidiaries at the time: Parlophone (in the US) and London (overseas). Phil Carson headed the label for a number of years beginning in the late 1980s, but it folded not long after the release of Talk, as I understand it. It appears, from examining the copyrights associated with the latest reissue, that Eagle Rock currently holds the rights to Talk.
So now the question is: why one and not the other?
Neither album was particularly successful in its' time and that was at least one reason, as far as I can discern, why both albums had been absent from the online realm once we began to see the rest of Yes' catalog being licensed for digital distribution. Fans have been relying on YouTube or online trading circles if they hadn't ripped a copy of their own disc(s), provided they owned either one. And both releases have been out of print on CD for over a decade now though you can still buy each of them on the secondary market easily enough (and in the case of Talk, either with or without the Japanese release bonus track).
An argument which I imagine has been proffered in regards to this discussion involves artist compensation and it's certainly a fair one; it's been going on since Steve Jobs first proposed the platform for iTunes back in 2001 with his 0.99 per track pricing model. But when one considers secondary sales/trading/unlicensed streaming, there is already revenue loss occurring. And some artists held off on licensing their back catalogs for decades, until that particular consideration became moot (and they understood that it was). Because in the 21st Century, it's not so much about your continuing legacy as it is about your continuing relevancy.
A good example of this phenomena is the progressive metal band Tool. Tool professionally debuted with the release of their EP Opiate in 1992 and gradually built a following as one of the world's biggest cult bands - an ensemble which has fans in both the industry and the general populace - wholly devoted to going their own way, doing their own thing. And that philosophy served them well for over twenty years. However, last year leading up to the release of their latest album Fear Inoculum they announced they were finally releasing their entire back catalog (with the exception of the limited edition audio/video box set Salival) for digital distribution, and thus at least one entire generation was now able to discover the band for themselves via Spotify and/or whatever other platform they utilize for listening to music.
And the results were astounding not only for a legacy band, but especially a legacy rock band.
If an artist/band cares about continuing relevancy then making one's back catalog available for digital distribution is crucial. And so I can't help but think that there is something - someone - else holding Talk back from further discovery. There are thousands of views racked up on each of the uploads I see on YouTube. And perhaps the revenue isn't substantial or even compensatory, but it is there to be exploited. Thus I can conceive of no reason, no excuse, why the licensing of Talk didn't occur concurrent with the licensing of Open Your Eyes through Eagle Rock Entertainment.
The legacy of YesWest cannot merely lie with 90125, there is so much more to that lineup as both a recording and performance entity and it is entirely shocking and sad that we are not privy to more cultivation in this regard. Long-time and current fans deserve it, and future fans need it if they are to become devotees.
ALL of it.
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