Peter Banks CD's - other than Two Sides

[jimmygtr]

Other than Two Sides of what do people consider to be the better Peter Banks CD's?

[allpurechance]

Jimmy-although not a solo PB cd,the old Flash album In The Can is a highly unheralded and most interesting musical feast.The band in general is good,and Peter's solos are just about as good as any I have ever heard.Certainly better than anything he did with Yes,where it seems his abilities as a soloist went largely unrecognized,and/or under-utilized.

[jimmygtr]

Jimmy-although not a solo PB cd,the old Flash album In The Can is a highly unheralded and most interesting musical feast.The band in general is good,and Peter's solos are just about as good as any I have ever heard.Certainly better than anything he did with Yes,where it seems his abilities as a soloist went largely unrecognized,and/or under-utilized.

Excellent. I have wondered about Flash but have been reluctant to put down the money. Seems like Peter was a decent player. If he could have gotten the musicians on Two Sides of to become a band I think he would have done well.

[bondegezou]

Other than Two Sides of what do people consider to be the better Peter Banks CD's?

Peter did three solo albums in the '90s: Instinct, Self-Contained and Reduction. They really are solo albums with Peter doing nearly everything himself. They're all fairly similar to each other, but I prefer Instinct.

His other solo album, Can I Play You Something?, is mainly a collection of archival material, some of which is better presented on Original Syn, but some of which is otherwise unavailable.

Someone else in this thread has mentioned Flash. There's also his late '70s band, Empire, but I'd start with Flash over Empire. In terms of other appearances, he does some nice work on Magna Carta's ELP tribute album Encores, Legends and Paradox, A Tribute to the Music of ELP, also featuring appearances by Downes and Khoroshev.

Henry

[jimmygtr]

Peter did three solo albums in the '90s: Instinct, Self-Contained and Reduction. They really are solo albums with Peter doing nearly everything himself. They're all fairly similar to each other, but I prefer Instinct.

His other solo album, Can I Play You Something?, is mainly a collection of archival material, some of which is better presented on Original Syn, but some of which is otherwise unavailable.

Someone else in this thread has mentioned Flash. There's also his late '70s band, Empire, but I'd start with Flash over Empire. In terms of other appearances, he does some nice work on Magna Carta's ELP tribute album Encores, Legends and Paradox, A Tribute to the Music of ELP, also featuring appearances by Downes and Khoroshev.

Henry

Is Can I Play You Something? worth it?

[Max Webster]

Of the three original Flash albums, I would highly recommend the self-titled debut which also featured Tony Kaye and is quite good and worth getting IMO.

[bondegezou]

Is Can I Play You Something? worth it?

Further details in the Yescography at http://yescography.tripod.com/CanIPlayYouSomething.htm . When CIPYS? came out, it was an invaluable compilation of material by the two key pre-Yes bands, Syn and Mabel Greer's Toyshop. Most of the Syn material is now better presented on Original Syn (there's a demo of "Flowerman" which isn't on there), but there are still four Mabel Greer songs here (two coming in pairs of alternate versions) which are not otherwise available anywhere else. There is also an 8:10 track consisting of Banks' extended solo (backed by Bruford) from the middle of an early Yes performance of "I See You". If you're interested in Yes's pre-history, I'd definitely recommend the album.

However, a lot of the material is of poor sound quality and the album is somewhat repetitive. If you want to hear Peter Banks playing some great music, I'd look to Instinct or one of the Flash albums first.

Henry

[jimmygtr]

I got Can I Play you something? and I definitely enjoy it. The sound quality isn't that great, but I'm a sucker for 60's psychedelia rock... Peter's style was a bit raw back in the day wasn't it? Interesting too because on 2 sides of he and Jan Akkerman really do some nice stuff (I have two sides on Vinyl). From what I've heard of Reduction he almost changed to an almost Fripp style player. It's a bummer he isnt' going to be part of the Syn tour.