RELAYER on Rhino

[RobAdams]

Finally this album sounds great on disc. Still missing the final notes of GATES OF DELIRIUM - I'm thinking perhaps the master tape is damaged and may be why it's been prematurely faded(just a guess). All in all I'm very pleased with the sound of this CD.
We all know GATES, SOUND CHASER and TO BE OVER from the original album, so let me skip over to what you WANT to know about...the BONUS tracks.

The SOON edit is old news and I could have lived without it. The single edit of SOUND CHASER was interesting to hear. I've never heard the edit before and was surprised that it was turned into an instrumental, save for the Cha Cha Cha, Cha Cha's. Lastly the studio run-through of GATES is rough but sweet. Obviously the focus was upon the music for this run through. Jon doesn't sing quite the same lyrics and his voice comes across as more of a 'guide' vocal than a serious attempt. The music isn't extremely different than the GATES we know until we reach the SOON section, which is given a louder treatment, especially by Alan's drumming. At the point where you'd expect GATES to end the band suddenly launches into a repeat of one of the earlier GATES themes, used effectively as a louder ending. This track alone was worth the 11.99 price of the CD for me. And my sister got my old RELAYER.

It's great to finally hear the rough works-in-progress side of YES.

[Dantalion Rides Again]

Hey me too. My sister inherited a bunch of Yes CDs when I decided I didn't like 'em. I can't remember if I'd decided to just stick with the vinyl or if the remasters started coming out . . .

Deja Vu . . . did we already go through this exercise of you-mentioning-your-sister-getting-your-old-discs-and-then-me-bringing-up-how-my-sister-gets-my-old-Yes-discs-too?

:thinking:

I'm glad to hear that Relayer's still missing those notes in a way, because I was feeling moronic for having bought the Atlantic 1994 remaster while knowing there was a Rhino on the way. Now that I know it isn't perfect, I feel better somehow.

However, I will continue to shudder when I look at the dumb "Darth Maul's face" design in the background on the CD and tray card.

[leqin]

You know if I only had a copy of the original Atlantic CD release - not the Atlantic remaster - then I could put that last few notes back in and you couldn't even spot the join or even realise that it was hacked together out of 2 seperate CD issues.

I bought the whole set of the 2nd batch of Rhino remasters today and I haven't given them a listen yet, mainly because I've been to busy doing other things, but I did check out one or two things while they were being ripped off onto my hardisk ready to be MP3'd ready for my iPod and by the sounds of it sitting down to listen to the whole lot is going to be heaven on a stick... tough work but somebodys gotta do it:D

[RobAdams]

Circus Of Heaven On A Stick, but at least I'm enjoyin' the ride...


I've had a blast reliving YES history through the Rhino remasters. Now that we've covered the studio albums from YES to GFTO, I am now at the point where Yes arrived in my life. It was 1977, and a friend got me wasted and played CLOSE TO THE EDGE for me. It was instant Yes fan for me! I went to the mall to get my own copy the next day. They were out of CTTE, but the clerk said "We do have the new Yes album that just came out." It was GFTO and I bought it.


Wasn't long before I saw my first YES shows (1978) and got all the other albums. RELAYER was amazing. I expected a little less from it since I wasn't sure if Moraz was worthy. I still see this as the YES Jazz Fusion album. And now it sounds even sweeter!

Being a YESfan in the new millenium has been pretty satisfying so far!

[David Momberg]

Another great re-isuue. I never realized how jazz-influenced this whole album was til I listened to this whole CD,extras included. The Soon edit is great to listen to, when you don't want to listen to all of GOD, or just want to hear(argubaly)Jon's greatest vocal effort ever. If you ever doubted Pat Moraz's talent, give this a listen, and find some live recordings from that period, or get a video copy of the QPR show. I really believe his playing and style is what makes this CD so unique, and at times my fav.

[Sheerah]

They are selling these at the California State Fair, right inbetween the hot dogs on a stick and the egg rolls on a stick, just down the path from the deep fried Twinkies and deep fried Snicker's Bars, up the path from the funnel cakes.

It's funny Rob, listening to this Remaster immediately took me back to my childhood. I hadn't listened to Relayer in a very, very long time, as I never bought the CD and only had it on vinyl, until the other day.

After buying my CD, I went to the gym. By that time I was starving for dinner, so I raced home. I put on my Relayer CD and commenced mixing up the grub and grog. My brain was halfway torn between listening to the CD and making a salad. As I heard the cha cha cha cha cha's, I had a flashback to Marc Jacob's bedroom in 8th grade. I remember sitting on his bed with Kendra Granberg and Eileen Pyatak, and Pete Casset was standing up next to Marc, who was sitting in a chair. I wasn't paying all that much attention to the music as I was so mesmorized by that cute Marc Jacobs. Then all of a sudden, the stereo plays "cha cha cha cha cha, cha cha cha cha cha." I had never heard anything like that in my life. It really struck a chord with me. I turned to Marc and asked him who this is. He told me it was Yes. Well, I had heard of them before, but never heard them. So, off I went to the record store...........

.......and here I am!
:hippy:

[RobAdams]

And finally the distorted bits of GATES OF DELIRIUM are louder and clearer. People who refuse to get these remasters from Rhino are truly missing out.

[PO]

I'm unsure of these "last few notes". I've only had the vinyl and the 1st CD ever issued. I'm not missing these notes, correct?

What is playing these notes? I know when they play the very last chord (C) you can hear something similar to a slow strum upward in a guitar chord during the fade out. Is that it?

[AwakeMan]

I agree with all that's been said about this re-issue. The clarity of sound and the packaging is outstanding, but I was slightly disappointed with the lyric booklet compared to the other ones in the series, like the "Going for the One" booklet which was really nice. For instance, the extra artwork included in the mid-nineties George Marino remaster was not printed (maybe Rhino couldn't get permission ?). Also, no pictures of the fabulous stage sets from the Relayer Tour.

Ah well, I suppose we can't have everything. Rhino has spoilt us !

[Original_Shifty]

I got this for Christmas, and finally had a chance to listen to it properly on my computer (stereo is over 15 years old and headphones on portable cd player sucks so sonically my computer has the best sound in my house - love that sub-woofer).

Holy Crap! What amazing sound. The opening to Gates threw me for a loop as all these different keyboard sounds were popping out of my speakers. This cd has gone from sounding flat, to sounding almost 3D. Soundchaser had the same effect, and TBO was just as amazing.

Good job Rhino!!!!

[Ryan]

I got this for christmas too. I love my mom.

[fragile34]

i love the rhino version.

[Faceintheplace]

I was playing this today. That's one of the plusses of college life. Its an hour and half commute from my house, plus there's a lot of breaks between classes so there's loads of time to play cds all day. Anyway, remastered Relayer is a mindblower. It sounds like a totally different album! There was a lot of great music just waiting to get out, and that early draft of "Gates..." MAN!! Words cannot describe!

[Jeremy Bender]

I don't think the final notes of Gates are missing on the Atlantic remaster, they just fade out, right? I paid a large amount of money to get the Japanese remaster, which came in the cool mini-album sleeve cardboard container. The sound on it is incredible. The "Battle" section of Gates is staggering. Does anyone have the Japanese AND Rhino versions? How do the compare? It's my favorite Yes album, so if the sound on the Rhino version is even better than on the Japanese version, I'll get it.