Ritual (Yesshows) Remastered and balanced

[Ash Armstrong]

Another Ian Hartley pro job. It improves significantly on the Yesshows sound for me, which I've never been enamoured of.

[madbear]

Wasn't Yesshows released using first mix or something, rather than a final mix? This is good, though the drums are strangely high in the mix.

[Ash Armstrong]

Wasn't Yesshows released using first mix or something, rather than a final mix? This is good, though the drums are strangely high in the mix.

I'm not sure of the mix of the original. I remember buying it, loving the cover (which was used again for Dan Hedges band biography), but not liking the sound of if that much. Given that the tracks came from tours over a three year span, no effort seemed to have been made to balance them against each other so that at least an illusion of it being a full show might have been made. I find the variations in the overall sound distracting. A bit of a rush job. I believe it was originally intended for it to have been a triple album, mirroring Yessongs, and I think it fell to Chris to put it together as best he could in the time allowed.

[madbear]

Wiki:

In June 1979, the Yes line-up of singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, and drummer Alan White, finished their 1978–1979 tour in support of the band's ninth studio album, Tormato (1978). Their label Atlantic Records had approached the group about the possibility of putting out a live album as a follow-up to their first, Yessongs (1973), and Squire had the task of sifting through hours of tapes of concerts recorded since then and select the best cuts. He also undertook mixing duties, and prepared a selection of tracks from the 1976, 1977, and 1978 tours across five dates from his studio, Sun Park Studios.

[...]

Band opinion of this second live album by Yes was divided, at least up to the 1990s. As reported by author David Watkinson, the label did not inform everyone of events. Wakeman, who was not in the group at the time of release, said that Squire's mixes were "good but nothing exciting. The next thing I know was that somebody gave me a copy". While he, Anderson, and Howe did not care for the final release, Moraz, White, and Squire gave it more approval.

[Davy]

I've always loved the sound of Yesshows. Despite only having a few songs, it's far and away my favorite live Yes album - barring the excellent Quebec 1979 bootleg.

[Roundabob]

This is fantastic. So glad I took the time to listen. It is so great to hear these guys at their peak. Damn they were great. Sometimes I forget how magical it all was.

[Chrisklenox]

Funny how tastes vary. Yesshows is to my ear the best live album the band has ever put out. Performance, track selection, mixing, and mastering (Joe Gastwirt 1994). The thought of someone improving on that is almost laughable to me, but I am glad for those who are enjoying it.