Various Artists - Sound Chaser (2020)

A passing comment by Leo has inspired this post, as he mentioned that he likes some of the modern neo-prog bands such as The Flower Kings, Mostly Autumn and Spock's Beard, and they are also some of my own favourites, to which I would add Transatlantic and Dream Theater. A lot of these bands love to cover classic progressive rock songs of the 70's, either live or as bonus tracks on their albums, with Transatlantic in particular loving their prog covers, having played songs by Procol Harum (including the full 17 minutes of 'In Held ('Twas) In I'), Santana, Focus and Genesis as bonuses on their albums. Neal Morse's previous band Spock's Beard were also partial to the odd cover, and one band that they both loved was Yes. Spock's Beard covered 'South Side Of The Sky' on the bonus disc of their 'Snow' box set, and if you haven't heard their 'Snow' album then you really don't know what you're missing. When Morse left Spock's Beard and formed Transatlantic with Swedish guitarist Roine Stolt (ex Flower Kings), bassist Pete Trewavas (ex Marillion), and drummer Mike Portnoy (ex Dream Theater), he took his love of Yes with him, with Transatlantic covering 'And You And I' for the bonus disc of their 'Kaleidoscope' album. Dream Theater are famous for covering whole albums for official bootlegs for their fans, like 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. 'Number Of The Beast', 'Master Of Puppets', and 'Made In Japan', and so a Yes cover was always on the cards, and they delivered a stunning take on 'Heart Of The Sunrise' on their 'Uncovered' official bootleg. Stanley Snail are another fine neo-prog band, featuring drummer Nick D'Virgillo from Spock's Beard/Big Big Train, and they covered 'Siberian Khatru' for a Yes tribute album from 1995, and it's such a good version that it really deserves a bigger audience. Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess has released a number of solo albums, and on 2007's 'The Road Home' he included an extended cover of 'Sound Chaser', which is well worth hearing, and while The Luck Of Eden Hall might not be as well-known as some of these bands, they are an excellent modern prog band, and gifted an 18-minute version of 'Starship Trooper' for the truly outstanding 'Side Effects' box-set, which was issued by the Fruits De Mer label in 2018. It was a four disc coloured vinyl box-set, with artists like The Bevis Frond, Sendelica, The Soft Bombs and Julie's Haircut each covering a song that takes up one whole side of the vinyl. I pre-ordered my copy to ensure that I didn't miss out, and it sold out on the day of release, so hard luck if you want a copy. I really wanted to include something by The Flower Kings, but they only ever covered 'Soon' from 'Relayer' in concert, and it wasn't that great a recording, but in searching for that I stumbled on a Yes tribute band called Awaken, who have covered one of my favourite Yes songs 'The Gates Of Delirium', and as it takes real guts to tackle that and record the whole 22-minute song live in one take then they deserve to close the album with it. If you are impressed by their recording then you can watch them tape it on their Youtube video, and so what we have here are seven of my favourite Yes songs covered by some of my favourite neo-prog bands, on a 90-minute album of some of the best progressive rock ever made. 

Track listing

01 Heart Of The Sunrise
02 Siberian Khatru
03 South Side Of The Sky
04 And You And I
05 Sound Chaser
06 Starship Trooper
07 The Gates Of Delirium