Member:
maribor
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by maribor)
Date:
8/30/2006
Format:
CD (Album)
About a year after the release of Martin Morgan’s first album under the name of Yak, the whole band got together again for a jam. They had not played together in over twenty years. Since the band members all come from different parts of England, they chose Nottingham as the venue for their rehearsals. Unfortunately, 80s member Simon Snell was not able to attend the session, so they decided to replace him with Max Johnson on bass.
Martin Morgan himself admits that this album is what it is.
And what is it?
It is an album of jams. It is exactly as you would expect a jam session to be like. There are plenty of improvisations and solos. The guitar seems to be the most prominent instrument, with Martin Morgan obviously not minding to take a back seat this time. The first two songs are lengthy jams. If you’re a fan of wacky improvisations, then this is your kind of album. I prefer things a bit more organized. Not that I’m saying this album is sloppy - far from it. It’s very well played, surprisingly so for a band who’d been out of touch for more than twenty years. Later on, they also perform some familiar tunes like “Aragorn” and “Leylines of Yak”. I actually prefer these versions because the instruments used are real. If they had gone in the studio with this line up to perform Dark Side of The Duck that would have been a killer album. As it stands, we have two albums which if you combine the song-writing from the first and the instrumentation from this album you would get a fine result.
There’s a lot of good vibes felt from these recordings. The guys joke around in the few silent moments. It would have been exciting if they had released an album in the 1980s. It could have been a contender for one of the best neo records, I’m certain. Still, I hope these guys get together again and go into the studio to record something. If for nothing else to improve the production, which is not the best on Does Your Yak Bite. Considering this is a jam, the sound is actually quite good. All in all an interesting experience but hoping to hear something more structured in the future from these lads.
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