Album of the Day

Tales from Yesterday, a View from the South Side of the Sky, by Various Artists (1995): In the mid 1990s, start-up prog label Magna Carta released a series of tribute albums to the 70s giants featuring their stable of new prog bands. This is the Yes variant and, like the others, it got slagged by a lot of prog fans. I think the detractors missed the point - this was a promotional gimmick, to get the names of these new bands in front of people who might like their stuff. True, most of the takes on this disc are fairly straight forward covers (tho' if I never hear Magellan's version of "Don't Kill the Whale" again, it won't be too soon). But there are some interesting tracks. One is the version of "Siberian Khatru" by Stanley Snail, comprised of Mike Keneally, Bryan Beller, Nick D'Virgilio, and the late Kevin Gilbert. Others are instrumental versions of "Soon" and "Astral Traveler" by ex Yes-men Pat Moraz and Peter Banks. The rest is pleasant enough, although this is hardly essential listening for anybody.