Stars: Yes

Summary: The progressive rock (for fans in the know, prog-rock) band Yes paint with their music a mystical world of fairy tale creatures and metaphorical lessons. Since their formation in the 1970s, Yes have gone through several incarnations. This March 1996 concert features what has been their most acclaimed line-up--Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, and Alan White. Filmed at San Luis Obispo, California's Freemont Theatre, the reunited band perform a number of hits, including Close to the Edge, America, Onward, and The Revealing Science of God.

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The music of Yes has an almost otherworldly sound that is occasionally hard to reconcile with the sight of five very ordinary blokes standing on a stage. As a result Yes were arguably always better to listen to than watch. Keys to Ascension attempts to bridge the disparity between the band and their music with cutaway footage of forests and waterfalls, and plenty of Roger Dean artwork. Sometimes it works, sometimes it feels a little contrived, as in the sublime "Turn of the Century" where attention is distracted from Steve Howe's fretwork by a pop video-style presentation of the Pygmalion story as told by the lyrics.

This is the classic Yes line-up of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Alan White, captured in concert in California in 1996 (the same concerts spawned no fewer than two double-CD albums). In a very generous 150-minutes of music-making they give what amounts to a greatest hits tour of the classic Yes canon from "Time and a Word" through The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans, Going for the Once and Tormato. For enthusiasts it's a treat to watch Howe swapping from Martin six-string to Gibson semi-acoustic to electric mandolin to 12-string to pedal steel, sometimes all in the same song; or watch Chris Squire's apparently effortless bass technique. Occasionally they drift into Spinal Tap territory (Squire's triple neck in "Awaken") and overall there's a polished politeness to proceedings that hints at a band going through the motions, which is hardly surprising, given that the latest material here dates from 1978. The disc has good stereo sound and an anamorphic picture but little in the way of extras. --Mark Walker

Aspect Ratio:	Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Scene Access, Interactive Menus, Biographies
Year:	1996
Release Date:	March 14, 2005
Runtime:	150 minutes
Certification:	Exempt.
Catalogue Number:	S V E M 0041
Keywords:	Music, Rock, Pop, Wide, Screen, Yes, Keys, Performing, Ascension, Arts, Popular
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts