Back in January, Arthur Lee sold out two nights at the Royal Festival Hall. They were magical shows, Lee performing '67's classic Forever Changes in its entirety, complete with horns and strings. Some complained on the night about the sound balance, but there's no problem with the quality here. Lee's in celebratory mood, as he and his backing band LA psychedelicists Baby Lemonade storm through classics like "Bummer In The Summer" in a blur of brass and strings. Superlative stuff.
Set fire to anything. Set fire to the air," urged John Cale at the beginning of Music For A New Society. That 1982 masterpiece was the evisceration of a man whose fractured psyche was mirrored perfectly by songs arranged in jagged, improvisatory style; a knife held at the throat of sweetness. Now he reappears with his first album of songs for seven years, and his finest album in any genre for over two decades.
It's been a long crawl back to credibility for prog titans Yes, but things seem to be shifting in their favour of late. There's a new wave of young bands emerging, unafraid to wear their prog influences on their sleeves (The Mars Volta, Cave In, Beecher) and the old sods themselves are attracting 'celebrity' plaudits (The Flaming Lips, PiL's Keith Levene, Vincent Gallo). This is as it should be—contrary to post-punk dogma, Yes were never a joyless listen.
