Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Howe, Steve
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2003
Rating: 2.5/5
The guitar giant put together a proper band to record his new album. They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, so Steve called in both his sons, keyboardist Virgil and drummer Dylan, and added bassist Derrick Taylor and wind player Gilad Atzmon. The first two tracks are a rockin’ assault, with the guitar sounding distorted in a way Steve’s hasn’t since his days in GTR.
There are 16 songs in all. A good half of them are more compactly built and don’t offer the spacey sounds of the previous “Skyline” (2002). The rest of the record is, more or less, the guitarist’s shorter progressive adventures, and their variety brings a huge contrast to the record and keeps its dynamics at a consistently high level. And of course, Steve’s indispensable guitar wizardry is everywhere.
Steve contributed his vocals on three songs. It’s well known that Steve was never famous as a great singer. Virgil Howe, with his higher-register “backvocals,” provides a welcome contrast and somehow shores up the record’s weaker spot. And of course, Steve, bless him, after all these years still tends to swallow a word or two in the verses and still can’t quite decide what to do first: catch his breath or sing the line. His singing reminds you more of the humming of a happy bear who’s just stuffed himself with fresh cherries at the nearest farm. But after all these years, it’s just hard to imagine Steve any other way. The vocals will bother the music purists who swear only by schooled technique and ignore “feel,” but otherwise Steve’s tone fits the structures of the songs he was picked for nicely and unobtrusively, which is a surprisingly positive observation. Those songs are the “country”-spiced excursion Where I Belong, the opening “rocker” Across The Cobblestone and the R&B-leaning Load Off My Mind.
The perfection of the musical fusion and the surrender to total “feeling” really shine in songs like the classic “jazz”-flavored Westwinds, Pacific Haze, or the blues-jazz moment Inside Out Muse, where we can especially enjoy the gorgeous balance of the whole little wind orchestra and Steve’s non-stop soloing noodling. Their sound is tastefully filled out from corner to corner. Between the more compactly built tracks, Steve has slipped in shorter experimental adventures, like the folk attack Whiskey Hill and Tremolando and Hecla Lava, which are real progressive solo escapes back to Yes.
The most beautiful collision of the record’s jazz and rock moments is caught in the shorter but extremely expressive The Chariots Of Gold, a fantastic crossbreed of both approaches.
If I draw an ungrateful parallel between “Elements” and Yes, there’s one interesting similarity to be found on the record, though not exactly on a first-spin listen, but still. In places, the record turns into a jigsaw puzzle of delicate color palettes of peculiar sounds that flow into one another unobtrusively and almost imperceptibly, which was also a hallmark of classic Yes. Of course, the magic is incomparable. In that respect, the record’s finale is actually the most convincing part. The intergalactic instrumentals Sand Devil and The Longing, followed by the tender A Drop In The Ocean, where Howe conjures up a real moment of high atmosphere with an esoteric whiff.
“Elements” is exactly what Steve set out to achieve. He captured a moment of refined fusion of everything that has ever influenced Steve, not just as a musician but as a person. Steve encoded it all in his own way and translated it into yet another new face. A strictly “Howe-ian” invention.
Lineup
Steve Howe – guitar, vocals
Virgil Howe – keyboards, vocal harmonies
Gilad Atzmon – saxophones, flute
Derrick Taylor – bass guitar
Dylan Howe – drums
Production
Steve Howe
Tracklist
1.Across The Cobblestone
2.Bee Sting
3.Westwinds
4.Where I Belong
5.Whiskey Hill
6.The Chariot Of Gold
7.Tremolando
8.Pacific Haze
9.Load Off My Mind
10.Hecla Lava
11.Smoke Silver
12.Inside Out Muse
13.Rising Sun
14.Sand Devil
15.The Longing
16.A Drop In The Ocean
Album length: 61:20
