Flag - 1988
Here we go ....... Classic YELLO.
This is the album that most non-Yello fans would know. Musical production is superb by now, which by the way, has already become a kind of reference for other musical guys at the time. From Stella, the quality of the recordings is fantastic.
The musical characteristics that Yello had shown in their earlier albums seems to get focussed on this album. It’s as though they had looked back at what they had done and hand picked the most ‘Yello’ type ideas for this album which is absolutely superb. It has been played so much since it came out, that many people may overlook its superb craftsmanship but it is a reference quality piece of work. It knocked everything else in the same field at the time for six.
Tied Up
The opening feature is one from the past – shouting and responses. (Call and response is a powerful tool in music) The sax intro consists of sampled notes. (Again done previously) There is a LOW bass drum that emphasises the first beat of the bar followed by a syncopated beat. (Off beat) This suggests Latin American straight away.
Once the song gets under way, the congas are going with the kit and a powerful bass ostinato. With good systems, this shakes the house. The guitar kicks in with short chords and there is a Santana like feel about it. (Go bop bop) I heard this live and I HAD to move. I’m not a moving kind of guy, but this had me running up the walls. Shouting and brass stabs feature. If you play this pretty loud, you will hear the depth of the bass in the percussion beats. It’s a truly moving sound.
The vocals are almost in the background when they begin in Spanish and then go into English. We also hear the vocals in octaves – again used in earlier albums. The conga playing is SUPERB. The quality of its recording is brilliant with the double hits and sickeningly perfect slap sounds. Dieter is growling in the mix – close mic’d (again as used in earlier albums) We then hear Dieter rapping at ‘growl’ pitch with Boris doing the same an octave higher. Cracks of thunder and samples of rain plus a choir. The beat stops for one of those ‘ravine’ moments and we hear a deep gong as a link to the next section.
Back to the rhythm with cross rhythms on the congas. Purely percussion with cowbells, snare shots. The congas are amazing. Vocals are almost in the background. The percussion stop to let them come forward in the mix and the beat starts again. The congas feature heavily with vocals almost taking a back seat.
Sampled brass and sax play an instrumental section. Almost Miami vice like and then a beautiful guitar solo with loads of reverb. It moves forward in the mix. Manipulated voice (an octave lower and close mic’d from Dieter) A crack of thunder and more rain leading into the gyuitar riff and that strong beat with the brass adding to the riff. Absolutely stunning. Planes roar past into a crack of thunder and a choir finishes with a low rumble of a gong.
I wrote a lot of detail about this song because it is one that has probably been played a lot over the years and almost gets overlooked because of familiarity. It encompasses so much of Yello’s past that every time I hear it, I hear past albums within it added to the unbelieveably good job that the engineers did on it. For me this is an absolute masterpiece that sums up their work so far.
Play it loud and you will FEEL this music. It all seems to come together for me in this one song and even now, after listening, I just want to play it again. It has a carnival atmosphere, beautifully crafted sound effects and samples, Dieter’s gorgeous rumbles – everything you could wish for from this group. For me, it’s pure Yello with that carnival atmosphere, even bring you the weather.
Of Course I’m Lying
We start with claves and some deep rumbles. (Just on a technical note – my recording contains low level hum from the studio – or my system is too analytical. Maybe someone can confirm?) The thing that I love about this song is the humour of someone lying and then the comment –‘ I love it.’ It reminds me of the humour in ‘I love You’ – my Cindy doll previously. You may be seeing what I’m talking about now, when I mention previos albums contained with this album.
VERY deep thuds. A kind of riff starts up and then a second riff way down in the bass. This one sounds kind of ‘Western’ – Good Bad and Ugly reference from early. Lovely rich pad sounds on the synth The chorus just makes me laugh with the added comment. There is an interesting chord that links verse one to two. This may have been the technology developing what is known as ‘aftertouch.’ If you press notes, chords play. Generally, on a good keyboard, if you press hard it’s loud and if you press soft, it’s soft. That is known as touch sensitivity in order to be able to perform dynamics on a keyboard. Aftertouch is when you play a chord and the while holding the keys, you press harder and the chord or note gets louder. (It does a crescendo) This linking chord does that if you listen carefully.
Lovely chord sequence that reminds me of an earlier song I mentioned in another album where it’s built on what are called ‘inversions. There’s also a great chromatic falling sequence under the voice. Mostly pad sounds.
Sampled chorus sounds after verse two with other guys singing ‘oooh’ sounds. Dieter does a lovely slow monologue over the chord sequence – telling the story with the choir as a backing before Boris adds the chorus line that keeps mentioning, ‘I love it’.
This song is a series of build ups linked by short quiet drum passages. A beautiful song with lots of side comments from the guitar.
Just two minor things technically. In analytical systems, you may be aware of the studio noise at the start and the synthetic quality of the reverb at the end. (Again that may be more to do with the types of reverb around at the time – I can’t for the life of me remember what people generally used but I know that Zappa in an attempt to get good reverb actually used a narrow corridor with a mic in it to get a more natural effect) Don’t let this detract from the sheer quality of the song though.
3rd of June
Remember the ‘wave’ effect from earlier? This number starts with a ‘wave’ – a pad sound fading in slowly with a low drone entering. It holds and settles and then in comes an eerie melody on a synth, a drum ostinato and a guitar ostinato. Once the rhytm gets under way, there is a really deep bass attack of three notes that keep returning at the start of each phrase. There is a drone and Dieter is telling the story followed by the hook – Dieter recorded over himself a few time. Boris links the verse with a rap in the background and Dieter returns with the hook.
This piece is formed around a pedal or drone which stops for short whiles in order to introduce a link passage. The texture changes a great deal with choral sounds in the background. Dieter continues with his story and the music kind of illustrating behind him.
The incessant drone comes back with a stronger rhythm. Very driving and a melody at the top on synth and choral sounds.
Blazing Saddles
Seagull type noises and waves introduces Boris who launches into verse one with a hook that has the octave idea below.
A lovely trumpet effect with repeated synth notes that sound almost steel pan like. This piece sounds Mexican to me.
The next verse has the guitar making comments after Boris’ lines.
Another instrumental sound with the ‘steel pan’ type sound and trumpet sound. Boris almost sounds punch drunk in this!! There is then a countermelody on the trumpet behind his voice followed by the ‘steel pan’ type of sound.
The Race
This is an absolute classic. The opening sound of cars has been used everywhere. It goes through your head on headphones. A bass pulse, a brass intro and the Latin American percussion. Samples of slamming doors and shouts. Manipulated voice (an octave lower)
A bass riff and then phrases which are answered by a trombone sound. Bass line is a repeated note. Very low.
The middle section features a distant sythn solo ending with a car racing through your head and back to the intro ideas. Next is a sax section with clapping. (The saxes are sampled) The repeating thud in the bass and a trombone glissando answered by trumpets. Bass drum thumps on every beat while the texture builds.
It stops for the Latin percussion and a new section. The bass is SO deep here. Shouts in the background with car noises and drones. (Vocally as well) There is also a rather nice owl ‘hoot’ really low down in pitch if you listen carefully!!!
Ostinatos on the brass and then guitar riffs with Dieter’s fast rapping. There is a western style guitar solo and suddenly there is a change of place when an announcer appears.
Lots of samples, Latin Percussion, crowds, announcer, rapping, repeated bass lines and ostinatos. It all happens so fast.
A synth ostinato appears with a melody in the bass. (on synths) then the guitar sounds almost industrial – like a saw. The piece finishes with the gong.
Alhambra
Monks voices? Then a praying type of sound. Very theatrical/film like. Congas come in with high synth sounds. (Voice like sounds) It builds to a high chord before a repeated drum pattern begins and pad sounds on the synth.
There is a dramatic chord (One of those chasms) – also I can hear a timpani in the mix. Fast Spanish style clapping and a detuned guitar plays chords. Then there is this isolated ‘Moroccan’ style melody over a percussion backing. (The guitar sounds like it’s in a different room to me) he’s answering the Moroccan instrument almost like a conversation between the two of them and then it fades away with clapping.
Otto di Catania
Pad sounds with bass stabs and a Mexican voice. Beautiful deep sound with spacial synth sounds. Pregnant pauses at the end of each verse. A gorgeous relaxed guitar solo. He seems to be playing in an enormous space on the recording. A clarinet answers briefly before we go back to the next part of the story. I’m not sure whether that voice is a sample or someone is working in the studio. I really like this laid back sound with the gravelly Mexican voice.
Tied Up in Red
Crowd sounds and off we go into thunder and rain. A kind of tribal call (and the low owl hoot) before the congas start and the low rap followed by calls. We’re back to that Santana feel here. All percussion and voice. Manipulated voice – Dieter likes that deep sound!! More cracks of thunder and a lonely synth melody followed by chorus voices.
Back to the beat (and owl hoot) with the rap. With a good system, you can really hear the difference between the low drums whereas on a cheap nasty system, it’s not so obvious. A guitar riff starts and a cross rhythm on cowbell. Once this is set up, the rap starts again and is answered by brass. This is almost tribal. Fantastic conga playing at this point, playing across the beat as well.
Another lonely synth solo on top. The brass start to feature more and we go back to the tribal beat with a guitar solo. I love the mellow sound of this guitar. (With a guitar ostinato behind it)
Now the whole lot play the opening figure from the first time around. (Squeaky toy and all) Thunder claps and rain with peoples’ voices as the piece fades away into a storm. This is a fantastic sample.
Tied Up in Gear
This starts with a sound like a police siren and a manic guitar. (We also have the return of the studio hum by the way) A manic beat and guitar riff while they shout over the top and then rap away. It’s like they’ve let their hair down.
Change of texture for Dieter’s growling and the wailing guitar answers him. Sounds come in all over the place. It breaks down to just a drum beat before the guitar wails in again. Listen to the bass – it’s really driving with attack. My system nearly takes off with the bass line. It has a gorgeous tone that is almost covered by the other sounds. This is a complex sound that makes it beneficial to listen ‘inside’ if you can.
A crack of thunder before the choir come in, everything stops and the sirens fade away. (Again, listen for that hum on the fade out)
This is a gorgeous album. One that I HAVE to play loud. If you have a good set of speakers, they will rumble with this and you will hear some gorgeous bass tones in the mix. You will also be able to detect the different types of drums being used rather than just hear ‘banging’. While great care has been taken over the production of the album, the hum I’m referring to may be the copy I have. It’s not loud, but I have a slightly ‘laser’ type system that makes me aware of it. For me, it’s all part of the live experience. It sounds more real because of it.
I love the life in this recording and the exuberance that jumps out of it at you. It’s a thrilling listen that combines most of the elements heard in their earlier albums in such a convincing and musical way.
I think that this is a ‘must buy’ both musically and as a reference for hi fi listening.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjoQiqY9MN4www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnJIL-lvXnIThis version is slightly different from the album, but good.