Flash (1st Album)/ Out of Our Hands

Artist: Flash
Label: Friday Music
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 829421100126
EAN: 0829421100126
ASIN: B0000CD5JZ

Release Date: 2003-09-30

Flash (1st Album)/ Out of Our Hands

Related Categories:

General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock

| Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

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Tracks:

Small Beginnings
Morning Haze
Children Of The Universe
Dreams Of Heaven
The Time It Takes
Open Sky
None The West
Farewell Number One
Man Of Honour
Dead Ahead
The Bishop
Psychosync
Manhattan Morning
Shadows (It's You)

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One Live Badger
In the Can
Starcastle
Illusions on a Double
Time and a Word

Album Description

When Flash emerged on the recording scene in 1971 with an exciting self-titled LP called Flash, they formulated a very intricate yet free form sound that would go onto record some very fine music over the next few years. <P>The band consisted of guitarist Peter Banks ( Ex-Yes)and vocalist Colin Carter along with other prog-rock royalty, Ray Bennett and Mike Hough. With the exceptional stylings of keyboard great Tony Kaye ( Ex-Yes) for their first album, Flash developed into a highly touted concert and recording act which lasted only for a brief span of time. <P>Their best seller, the self-titled Flash album run back in copped a huge hit with the memorable "Small Beginnings." Banks' guitar work is second to none throughout this stunning track, as keyboard virtuoso Tony Kaye lends his trademark organ passages to complement this classic song, as well as throughout the entire album. Amazing tunes like "Dreams of Heaven" and "Children of The Universe" continue to dance in your head after one listen. Even the mood pieces like "Morning Haze" and the mystical "The Time It Takes" show the other side of this formidable quintet. <P>The second re-mastered album on this exceptional one disc set is "Out of Our Hands." This album pre-dated the concept-type albums which became commonplace over the next several years. Tracks like "Man of Honour" and "None the Wiser" are often cited as their most memorable tunes from this project. As with all their albums, the underrated and much imitated Colin Carter's vocals are solidly entrenched along side the hard-working rhythm section of Ray Bennett and Mike Hough.

Customer Reviews:

Dynamic Tension from ex-Yessers Pete Banks and Tony Kaye.......2007-02-07

Sounds like Yes if Peter and Tony had stayed in the band into the early 70's. High octane prog, not unlike early Yes, Sounds like the First album "Yes", "Time and a Word" and "The Yes Album". Fans of those 3 albums will not be dissapointed. Ray Bennett plays a picked Rickenbacker, so naturally the bass sounds like Chris Squire, and thats a good thing. Tony Kaye is on the first Flash and his B3 sounds like he just finished recording The Yes Album with it, which he did. The third Flash album "out of our hands" is also here and demonstrates how much the band grew in 2 years.

High energy "proggish" rock highly reminiscent of the 1969 debut album by Yes.......2007-01-01

This Friday Music reissue packages two albums released by former Yes guitarist Peter Banks including the eponymous debut (1972) and their third album Out of Our Hands (1973). In the Can (1972) is not represented. Overall, this is pretty good music, but does not show much development beyond the music that Banks played during his tenure with Yes (1969-1970). This is not to say that the music is dull - on the contrary, this is great, high energy rock with some decent playing and arranging that reminds me a lot of early Yes and to a lesser extent, the Who. In fact, as a huge Who fan (in addition to being a prog fan), I really enjoyed this "two-fer" a lot.

The musicians on this album include Peter Banks (electric and acoustic guitars; synthesizers); Tony Kaye (Hammond organ and Mini-moog on the Flash album only); Mike Hough (drums, percussion); Ray Bennett (bass); and former Mushroom and Pete Bardens' Camel vocalist Colin Carter (who co-formed Flash with Peter Banks in 1971). In terms of instrumentation, this is largely a bass-drums-guitar affair, with only tiny bits of keyboards here and there - it is unfortunate too, a bigger keyboard sound might have enhanced these tunes. All of the band members are great and I especially like Ray Bennett's approach to the bass; a style that would not have been out of place on the debut album by Yes - it is very aggressive and trebly (love the Rickenbacker tone on Out of Our Hands). Come to think of it, a lot of the music seems to revolve around his massive bass sound. Coupled with the excellent drumming of Mike Hough, the rhythm section is just fantastic. Colin has a high-pitched voice and his rock vocal style works well with the punchy, rocky, material. Pete Banks of course, is a decent guitar player and does a good job on both albums. Last but not least, while Tony Kaye was never a true member of Flash (he was a session man on the first album) - his trademark Hammond organ sound really adds a lot to the sound on the debut album. Based on what I have read, Tony was too busy working with Badger (his new band after Yes) to join Flash on a permanent basis.

Musically, both albums sound a great deal like any Yes album released during 1969 - 1970; not quite full blown prog, but very adventurous and featuring good playing. The songs are all very energetic and feature some excellent melodies. Although Flash prefers high energy mode, there are delicate passages played on the acoustic guitar and quieter, more reflective moments scattered throughout both albums (I think that Out of Our Hands might be a bit softer). Speaking of which, of the two albums, I prefer Out of Our Hands, which is a bit more creative than the debut.

This 2003 reissue is OK, albeit somewhat low-budget and features good sound quality along with a few informative liner notes. This CD is pretty much recommended to fans of early Yes, although most proggers should get something out of the compilation.

Yes spin off.......2006-06-09

NOT A GREAT REMASTER

This is Flash's first and third albums combined on one CD. The first album was 41 minutes long and Our of Our Hands was only 34 minutes, so the total time is 75 minutes.

This is supposed to be remastered, but the sound quality is not that good. It is thin and tinny for the first album. The sound quality gets much better for Out Of Our Hands, but it is not excellent, as you would expect on a remaster.

The packaging is cheap. The insert is just the front and back cover of the first album. Inside the insert is a nonfactual history of the band. It is one of those PR ravings about how great and important the band was. The back of the CD has a small picture of the Out Of Our Hands Cover. There are no credits shown.

Flash only released three albums. They only had one great song, Small Beginnings. But their best album by far was Out Of Our Hands. Flash's second album, In The Can doesn't have a single good song on it.

Flash was a spin off from Yes and sounds quite a bit like Yes. The bassist, Ray Bennett, plays very much in the style of Yes's Chris Squire. He is very good, and really makes Out Of Our Hands into a much better album than it would have been without him.

The singer, Colin Carter, has those high, screeching vocals, similar to Rush or a little like Styx. However, he isn't as good and his vocals detract from many of the songs. Out Of Our Hands is so good during the last half because their is less reliance on his over the top vocals. A band that borrowed from both Yes and Flash was Star Castle. Star Castle's vocals are closer to Flash.

Flash was started by original Yes guitarist, Peter Banks, after he was kicked out of Yes and replaced with Steve Howe. To this date, it appears that he still hates Steve Howe. On the Yes, Live at the BBC set, he really says nasty things about Howe. Howe did copy Banks style of guitar playing.

Tony Kaye, the original keyboardist from Yes, joined Flash for the fist album only. After that, keyboards were kept to a minimum, with Banks doing the playing.

The first album starts out with the great, Small Beginnings. The rest of the songs on the album are not that good, especially with the heavy emphasis on Carter's vocals. Children Of the Universe might be an OK song, except for that ridiculous "La-ooo-ga" chorus. The only other song worth hearing again is Dreams Of Heaven.

Out Of Our Hands is a real surprise. It is a concept album consisting of shorter songs. When I saw it, I thought it was one of typical progressive rock band sell-outs where the group switches to shorter, more accessable songs, looking for a hit record and usually at the insistance of the record label. But, this album has some of the best songs and best music ever done by Flash.

Out of Our Hands is not a classic, but it is enjoyable and certainly better than the first to albums, overall. It might be that Flash is a better band in a tighter, more structured format.

In The Can, Man.......2006-03-29

You can tell "Dreams Of Heaven" is their favorite track because it's mixed and mastered louder than any other on this, the debut. It doesn't really warrant the favor, though, because you might as well listen to "Perpetual Change" from THE YES ALBUM. Then you won't have to hear Colin Carter warble over an inferior, if familiar, big production and the band's attempts to "jazz" things up for thirteen minutes in faux-prog musical clothing. And "Small Beginnings" was better in its single-edit - - more succinct, at least. The rest, as they say, is filler. "You have a right to be here," they rousingly, if chirpily, remind us in "Children Of The Universe", as if Max Ehrmann had never visited the airwaves with exactly the same admonition via Tina Louise's hubby. Okay, fine. As for album #3, OUT OF OUR HANDS, they deftly omitted the word "WAY". What on Our Planet were they thinking?

5 for the music, not the package........2005-03-27

Flash was the post-Yes vehicle for Peter Banks, and if you like that group's early sound (Yes!, Time & A Word, even The Yes Album in places), you'll find a lot to like in this CD, which combines the first and third Flash albums in one package.

The first album is generally considered their best, with the most developed, lengthy cuts recalling in places "Astral Traveller," "Yours Is No Disgrace" and "Perpetual Change." Only the acoustic "Morning Haze" and the moody closing ballad "The Time It Takes" slow down the frenzied jamming. The production is by Derek Lawrence, who did such a great job on all the early Wishbone Ash albums (another touchstone, I think). Engineering is by Martin Birch, who'd go on to work with Deep Purple, Rainbow, & Iron Maiden, so you can rest assured the sound is clean and loud! Another strength of the debut is that Tony Kaye, also newly fired from Yes, guests on keyboards (unlike the later two Flash albums, which are basically a showcase for Banks), so you get some nice solo interplay between these two Yes refugees.

Out Of Our Hands, the underrated third "concept" album, complements the debut well; along with guitar, Banks plays a few synth parts, so the texture of the two records is fairly similar. The band self-produces but to no detriment. What is different on OOOH is a more calculated commercial approach: shorter songs, clearer attempts at hooks and choruses, and a tighter, less jamming style. The concept that underpins the songs is trite and unoriginal: an alien savior, sent on a mission a la The Day The Earth Stood Still, is betrayed and returns disappointed to his planet Catalina. Er...what? Honestly, without the LP's liner notes and a close reading of the lyrics, you'd never have picked up any plot or coherence, but that wouldn't be any great loss.

The songs could use more development (more jamming!) but especially in the latter half (the old side 2) the band locks into some very satisfying prog riffing that recalls Wetton-era King Crimson titles like "Fallen Angel" or "Easy Money." Check out "Psychosync" or "Manhattan Morning," the album's absolute high point, with its Western imagery, lead bass, and ascending Lark's Tongues-style chords. Banks really lets loose on the fade-out, too. You also get some quite lovely ballads in "Man of Honour" (check out Banks's acoustic runs on the fade-out there, as well) and the Crimson-meets-Yes closer "Shadows." Again, it's all great but under-developed, as if the band is clearly trying to rein in their tendency to 12-minute epics (see In The Can, their second record, for more of those).

A comment on the musicianship: clearly the group sounds like early Yes, especially with the propulsive bass and soaring guitar, though the drums are more on the beat than Bruford ever liked to be. The one difficulty is Colin Carter's voice; getting use to him is half of the challenge of growing to like Flash. He can be a bit shrill and nasal in place, as he sounds like a bad hybrid of Anderson, Robert Plant and Ian Lloyd, emulating their worst rather than their best qualities.

Finally, the package is disappointing. You do get basically both album covers and inner jackets, but the choice and arrangement of photos seems backwards: the smaller, more intricate images (the debut's inner photo montage, OOOH's complex outer cover) are reduced, while the already large images (the famous flashing miniskirt and the inner group photo from OOOH) get the full treatment. A better use of the space could have provided a full reproduction of each cover plus those group photos in greater detail. The annoyance is compounded by an uninformed and basically useless sets of liner notes and the reissue producers wasting a page on their own personal thank-yous (who cares?), space that could have been used for more of the album credits (musician details, for example?) or the lyrics to OOOH. There's also a glitch on 08:13 of track 3.

Music Album:

Music Album

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Music CD

Legends ~ Glenn Miller

Out On A Whim ~ Keith Oxman

Those Were the Days

Last of the Blues Shouters ~ Big Miller & the Blues Machine

Free Soul: The Classics of Blue Note ~ Various Artists

Scobey and Clancy ~ Bob Scobey

Amor ~ Yama

Modus Operandi ~ Project-X

Die Schrecklicke Deutche Spra ~ Mark Twain

All the Best from Spain ~ Various Artists