Yak - Dark Side Of The Duck

Year of Release: 2004
Label: n/a
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 32:20:00

Dark Side Of The Duck is the project of Martin Morgan, the one time Yak keyboardist and archivist. In true progressive fashion, the band Yak never released any albums, never played live and split up in obscurity. The subtitle of this CD is "An Instrumental Album Of Concepts By Yak" and some of its eight tracks are indeed concepts, not fully developed songs. Martin has recreated the Yak concepts on his Kurzweil K2600x synthesizer, emulating a four piece band electronically. While it is unlikely that we will ever hear any examples of the original band, Mr. Morgan's efforts are very impressive and quite listenable.

This release gets high marks as far as musicianship and production values are concerned. With all the music generated by the digital brain of the Kurzweil keyboard and laid down direct to CD, there is nary a bit of noise or unwanted compression. Martin's bass and drum tracks are especially noteworthy, the drums in particular being about the best sounding percussion samples I have ever heard. With the exception of the tom-tom fills (which no digital drums can reproduce accurately) you would swear that a real drum kit was used on this release. I would be remiss not to mention Martin's keyboard work, which is top notch, his playing style similar to that of Camel's Peter Bardens. Many of the tracks included here remind me of the aforementioned Camel and some have a jamming, funky, jazzy feel that reminds me of the Pat Methany Group. "Yakrise" cannot escape comparison to Camel's "Luner Sea," and the other tracks range from the lush, ethereal tones of "Aragorn" to the angular and biting "Earthogrub." Martin is a fine soloist and his often ripping lines are a pleasure to these ears. These tracks are all pure retro symphonic in style and substance, full of odd meter, driving, pulsing bass lines and loads of satisfying keyboards to top it all off. The CD is available through Martin's website, www.yaksongs.com.

Tracklisting:
Theme / Aragorn / Leylines Of Yak / Yakrise / Frustration / Migration / Earthogrub / The Swan

Musicians:
Martin Morgan - keyboards

Discography:
Dark Side Of The Duck (2004)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin UK

Added: January 17th 2005
Reviewer: Tom Karr
Score:
Artist website: www.yaksongs.com
Hits: 2628
Language: english