A discussion on Yak eh? Well for anyone who hasn?t been to our website here is a short history?.
Well, the band actually started as a result of several other ?school age? bands folding & back in 1982, a young Robin Hodder (guitar) found himself jamming with John Wynn (Drums) in John?s mothers backroom ? much to the considerable annoyance of John?s mother & her neighbours ? some of whom were deaf already & the rest were soon to be aurally impaired in some way.
Robin contacted Martin Morgan (keys) and invited him to join the ?sessions?. Simon Snell from Theydon Bois was added on Bass & the four piece took shape. The music was initially covers of Santana & the Rolling Stones but then the band started making it?s own music up, mostly in odd time signatures & so it was that ?Yak? were born.
Following a series of jams mainly in A minor at John?s mothers, complaints finally drove the band to rehearse at Robins parent?s place ? which was at least detached. On a few occasions the band were able to utilise the benefit of a remote cottage in the depths of the Suffolk countryside ? although the locals were never quite to get to grips with music in 37/8 & eventually the cottage was demolished to make way for a bypass.
Unfortunately the music was never properly recorded before the band broke up in 1984 ? although a great number of Lo-Fi cassettes of jams do exist, copies of which are available for the Yak connoisseur ? although a medical certificate must be presented before these can be purchased.
Over the next 20 years, the keyboardist never gave up on the concept and music of ?Yak? although finding the time to do anything about it was a real problem. However as 2004 dawned, the sudden realisation that he would soon be 40 & had totally failed to release a CD became crushing and so every spare minute was spent, much by candlelight, feverishly re-capturing 8 of the original Yak tracks, re-creating them by emulating the band electronically on a Kurzweil workstation. And so it came to pass that, with a few days to spare, the CD ?Dark Side of the Duck? was released in March 2004.
In an effort to promote Yak, the CD was sent to a number of Progressive Rock review sites, many of whom took the time to listen to the stuff and have published some Jazztastic reviews which you can read at
www.yaksongs.com/reviews.html.
Most critics agree that that the music would sound better if the band were playing it rather than it all being done by the keyboardist ? which is clearly true ? however logistically challenging !
The good news is that the band have re-formed & have had a couple of jams ? recorded for posterity ? in 2005, highlights of the jam were released as ?Does your Yak Bite?? & the ?06 jam will eventually be released under the title of ?The Rutland Chronicles?. The only line-up change has been the addition of Max Johnson on Bass, as Simon Snell is having to spend a year dead for tax purposes.
?Does your Yak Bite?? was recently reviewed favourably by a Progressive Ears reviewer & as it was a jam of mostly improvisation this was very encouraging.
We are aiming to find some studio time this year, probably at ?the Lodge? in Northampton, to re-record some band versions of the tracks on the DsoTD album as well as some newer tracks. In the meantime, I continue to work on material for the next planned CD ?Journey of the Yak?. The most recently completed track, ?Entangled in Dreams? is streaming at our Myspace account ?
www.myspace.com/yaktunes and at 9?14? is the longest* (non improvised) Yak track to date.
There are more MP3 clips at
www.yaksongs.com/mp3s.htmlThe only other thing to say is that the entire cover price of any Yak CD purchased is donated to Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary ? even though they don?t have any Yaks ! ? They do have 260 rescued animals including 27 Horses & all it is run by just one person ? Fiona Oakes ? you can see her work at
www.towerhillstables.com. CD sales have raised about £510 so far (about 5 days feed cost).
* A track of this dangerous length can be difficult to manage on public transport, however it does have hinges strategically placed enabling it to be folded several times and fit snugly in the average holdall.
edited to make link clickable:
click here to listen to yak
