London-based three-piece Yak have been around in one shape or another since neo-prog’s year zero back in the early 80s, though they only began to actually put out albums around 2004.
Their third is easily their most expansive work and the one that deserves to put them somewhere notable on the UK prog map. Quest For The Stones is an instrumental, symphonic/neo-ish album lasting almost 44 minutes, and containing just two tracks: the 24-minute title track and the 19-plus minuter Veil Of Aeternum. It’s quite brilliant. To get a sense of the music imagine if Genesis had elected to dispense with vocals altogether after Peter Gabriel’s departure, and simply go quite utterly barking mad with their instrumental imaginations. The title piece (you really can’t use the word ‘song’) is like 23 minutes of One For The Vine with absolutely no limits. Driven by Martin Morgan’s dominant keyboards, the whole album veers between impossibly bombastic flourishes and mellow interludes like an out-of-control Enid hurtling down a hill. Best of all, if you buy this from the band the proceeds go towards an animal sanctuary in Essex. Honestly, you owe it to yourself to hear this.
