Search - Yello :: Claro Que Si

Music Concrete That Swings

J. Cherry | Los Angeles, California | 08/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Yello at its best, before they mutated into a dance band. When they still made each track a multi-layered mini-movie. Psychedelic, mind bending, never predictable, it's a trip. Awesome cover design, if I say so myself."

Contains two of the best-sounding tracks to come out of the

K. Swanson | Austin, TX United States | 11/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I still recall my sheer awe upon first hearing the track Homer Hossa. I used to be an audiophile back in the day when vinyl was at its peak, and would go to every little hole-in-the-wall deluxe turntable/tube amp place and see what they liked to demo on their $20,000 systems. It was in one of these places that the salesman smiled at my question and told me to sit in the sweet spot chair, carefully aligned to make their Macintosh amps, Carver speakers and Ariston turntables sound their finest.



I sat, and he lowered the moving coil cartridge onto the second last track of Claro Que Si.



I closed my eyes and immediately left the room, entering a jungle-sounding landscape/soundscape with gentle tribal rhytms in the background. The sense of binaural realism and spaciouness was incredible. I opened my eyes and looked at the guy. "Wow", was all I could manage. He grinned and said, "It gets better."



A few seconds later that soundscape, apparently complete and perfect, suddenly morphed into another, deeper realm, as the sound of someone diving into an azure waterfall pool surrounded by palm fronds opened the music into an even more pristine and massive world of sonic bliss, wih heavier drums and some Arabic cries in the distance. For five minutes I was absolutely transported to another world, and to this day, I have yet to find anywhere a more perfect sounding recording of nature and music together. Homer Hossa truly induces deep relaxation and joy when played at proper volume.



One of the goals of the vinyl audiophile is to create a perfect soundstage, where you can hear not only left-right harmony but especially depth and height, where the instruments "appear" to your ears to be exactly where they would be if the band was there. Bands like Floyd and Yello took this to another level, creating soundstages impossible in real life and thus letting the listeners' brains go somewhere we can't get in the real world. Homer Hossa, though never mentioned by anyone that I've ever found since except that audio guy (one review of this album here? And only three stars?), is still the ne plus ultra of sheer eargasm for my brain. Many gems lay hidden for ever, apparently.



When it was over I just looked up, stunned. The guy laughed and said, "Now check the last track out!" I closed my eyes again and waited for some new ethereal soundscape. Instead I got one of the most pleasingly electro-sounding things I'd ever heard (and I was a big fan of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream from about 1978 on). Pinball ChaCha played out in all its angular funky glory, a completely different vibe but equally astonishing. As a long-term pinball fan, the lyrics also made me smile.



These two tracks are still among the best-sounding recordings I've ever heard, and I've heard tens of thousands. On headphones they are also magnificent; the AKG K701s make these tracks come alive in huge 3-D sound. I must confess that I've not heard the 2005 digital remaster; I got the original cd in the 80s but it sounds way flat next to the vinyl.



I think that these tracks are so intense because they were done at the nexus of the analog/digital switchover. They feature mostly digital instruments but were recorded in analog, and seem to showcase the best of both worlds. Once transferred to full digital, they must inevitably lose some of that analog shimmer and depth that still to this day I have never heard on any cd, no matter how 5.1 or HDCD they get. But I'll still bet that creator Boris Blank did a superb job on the new remaster.



The rest of Claro Que Si is decent but nowhere near as good; I could never figure out why those two tracks were so much better than the rest, but hey, no complaints. Either of them is worth the price of admission (twelve bucks for the import vinyl, I think). There are some nice moments, however, and any Yello fan will enjoy them.



So, in short: if you can find an old analog copy of this lp and it's in good shape, you've got something truly sublime. But if not, listen to the cd version of Homer Hossa at full volume in your car while driving through some majestic landscape, or in the dark on some lonely highway with your dash lights turned off. You'll not find a much more amazing sound extravaganza.



Kudos to Boris Blank, Swiss master craftsman of sound. This band and these tracks are his babies, and the term sonic genius is apt. What a musician, what a producer, what a pair of ears. And he's still got it; their new album Touch Yello is as good as ever. But Homer Hossa remains their masterpiece for me.



Well done, sir.



"