COSPIRACY „The Unknown”

So two other Yes family members have found shelter at the marvelous Inside Out label as well. Steve Howe is the first, Chris Squire and Billy Sherwood are the next. Good move for both artists as well as the label I think. Squire and Sherwood have a long lasting musical relationship that began somewhere at the end of the eighties when Yes were trying to go on without Jon Anderson, who was doing the ABWH thing at the time. Sherwood had released a brilliant debut album with his band Worldtrade which got the attention of the Yes-West line up. Eventually Sherwood became an official member of Yes years later, but left in 2001.

In 2000 the first Conspiracy album was released which revealed that the infamous Open Your Eyes album of Yes consisted of material that was initially meant for “The Chris Squire Experiment”, the first name of the band. That first Conspiracy album was nice but nothing more, a bit disappointing for musicians of this calibre.

2003 brings the second release; The Unknown. Bob Cesca, the graphic designer who made the Magnifciation and Yessymphonic DVD covers did a great job on the cover art for this album. The design reminds me of Worldtrade’s first album in atmosphere, I really hoped the music would do too.
The album opens with Conspiracy and is a good opening track, fresh sounding, up-tempo and a real nice flangy bass sound from Squire. The voices of Squire and Sherwood very well blend together and Sherwood shows why he often is compared to Jon Anderson, he just sings beautifully in the higher regions. Although the sound could have been a bit more heavier to my taste this song alone is great. A guitarist like Trevor Rabin would be perfect for this job but I guess this is wishful thinking of a die hard Yes fan.

Confess is the second song and one that brings back memories of Open Your Eyes, the song, which I think is one the best tracks Yes have recorded in the last 10 years. Again up-tempo and driven, the creative juices between Squire and Sherwood finally seem to have found consistency. The unmistakenable Rickenbacker sound of ‘the amazing bassman’ is featured on the powerful New World. This one is reminiscent of The Ladder material and it will probably be a song from those days (2000) like other songs as well probably. Are these the songs that ‘Napoleon’ Jon Anderson and Maestro Steve Howe didn’t agree on doing with Yes? Just as I was thinking that the Worldtrade feel is certainly present, the lyric goes “New World Trade on a one way track …” and I can’t agree more.

Squire can ‘show off’ his choirboy past in ½ A World Away which starts calmly, but then evolves into a great power-ballad. One of the best songs on The Unknown. The other half of the album gives more of the same, good and melodic rock (with the bonustrack being the Yes song Finally from The Ladder) but the danger of distraction is lurking a bit the first couple of times you play it. Best remedy for this is to put the album away for a week and then start again. Program all songs on your CD player backwards, start with the last one, this gives a new perspective and then the final judgement can be properly formed.

I did that and my appreciation is 8 points. I would love to see this band in live action, with the right people in the line up Conspiracy could easily evolve to be a real asset to the Prog Rock concert scene.

note: 8/10