PHANTASMAGORIA

Phantasmogoria is the third studio album by the celebrated prog ensemble Curved Air which features founding members Daryl Way on electric violin and Frances Monkman on keyboards, guitar and proto electronica. Along with founding member Sonja Kristina, the band had firmly established, for better or worse, their vision of early 70's progressive rock. The groups' sound, at this stage, was firmly marked out by playing songs with odd or jazzy time signatures such as 12/8, 9/8, 5/4, and even plaintive 6/8, with Kristina trying like hell to match her vocal delivery to these tempos before she runs out of breath. As truly progressive as this approach is, its an acquired taste. Edgy and dramatic jazz rhythms can easily come off as jerky and manic when vocals are placed on top of them.

That being said, the songs that work the best are the Way composed "Marie Antoinette" which is accompanied by an excellent synth played by Way and is one of those grandiose classically tinged prog songs that somehow survives it's lyrical pretentiousness. Followed immediately by the Kristina penned ballad "Melinda (More or Less)" which is a folk like song reminiscent, both lyrically and musically, of the sentimental ballads of the Strawbs' Dave Cousins. However, the band goes quickly south after this with the brass accompanied "Not Quite The Same" kicking off into it's manic rhythms with Kristina vocally trying to play catch up and clumsily trying to paste lyrics over the song's galloping rhythms and melodies. Even in the slightly slowed down sections, she still sounds awkward, and this sets the stage for the album's remaining songs.

What makes these gallivanting song and vocal concoctions suffer even more is Frances Monkman's arrangements of horns and annoying xylophone accompaniment on the album's last two "epic" prog songs "Over And Above" and "Once A Ghost, Always A Ghost", which renders these two songs in the clichéd realms of cheesiness. The few brief electronic/synth manipulated experimental pieces from Monkman seem out of place and offer no respite to his overproduced songs.

On the upside, Kristina's vocals are much more palpable on Phastamogoria with the rough edges firmly tucked away, but that does little to aid the album. As I said, Phantasmogoria is a record of truly progressive rock music, but it's not the kind that I like. Others may differ and if they find enjoyment in this album, no one would be more pleased than I.