PHANTASMAGORIA

The fuzz guitar from Francis Monkman, the ethereal synths of Darryl Way and Sonja Kristina as the high octave queen of prog, is an irresistible musical explosion, and it climaxed on this album. It begins with the slow and meandering 'Marie Antoinette', with the brooding vocals of Kristina; "Fire in their eyes, steel in their hand, they ride, chanting revolution, Vive le Nation!" She sings of the guillotine that is coming for the queen.

Kristina plays acoustic guitar on 'Melinda More or Less', a lovely mediaeval paean by Sonja's lilting vocals that transcend beauty. Way's violin, Monkman's harpsichord, Mike Wedgwood's pulsing bass and Annie Stewart 's flute make this a mesmirising journey back to the ancient days of kings, queens and guillotines.

'Not Quite the Same' is an oddity about impossible love and self abuse, with some amusing lyrics; "Out in the park, he was walking his doggy, he saw a young lady, who made him feel soggy." The medieval brass section that plunges it back to the dark ages continues the concept, before the jazziness of the Canterbury music takes over. Way and Monkman masterfully duel off on synthesizers in the instrumental break.

The main drawcard of the album is the first 3 songs and one song on side two. Let's deal with that now as it is really an incredible track. 'Over and Above' has one of the zaniest off beat time sigs that is irregular throughout, diverging wildy in all directions. Monkman's twisted signature keys are played with abandonment and astonishing virtuosity. Way's violin is way out of the box and he absolutely gives the bow a major workover. Sonja's theatrical vocal expertise is as amazing as ever and the opening section may be described as a jazz circus. There are some spacey sections on the track with chiming vibraphones and xylophones played by Crispian Steel-Perkins, Paul Cosh and Jim Watson. The erratic bassline, massive brass sound and wah wah guitar really adds to the power of the soundscape. The sound captured is really symphonic prog meets jazz rock fusion. This is a complex killer track and certainly the most powerful progressive song from Curved Air. A bonafide classic.

The other songs are not up to this standard of excellence and mar the album from being a masterpiece. 'Cheetah' is an instrumental that features Darryl Way masterfully blasting huge slabs of violin and there's a cheetah's growl thrown in for good measure. There is a reworking of "Air Conditioning"'s 'Ultra-Vivaldi' that is much faster and dominated by keyboards. The original more restrained version of Curved Air's 'Vivaldi' is better however. 'Ultra-Vivaldi' is speeded up using a sequencer, which is something that worked on Pink Floyd's 'On the Run' from that masterpiece, but feels rather dated on this album. It is a very short track so no major harm done.

The title track is an infectious short song with wild Hammond and Sonja's jaunty vocals on how to deal with loneliness; "don't ring for a taxi, don't call a policeman, don't send for a doctor, he'll just give you pills, don't hide in the sand man, you may not believe it." She sings of the summer of love and the lyrics cater to the flower power movement; "So if you get lonely just think of the summer, and swim in the sky blue, drift your mind away." Sound advice, Sonja! The uplifting breezy feel sounds like a happy song but it is really about coping with depression.

'Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway?' Is a weird curio with lovely Kristina sounding like a constipated Dalek. Her vocals are battered by a PDP8/L computer mixed with a Synthi 100 Synthesizer. It is meant to evoke the spiritual manifestation of the dead, but instead amounts to nothing more than a dead loss. The ethereal vocals are weird; "But I keep looking over your shoulder to see if I'm there, Oh, when I was a little Ghost, a merry time had we! Each seated on his favourite post." The electronic vocals are off putting though this is as creepy as it gets for Curved Air.

After this album, Curved Air's bubble popped with the walk out of maestros Way and Monkman, and it was too big an ask to replace the classic sound the band once generated. "Phantasmagoria" definitely contains some of the proggiest and most experimental music from Curved Air.

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