STOMU YAMASH'TA

Stomu Yamash'ta is a keyboardist/drummer from Japan who composes and arranges his own music. He released two albums in Japan in 1971 before moving to France and then over to England. That explains why his next album from 1972 "Floating Music" has all these english musicians on it including two future BRAND X members in Peter Robinson and Morris Pert. A strong record then two from 1973, first "The Man From The East" where Robinson and Pert return with bigger roles, plus Gary Boyle guests on guitar on one track. Significant because he would be the guitarist on the next one from '73 called "Freedom Is Frightening" that I'm reviewing now, and I understand this is where he met Hugh Hopper who is on here playing bass and they would later form ISOTOPE.

There's just four tracks here but each one is different. The opener is a haunting affair at first where the organ stews in it's juices and we get these creepy synths. A bass line after 3 minutes and this is catchy and heavy. Boyle starts to light it up before 7 1/2 minutes. "Rolling Nuns" is a complex and impressive song with some good contrasts while "Pine On The Horizon" features a jazz section contrasted with a more keyboard driven sound. Love Hopper and Boyle late on this one. The closer "Wind Words" is a disappointing way to end it. Just too mellow and new agey for almost 7 minutes. Not my thing.

I have to mention Stomu's GO project that released two albums in the second half of the seventies with Klause Shulze on synths, Al DiMeola on guitar, Michael Shrieve on drums and the first record had Steve Winwood singing and playing keys. As for "Freedom Is Frightening" I feel it's his best work and a solid 4 star album.

Short story. I bought a cat from this cat shelter who was born there and never been outside, he had been there 5 years at this point. I kept him as an indoor cat since that's all he's known and besides we've lost so many cats over the years. Anyway, so here we are many years later he's around 12 now and his name is Miles Davis. A couple of weeks ago I open the front door, go outside and call him. He gingerly comes out, keeps looking behind him at the open door, walks about 5 feet then couldn't handle it and runs back in the house. Freedom is frightening. I actually mentioned the name of this album as I related this story to some people.

Released in 1976, Stomu Yamash'ta, Steve Winwood & Michael Shrieve: Go is great but (in my humble opinion) doesn't maintain its level throughout the entire album; it has high and low points but overall it is a fine piece of work. This is my second experience with Stomu Yamash'ta (after his East Wind's Freedom is Frightening). When I saw that in this album there are so many talented musicians I got very excited: Steve Winwood, Michael Shrieve, Klaus Shulze, Al Di Meola, but when I sat down and listened to this one, it kind of went below my expectations, but just a little bit. Nature, Crossing the Line, Man of Leo, Ghost Machine, Time is Here, Winner / Loser are all great but the ELECTRONIC section in the middle of the album is uninteresting and dull. So, to wrap it all up, this album has high and low points (starts and ends excellent though the middle is quite 'different' ) and features amazing personnel. This album is a great addition to any music collection.

The first thought is: what a fricking lineup. Yamashta is powerful enough to pull in disparate luminaries like Klaus Schulze, Michael Shrieve, Al Di Meola, AND Steve Winwood. It sounds like a band from someone's dreams.

Sometimes collaborations fail to coalesce and reflect negatively on all involved. After many listens this is not the case for me - from a prog perspective I'll dole out the highest rating possible. This is forward thinking symphonic/chamber/space/fusion/jazzrock/pop/classical music that doesn't sound like anything else out there. Frank Zappa said on an interview with his daughter on MTV progressive rock is rock that doesn't sound like anything else, so I'll use that definition to rate this a masterpiece.

If I had to pick a highlight, it would be the cherry on top of the sundae role Steve Winwood plays in the proceedings. He makes a very good album great. This will be in my rotation forever.

I've been aware of Go since 1994, but for all those years I was resistent at buying a copy. I would have expect it an incoherent mess. But I find a cheap used LP for $3, and took a chance on it, and let me tell you, the album is actually great. I was warned it was a bit cheesy way back in 1994, but to be honest, I don't notice that, as close to cheesy is probably the closer "Winner/Loser" (probably because it more resembles something off Winwood's solo album than on Go). Anyways, this was Stomu Yamash'ta's project, with Steve Winwood and Michael Shrieve credited, but a ton of others including Al Di Meola of Return to Forever fame, Rosko Gee of Traffic (later of Can), Klaus Schulze, and many others. "Solitude", "Nature" and "Air Over" really have a nice spacy, symphonic feel to it, complete with strings and oboe. Steve Winwood sounds, well, like himself. It sounds as I expect him to sound in between Traffic and his solo career, but more spacy, which is something I never expect. But then Klaus Schulze's presence helped with the spacy nature of the album, and it's clear his contributions on stuff like ""Stellar", "Space" and "Space Requiem" only proves that. Here it sounds much closer to his solo material, you probably wonder how some of this would have sounded like if they were stretched around 25 minutes, as was a common habit of Schulze on his own albums. "Man of Leo" is more in the funk fusion vein, with Al Di Meola providing guitar. What was up with that David Gilmour-like scream that starts the song? The album also have a more avant garde moments too, with creative use of percussion. "Winner/Loser" is the closing piece, and closes to solo Steve Winwood (at least his 1977 solo debut). It has a bit more commercial feel.

Winwood left after this album. I'm pretty sure he felt confident to return to music and start a solo career. After all, Traffic's When the Eagle Flies wasn't exactly a commercial success (nor was it one of their better albums) so I'm sure he didn't feel too encouraged to continue with music. I know Go wasn't exactly a big seller, but to me I think the album is great and a bit underrated. To be honest, I was never a fan of Winwood's solo career, Throughout the 1980s I was inundated with his music played on the radio constantly throughout the 1980s. To my ears, I felt he was trying to compete with Phil Collins for 1980s radio air supremacy. Because of that I never cared to own any of his solo albums. As for Traffic, that stuff was much better. Outside Traffic, I felt the debut of Go is the most interesting thing he's done.

Stomu Yamash'ta is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist who's specialty is vibes, percussion and keyboards. He moved to France in the early seventies and recorded one album before moving to the UK where he recorded most of his seventies albums. On this particular album we get a couple of future BRAND X members in Morris Pert and Peter Robinson, in fact the only track not composed by Stomu is the song "Xingu" which Pert created. Man I've enjoyed this recording so much, it's a it of a grower but the combination of percussion, vibes and electric piano just hits the spot for me.

"Poker Dice" opens with what sounds like chimes as vibes and experimental sounds help out. This is very laid back to begin with. Then the bass joins in after 2 1/2 minutes as electric piano and vibes help out. Drums follow but it's still laid back until it turns louder before 5 minutes. Nice. A change after 6 1/2 minutes as a new soundscape of bass, electric piano and vibes take over, drums too as it builds. Lots of intricate sounds here. It sounds like the theme for "Mission Impossible" after 12 minutes. A change after 14 minutes as drums, percussion, electric piano and growly sounds lead the way. "Keep In Lane" is different from the rest of the songs as we get these crazy vocal expressions to start before the horns(sax, trumpet & trombone) come in blasting while the drums and vibes support. This is jazzy with plenty of horns and busy drum work. Some dissonant horns too as the bass throbs and the drums pound. Check it out after 4 minutes! Those crazy vocal expressions are back around 8 minutes to the end.

The final two tracks were recorded live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, January 10th 1972. 'Xingu" hits the ground running with random drum patterns and avant horns. Quite experimental until it all stops before a minute and electric piano echoes as percussion and faint sounds help out. The bass before 2 1/2 minutes is impressive then the keys kick in with a full sound before 3 minutes. Drums and percussion dominate 5 minutes in as the electric piano stops for now. The previous soundscape returns after 6 minutes, this is so bright and uplifting. It's just a pleasure the rest of the way especially the distorted keys. Insanity before 12 1/2 minutes to the end. "One Way" is led by flute and relaxed percussion early on then it calms right down around 4 minutes as vibes and percussion lead the way. Check out the bass 6 1/2 minutes in. It's getting intense a minute later with all those percussion sounds. It calms down again and the flute returns around 10 minutes as it stays mellow to the end.

A very solid 4 stars, in fact this was a pleasure.

I revisited this album again after many years and was surprised at the lack of enthusiasm by reviewers here. This is one of my favourite prog albums and ideal for when one is in a relaxed state of mind, right up there with Dark Side of the Moon (or the Easy All Stars' Dub Side of the Moon, for that matter). The musicianship and production are outstanding. Musicians were clearly chosen for the project not only for virtuosity but the quality of their tone. So the sounds produced by this band are a treat for the ears, and remain so in 2016.

So I'll buck the trends and give the album five stars (and I wouldn't give this rating easily). It's a unique and charmingly flawed masterpiece of prog musicianship, production and eclecticism.

If you enjoy intelligent, beautiful, inventive prog played by brilliant musicians, you'll enjoy this album. More than anything, this album is eclectic, including (amongst all the space noodling and space rock), funk, fusion, (normal) rock, symphonic rock, soul, pop and symphonic experimental music.

Some highlights: Steve Winwood's vocals in Nature, Pat Thrall's superbly constructed guitar solo in Crossing the Line (and Paul Buckmaster's orgasmically arranged outro). Al diMeola's various stellar contributions. Stomu Y's edgy percussion and Klaus Shultz's atmospheric noises in Carnival.

For rhythm section buffs, Michael Shrieve's drumming was as immaculate throughout as you'd expect and he formed a most tasty rhythm section with Traffic's Rosco Gee on bass.

Review Nº 71

"The Complete Go Sessions" is a very special compilation, released in 2005, which includes the three albums from the Go sessions, both two studio albums "Go" and "Go Too", and the live album "Go Live From Paris". The Go sessions belong to a very ambitious musical project fusing diverse musical styles, that range from rock, jazz, classical and electronic, which was formed by Stomu Yamash'ta, in 1976, and which had a wonderful mixture of musicians from several genres of progressive music. So, we have Steve Winwood, Michael Shrieve, Klaus Schulze and Al Di Meola. This is only to mention the names of the most known of all the musicians who participated in this project.

Previously, I've already reviewed, individually, all these three albums on Progarchives, and so, because of that, I will not do it again. So, if you are interested to knowing more things about this fantastic musical project, and believe me it well worth, I invite you to read all my detailed reviews about them. So, I'm not going to analyze all the albums exhaustively and detailed, as I did before, but only to do a global synthesis of those my reviews.

"Go": "Go" is the first album of the Yamash'ta's project. It's a magnificent album where all the tracks flow together as a continuous piece of music, with the exception of the fourteenth track, "Winner/Loser", the only song written by Winwood, which probably justify why it sounds more as a Steve's album. It's a nice, calm and a beautiful piece of music, very experimental, with a spatial atmosphere, which makes of it a quite unique musical working. We can find on it diverse musical influences from rock, jazz, electronic and funk, good performances from all musicians, beautiful voice choirs and backing vocals, competent orchestrations and a very professional release. Finally, deserves special mention the presence of Winwood, due his voice on the tracks where he sings, which gives a very special feeling to the album. We are in presence of an original and very interesting album, which is, in my humble opinion, very underrated on this site. Unfortunately, the progressive reviewers here, have given very little attention to it. I sincerely think that this album is an excellent addition and deserves to be part of any progressive rock musical collection.

"Go Live From Paris": "Go Live From Paris" is the second album of the Yamash'ta's project and was recorded live on 12th June 1976 at the Palais Des Sports in Paris, France. As with their studio version "Go", on this live version all the tracks flow together as a continuous piece of music. However, "Go Live From Paris" is a more balanced album, and I don't know if it's due to the new alignment of the songs. On the live version, they're totally changed and the final result is a much better album. So, "Go Live From Paris" is a fantastic and a beautiful live album, one of the greatest live albums of the progressive rock music, and it's also probably, one of their most unknown masterpieces. Here we have a great performance from all this band, which brought together some extraordinary musicians on the same stage. Really, we are in presence of a lost gem that urgently needs to be discovered and appreciated as it really deserves.

"Go Too": "Go Too" is the third and last album of the Yamash'ta's project. After all, I must say that this isn't the continuation of "Go". All the main musicians of the project are here, but it lacks to it Winwood and his unmistakable voice. The absence of his presence is very noted, and whatever the reason, this album is much weaker than the both two previous albums. However, that doesn't mean that we are in presence of a weak album. "Go Too" is a good album, very eclectic and influenced by many musical genres like rock, jazz, funk, electronic, pop, disco and new age. "Go Too" remains a fine addition to the previous two albums and despite be not as interesting, progressively, as the first studio album, it still remains a release that offers a lot of enjoyment with great performances, and for the romantics amongst you, two excellent ballads. In relation to "Go", the style of the music became profoundly modified but I still think that it remains a good work, overall. This is an interesting work that closed this surprising musical project.

Conclusion: I know this project since it was released and I must say that I always became very well impressed with it. Unfortunately, we are in presence of an underrated project, on this site, and where the progressive reviewers gave very little attention. I really don't know if it's by lack of knowledge of it. If I can interest you about this project, I'll be perfectly happy. The main objective was reached. Perhaps the right thing to do is buying this compilation because you will get the entire complete project. However, if you aren't interested in spend so much money to have the entire project, I recommend you to start buying their live album "Go Live From Paris" their hidden masterpiece. It's especially indicated for those who prefer live recordings over the studio ones. Anyway, as a project, it must be known as a whole.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 70

As I wrote before, when I reviewed the two previous albums of The Go Project, the first time I heard to talk about this musical project was in a broadcasting station in my country, following the release of their first album. I became very impressed with it, and soon as I could I bought the three albums. Unfortunately, I only could purchase "Go" some years ago, "Go Live From Paris" to a couple of years and "GoToo" was only purchased very recently.

The Go Project was born in very strange and troubled times to the progressive rock music. As many of we know, the years in late of the 70's were years of deep changes in the progressive rock world. These were the years of the revolution made by the punk movement. The punk explosion was reminding to everyone of the visceral thrill of the first principles of rock. So, projects such as Stomu Yamashta's "Go" were somehow unthinkably and weren't a commonplace in those times. Jazz meets the avant-garde at the disco? This was a very strange thing, indeed.

Anyway, Yamashta, scion of the Japan National Symphonic Orchestra, had built up a sufficient and very solid reputation as percussionist, composer and bandleader in 1976 and he was able to call upon the services of a hand full of great musicians such as Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Michael Shrieve and Klaus Schulze, forming The Go Project, one of the unlikelier super groups of the era.

The line up on the second studio album of this musical project is also very extensive, as happened with their first studio album, and was formed by some the musicians who had already participated on their debut studio album of the musical project, which are Stomu Yamash'ta (synthesizers, piano, tympani and percussion), Michael Shrieve (drums), Klaus Schulze (synthesizers), Al Di Meola (lead guitar) and Brother James (percussion). However, there were many other musicians who also collaborated in this second studio album. So we have Doni Harvey (vocals and guitar), Jess Roden (lead vocals), Paul Jackson (bass), Linda Lewis (lead vocals), J. Peter Robinson (keyboards) and The Martin Ford Orchestra. All the music was written by Yamash'ta and all the lyrics by Michael Quartermain. Paul Buckmaster once more made all the orchestral arrangements.

"Go Too" is the third and the last album of the Stomu Yamash'ta's Go project and was released in 1977. I must say that it isn't properly the continuation of their first album "Go". All the main musicians of their project are here, but unfortunately it lacks to it Winwood and his unmistakable voice. I don't know the reason why he doesn't participated on this second studio album. It was by his own free will or because he wasn't invited by Yamash'ta, who wanted to make something different on this album. Anyway, the lack of his presence is very noted, and whatever the reason, this album is much weaker than the previous one. However, it doesn't mean that we are in presence of a bad album. On the contrary, "Go Too" is really a good album, despite being clearly a very eclectic album, but is probably too much influenced by many and diverse musical styles such as rock, jazz, funk, electronic, pop, disco and new age.

Often considered the poor relation to the first "Go" album, the album is a totally different proposal to its illustrious predecessor. Possibly because of the time in which it was released and due the involvement of Linda Lewis, the album has received many put downs and the worst of all is that it was considered an album of electronic disco music. This is so far from the truth and is certainly a slanderous thing. It's true that gone is the fusion, gone are the solos, gone are the signature licks of the musicians and that "Go Too" saw also the Winwood's departure. But we can say that he saw the arrival of the criminally overlooked ex Alan Bown vocalist Jess Roden and the ironically unsung Linda Lewis, utilising all five octaves of her extraordinary range to stratospheric effect on madness. In truth, the album is a bizarre but generally pleasing combination of contrasting elements, ranging from the plangent balladry of "Mysteries Of Love" to the oblique Zappa harmonies and logic defying Di Meola guitar solo which fuel "Seen You Before".

Conclusion: As I said previously, when I reviewed "Go" and "Go Live From Paris", The Go Project is, in my humble opinion and unfortunately, an underrated project with very few reviews and rates on this site. Obviously, "Go Too" isn't an essential album in any progressive rock musical collection, but I sincerely think that it deserves really more than 2 stars. It represents the end of one of the strongest musical cooperation of the 70's. "Go Too" is a fine addition to the previous two albums by the ensemble and although not as interesting, progressively speaking, as the first studio album, it's still a release that offers a lot of enjoyment with great performances and, for the romantics amongst you, two excellent ballads. Still, if you are a progressive fan and a beginner with this musical project, you must start with their live album "Go Live From Paris", which is their hidden masterpiece, and avoid "Go Too", as a first listen.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 69

The first time I heard something about this musical project was in 1976 in a radio station in my country. When I listened to it, for the first time, I must confess that I was very impressed with it. It seemed to me that it was a very different musical proposal. So, soon I tried to buy their first album 'Go', but unfortunately, I couldn't find it. It was only some years ago that I returned to search for it. After some difficulty, I had the luck of buying an expensive Japanese edition.

The Go Project was a very ambitious and innovative musical project, lead by an extraordinary Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer Stomu Yamash'ta, which finally brought for him, the international recognition that he so deserved. He had already released, until that date, six solo studio albums. The Go Project consists in three albums, two studio albums 'Go' and 'Go Too' released in 1976 and 1977 respectively and this live album 'Go Live From Paris' which was also released in 1976.

Stomu Yamash'ta was born in Kyoto, Japan and he studied music at Kyoto University in Japan, at Juilliard School of Music in New York City and at Berkeley College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and has also lectured in music. He was the director, producer and composer of the Red Buddha Theatre Company, and in 1972 he brought the Company from Japan to Europe. He worked briefly in France, writing and performing on theatrical multi-media projects, before moving to England. It was from England where he met so many artists and musicians, that he had the idea of creating this so ambitious musical project.

Beyond Stomu Yamash'ta, there are some other musicians in this project that deserve to be mentioned. Steve Winwood is a famous English singer, songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist that was member of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith, apart from his brilliant solo musical career. Michael Shrieve is an American drummer and percussionist that is best known as the Santana's first drummer. Klaus Schulze is a musical composer and a pioneer musician of the German electronic music who briefly was a member of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, and he has also a long and very solid solo musical career. Al Di Meola is an American guitarist with a long musical career and is one of the best and the most influential guitarists in the jazz fusion category, who collaborates frequently with other great musicians like Jean-Luc Ponty, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia.

'Go Live From Paris' was the second album to be released of Stomu Yamash'ta's project and was recorded live on 12th June 1976 at the Palais Des Sports in Paris, France. As with its studio version 'Go', this live version has also fourteen tracks and all the tracks flow together as a continuous piece of music. So, there's not much in the way of additional material, aside from the greatly extended 'Man Of Leo' which has lashings of superb guitar from Di Meola, and some slightly elongated bridges between the different themes. The whole double album is only a little over 20 minutes longer than the original album. The performances are remarkable though, as you might expect from these players, with one or two tracks perhaps even bettering their studio counterparts, and it does make for an interesting alternative to the studio album for fanatics like me. The recording quality is excellent, unlike some vintage live albums, but I'm sure that some of you won't see the need to have both, the live and the studio albums. However, 'Go Live From Paris' is, in my humble opinion, a more balanced album. I don't know sincerely if the main reason is because the alignment of the songs was totally changed, but the final result is that this new live version turned it in a better album.

Conclusion: 'Go Live From Paris' is a fantastic and beautiful live album, which isn't inferior to the most of the live albums released in the 70's. Especially, the second part of the album is truly remarkable and unforgettable, mainly because the great show of guitar of Di Meola on 'Crossing The Line' and also because 'Man Of Leo', which is, to my taste, the highest point on the album. The music doesn't lose a bit of its atmosphere in this setting, but it does naturally sound a bit earthier, especially the guitar sound. It's really fascinating listen to these extraordinary but at the same time so different musicians, working so well together. But nevertheless and unfortunately, we are in presence of an underrated project on Progarchives. 'Go Live From Paris' is one of the best live albums of the progressive music and is perhaps one of the less known. It's a pity that an album with so incredible musical moments and so finest playing being almost forgotten, as well this fantastic super group. Anyway, the true is that we are in presence of a lost gem that urgently needs to be discovered and appreciated as it really deserves. This new Yamash'ta's live seminal concept opus is more than sufficient to make me feel that this is really very well spent money for who want to buy it.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 68

I must confess that about the Stomu Yamash'ta's musical career I'm only previously familiarised with The Go Project. But, I definitely want to explore deeper into his catalogue, now. Anyway, "Go", belongs to a very innovative musical project, at the time, with the same name and which was released in 1976. "Go" is the first album of Stomu Yamash'ta's fusion super group which became known as The Go Project. This project was composed of three albums, two studio albums and one live album, "Go", "Go Too" and "Go Live From Paris". We may say, in a certain way, that the first album of the project, "Go", is a concept album, fusing diverse musical styles, that range from rock, jazz, classical and electronic music, all connected by a central motif of space travel. The theme of the album deals with the change between fantasy and reality, death and rebirth, things changing to their opposites.

The line up on this super group's first album, is very extensive, and was formed by Stomu Yamash'ta (synthesizer, percussion and timpani), Steve Winwood (vocals, piano, electric piano, organ, guitar and synthesizer), Michael Shrieve (drums), Klaus Schulze (synthesizers), Al Di Meola (lead guitar), Pat Thrall (lead and rhythm guitar), Rosko Gee (bass), Chris West (rhythm guitar), Junior Marvin (rhythm guitar), Hisako Yamash'ta (backing vocals and violin), Bernie Holland (rhythm guitar), Lennox Langton (congas), Brother James (congas) and Thunderthings (backing vocals). All the songs were written by Stomu Yamash'ta with lyrics by Michael Quartermain, with the exception of "Winner/Looser" that was written by Winwood. Paul Buckmaster made all the orchestral arrangements.

Stomu Yamash'ta up to this point has gained great respect for his compositional skills in various styles of music ranging from soundtracks to jazz to classical to rock. In 1976 he formed this group with a line up that reads like a who's who of jazz and progressive rock musicians, Traffic's Steve Winwood, Tangerine Dream's Klaus Schulze, Michael Shrieve from Santana, Return to Forever's Al Di Meola. This is almost like a jazz progressive dream team. However, here on "Go", Stomu abandons his avant-garde and experimental tendencies for a smoother, more accessible sound, which melds space rock, jazz fusion, funk, pop, soul ballads and progressive rock into a hugely appealing concept work. The mood is a little less jazz and more space rock than expected, considering the players involved. Orchestration from Paul Buckmaster contributes to this aspect of the piece greatly. Originally two sides of vinyl listing songs separately but merged together, the album is a full-blown concept piece that is superbly performed.

So, "Go" has fourteen tracks and almost the tracks flow together as a continuous piece of music, with the exception of the fourteenth track "Winner/Loser", the only song written by Winwood. For that reason it sounds to me more a Winwood's song. As somehow it sounds as a concept album, I'm not going to review the album, track by track, as I usually do. However, there are some aspects of the album that must to be enhanced. In the first place, "Go" is a nice, calm and a beautiful piece of music, very experimental, with a spatial musical atmosphere, which makes of it quite unique. In the second place, on "Go", we can find diverse musical influences that range from rock, jazz, electronic and funk, good performances from all the musicians which are very well accompanied by beautiful voice choirs and backing vocals, competent orchestrations and the recorded, the release and the production of it are very professional. In the third place, to do justice to the presence of Winwood on the album, it's very well served by his voice on the tracks where he sings, giving a very special feeling to the musical ambience of the album.

Finally, there is a curious fact about "Go". In reality, the story of "Go" starts at the beginning of the side two and ends at the end of the side one. It means that if you want to hear the album with the correct sequence of the story, you must begin by side two. However, I always start to listen to it by the side one. Anyway, it's up to you. The decision is yours.

Conclusion: "Go" is quite a unique album that could appeal to prog, pop, soul, jazz and fusion fans alike. Jazz fans of course will want to listen to Di Meola and Shrieve. Fans of space music like Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream will want to listen to it certainly. Rock fans that enjoy Winwood's will like this as well. This is a case where the whole is somehow much more than the sum of its parts. Finally, I can say that definitely and deeply it also appeals to me. We are in presence of an excellent, very interesting and original musical project of the 70's, which is, in my humble opinion, very underrated on this site, not only the album but also all the project. Unfortunately, the prog reviewers have given very little attention to it. I know "Go" since it was released, and it always impressed me very deeply. I sincerely think that this album is an excellent addition and deserves to be part of any true progressive musical collection.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)