STOMU YAMASH'TA, STEVE WINWOOD & MICHAEL SHRIEVE: GO

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.