Air Cut [Remastered] [Digipak] - Curved Air > Reviews > Absolute masterpiece

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Genuine lost masterpiece
Disadvantages:	Taken so long to be re - released on CD

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

When Darrly Way, Francis Monkman and Florian Pilkington-Miksa quit Curved Air, it left only founder Sonja Kristina (Linwood) and Phantasmagoria player Mike Wedgwood to soldier on. In doing so they picked Eddie Jobson on keyboards and violin, Kirby Gregory on guitar, Jim Russell on kit, with Mike on bass, vocals, acoustic guitar and percussion and Sonja on vocals and acoustic guitar. Sound simple?

Well, for one thing, Eddie was only 17 years old, and neither Jim nor Kirby had left their teens. So we basically had a band with an average age of about 19 trying to fill the shoes of a band who were known to be some of the best musicians in the UK, if not the world.

Air Cut. Not a dud note on the whole CD, playing at such a level that it takes your breath away and such a mix of music and styles that it dazzles. Is it Curved Air? Of COURSE it is.

Kicking off with The Purple Speed Acid Queen, a straight rocker, Kirby pulls off a blinding solo and we hear what Eddie can do on keyboards. Elfin Boy is the old Sonja at her most whimsical and then comes the extraordinary Metamorphosis. Whatever possessed Eddie to compose this I will never know, but it is ten minutes of magic in which the whole band is quite exemplary, backing up Eddie's Rachmaninov-like piano. Mike's Fender bass almost kicks a hole in the speakers and Kirby plays his parts with brio. But it is Eddie who amazes - 17 years old and he can do THIS? What did we get after this? A generation of shoe gazers who could barely play a chord.

After a "classical" introduction, Eddie plays relative chords against Kirby's volume gliss guitar, Mike's bass comes punching in and the whole band pick up the lead theme for Sonja's customary perfect singing. The middle section, of Eddie's acoustc piano playing, is just like a dream, before Eddie, Mike and Jim come back in with a live and completely un-overdubbed power motif that makes EL and P sound like Chicory Tip.

Other highlights include Mike's 232, with a guitar solo that makes your eyes water, tasteful, exciting, fast and appropriate: and Easy, Sonja's bitter sweet ballad that turns into a powerhouse driver with great keys, bass drums and additional vocals from Mike (old man of the band at 22), who is exemplary throughout. Mind you, his close late relations include Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Darwin and of course, Josiah Wedgwood the potter, who was also the direct ancestor of Anthony Wedgwood "Benn", who looks just like Mike's Dad. True to your roots, eh, "Tony"? Mike (bass) could score for an orchestra, as could Eddie, and also played guitar, drums, keyboards, sax, clarinet and upright bass, all of them very well, as well as having perfect pitch and a four-octave vocal range. Just like members of Babyshambles, I have no doubt.

This is, quite simply, one of the best CDs ever made. AND they could do it live - I was lucky enough to see these "kids" blow Britain's premier rock venues apart. How could we forget how it used to be......?

Since this and other reviews have appeared, I have had calls and messages to say, "where are they now?" As a fan of well played rock and pop, I have tried to keep tabs:

Eddie joined Roxy Music and, in my opinion, pulled the embarrassing amateurism into some sort of shape, and went on to play with Frank Zappa, Jethro Tull, UK and his own Band Zinc, The Green Album. After hundreds of sessions he was commissioned to become musical director of Nash Bridges, which took four full years, and he now lives in California. Mike joined the legendary Caravan and released various albums, live and studio, and then moved to America for 20 years. He now lives in Denmark and has released "Places like these" and is about to release "Secret Document". Sonja fronted more incarnations of Curved Air and now has her own far more acoustic band, still touring and performing regularly. The voice remains fabulous. Kirby and Jim formed Stretch and had several albums and a hit single, and Kirby now works as a rehabilitation therapist in a famous clinic in Wiltshire and I am afraid that I do not know what happened to Jim. His drumming is just excellent here and I wish I knew more. Any help out there?

Mike used Fender fretted and fretless basses, Kirby used a Dan Armstrong Perspex guitar with humbuckers and a Les Paul, Eddie used his own silver-frame and wood violins with Barcus Berry electronics, Korg and Moog synthesizers with Fender electric pianos and others (I think he used a Bechstein for studio work), Sonja used a Yamaha acoustic (I think) and I just cannot remember Jim's kit.