Curved Air
The Albums 1970-73
ESOTERIC
GETTY
Madly eclectic prog pioneers’ studio output boxed up.
It’s not easy being several bands at once. But Curved Air seemed to be attempting it on their 1970 debut album Air Conditioning (8/10), reissued here along with the three other studio sets that followed it.
Such eclecticism would put them firmly in the prog firmament, but their debut suggests that sticking to any one sonic identity held no interest for them. The gnarly post-psychedelia of It Happened Today also hints at singersongwriterish fare in its easy-going piano backing, even as Francis Monkman’s hyperactive guitar licks suggest he’s desperate to show us his skills. In the same song, violinist Darryl Way makes his mark before his fiddle decorates the folk-rock boogie of Stretch. Elsewhere he gets full rein on the seven-minute classical-rock fantasy Vivaldi, which ends up crashing and burning amid an avant-noise cacophony. The symphonic flower-pop of Screw is a thing of beguiling beauty as Sonja Kristina’s charismatic vocals continue to captivate.