George Starostin's Reviews

CURVED AIR

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Introduction

Scott Fife <scadan@scrtc.com> (19.01.2002)

George, I saw Curved Air opening up for Jethro Tull in 1971 in Louisville. They were great, my brother, Vic and I immediately had to go out and buy anything we could find of theirs. I've been away from this music a long time, the other day Vic said he found Curved Air's 2nd Album in a nice price bin, I wished he would of gotten me a copy. Last Saturday a kinda dreary day he put the cd on, it's wonderful, there's a couple of sorta almost throw away's like "Bright Summer Day, '68" but the mysterious "Piece of Mind" could make up for a million such songs. It's great, that songs been bomnbasting my brain ever since Saturday, it's great I tell ya, George you gotta hear it.

Tony Mortlock <tonym@singnet.com.sg> (28.02.2002)

I'm a die hard Curved Air fan.

At first I pissed off that your ratings for them weren't that great. Then I read your reviews.

Clearly you have considered your comments carefully. I don't agree with everything you say, but many of your perceptions ring true.

Personally I prefer Second Album to Airconditioning. Unlike just about every other Curved Air fan I've ever met, I'm not much impressed by the track 'Vivaldi'.

You mentioned filler on Air Conditioning, I don't know which track you were referring to, maybe it was my favourite 'Situations'? [Nope, rather 'Rob One' and stuff like that - G.S.]

Anyway I just want to say that I think your reviews are great, even though I don't agree with all of them.

How about reviewing Alive 1990. You've already heard the songs, but never like this!

As for 'Marie Antoinette' I agree with your comments totally, but there are better versions than on Phantasmagoria.

Jeff R. <eanmund44@mail.ev1.net> (29.12.2005)

Great web site! Thanks for putting it together. I'm a more recent Curved Air fan. I love their stuff. Just need to find Air Cut to complete the collection. I keep reading about Sonja wearing transparent clothes and see-through wardrobe back in the old days, but can't find anything on the Internet. Sure would be nice if someone would scan and post something along those lines. Her beauty - appearance and vocally - is undeniable.

<tom.thatcher@eu.nabgroup.com> (20.02.2006)

I have a lot of time for Curved Air, and they were incredibly good live. But I think that your ratings are very fair and on the whole I would agree with them. I suppose what really irritates is that the musicianship was so darn good compared with so much now - the trouble is that we were all spoilt for choice and it makes it easier, sadly, to pick holes.

I know Mike Wedgwood very well, having been introduced as babies (his Dad taught me Latin and History at the choir school - Mike had the voice of an angel), and I can attest to his staggering musicianship - and we played together in a first school band that covered most of Cream's Fresh Cream and Sgt Pepper. I also played a lot with Eddie Jobson at Mike's house and on the Curved Air Website, I played guitar on "Times we Had" (which is me, guitar, Sonja, guitar vocals, Mike, drums, bass, vocals and anything else). He is also my son's Godfather and last Christmas we had a great blues jam in Salisbury with Mike on bass and son on sax. Amazing. So you would think that I am a die-hard fan of Curved Air.

I repeat, I like them a lot, but your reviews are fair. Only quibble - 2 3 2 on Air Cut really rocked live and the words carry it. See if you can guess what they are all about. After they played live at the Rainbow, Mike, Eddie and I recorded a multi track version of Let It Be for the whole night. Eddie played 10 violins - fantastic, as they had been that evening to a packed house .... We also jammed Sir Patrick Spens a la Fairport, which he loved, 'cause I knew the chords and words.


ALBUMS
AIR CONDITIONING

John Burton <jb@huntsmead24.fsnet.co.uk> (02.04.2004)

My brother in law recently tried to claim my original copy of this as his!

Cheek - he reckond he could get a grand for it! Still memories of Kristina performing in Hull with me in the front row are not to be forgotten! Her looks matched her voice!

So i'm not parting with it - and every now and again I play it. Ahh Nostalgia is just not the same is it!


SECOND ALBUM

<NPpdmtr@aol.com> (22.10.2002)

I like 'Piece Of Mind' very much. I have it on a cassette compilation knocked together by a friend. Have you noticed it quotes from TS Eliot's Waste Land. The section about Greenwich Reach and the Isle of Dogs also sets the events depicted in the song firmly within London. There is something so red lightbulb about 'Piece of Mind'. Back streets newly discovered in Charlton. Autumn in parks overlooking familiar suburbs seen from unfamiliar angles.|London is so vast you can spend a lifetime getting to know it

Pedro Andino <pedroandino@msn.com> (18.08.2003)

curved air. sonja kristina is so sexy it will put that skater cunt avril latrine to shame! while the other try to be gladiators oiling for a sumo wrestling competition! sonja can be as beautiful as an actress i picture the sensual scene from the movie gypsy where she preforms let me entertain you! oh god! my heart was beating so damn fast! she is in her beautiful sweet glittery panties! hachi machi it is so fucking sexy!


PHANTASMAGORIA

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AIR CUT

David Parizer <ParizerDZ@bernstein.com> (29.07.2002)

Sometimes there is a disconnect between the album rating (10) and capsule (Messy. Incoherent. Falls Apart.) and the actual review which follows. From your review you'd think Curved Air's Air Cut was a 15!

I think what confuses me is your definition of diversity. I know you highly value diversity, but it appears that you despise intra-album diversity and adore inter-album diversity--am I making any sense? Curved Air, along with bands like Caravan, give you intra-album diversity. And I don't believe that it is diversity for diversity's sake. You get the lush ballad (Elfin Boy), the epics (Easy, Metamorphosis), the rockers (Purple Speed Queen, U.H.F.), the classical instrumental (Armin), etc. I think it is great that all members of the band contribute songs which happen to play to their strengths. And no way is Two-Three-Two the worst Curved Air song. As you said yourself, when Kirby's grinding guitar enters, as if anticipating the time signature 2-3-2, how cool is that?! And I must say that 'Metamorphosis' is one of the most moving pieces of music that I have ever heard.

The real shame is the "What could have been" had bands as talented and unique as Curved Air could have stayed together. Spooky Tooth is another that comes to mind--what a cool sound to those brilliant first two records...I digress.

P.S. Not to beat a dead horse, but If you could somehow review Shocking Blue. I'd LOVE to hear your comparison between Sonja and Mariska Veres--the two most sexy, powerful, yet unknown female vocalists in all of rock.

<tom.thatcher@eu.nabgroup.com> (28.03.2006)

Perhaps the most under-rated album of all the seventies. Starring Eddie Jobson, late of the almost forgotten fat Grapple, Eddie was one of those very rare things, a musical genius. Barely 18, he was the most mind blowing keyboard player imaginable and as for his violin work, well. No wonder the musically inept Roxy Music snapped him up (and then Jethro, Zappa and so on). Another boy genius, Kirby (Gregory), now working in rehabilitation, was a guitarist's guitarist. Jim Russell (of Armada) was another fabulous musician, and with the glue of old timers Mike Wedgwood and Sonja to hold it all together, they pulled off a real cracker. High point is, of course, 'Metamorphosis', written by Eddie, with just amazing playing from all. Mike's Fender Precision Fretless bass really drives, and the heavy bit is just Mike, Eddie and Jim, recorded in one take with no overdubbing.

Just listen to Mike and Sonja alternating leads on 'Easy', and hear Kirby's solos in that and in 2-3-2. Armin is a really cool instrumental, and the great thing is that they could do it live so well. Not only that, but they did the old Curved Air stuff better than the old Curved Air. Perhaps it didn't have quite the loose artistry of the old CA, but, by God, it rocked!

This is such a good album by a bunch of kids, really: old timer Mike was just 23 and Sonja just a year or two older. The average age was 21 and they managed this, compared to the facile drivel of "new" bands. Sadly undervalued, this album is due for a massive reappraisal.


LOVECHILD

Jeff R. <eanmund44@mail.ev1.net> (29.12.2005)

I personally like the album Lovechild very much, even more than Phantasmagoria and Midnight Wire. The album has an atmosphere that they others don't have, probably due to the high use of reverb. The title track is very catchy and progressive. Seasons is of course good too. The Dancer is great, and one of the best on the albums. And I have to disagree with the criticism of Paris By Night. The song is very beautiful and visual, and does a good job of evoking an image of, well, Paris By Night! The music may be repetitive, but the song melodies are good and deserve to be repeated. I like the strange chords and timing, and like that they are repeated. Comparing this song to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music is ridiculous. Lou's album was full of noise, this is music and art and beauty. But I guess some people aren't very mature and intelligent when it comes to music review.


LIVE

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MIDNIGHT WIRE

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AIRBORNE

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