Search - Curved Air :: Air Conditioning

Good debut album of psychedelic/prog rock by Curved Air

Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 08/19/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Released in 1970, Air Conditioning marks the emergence of Curved Air as a force within the realm of progressive music. Although it did not thrill me as much as Second Album (1971) or Phantasmagoria (1972), this is still a great Curved Air album and would make an excellent addition to the English psych/progressive rock collection. In spite of my griping however, it was the track It Happened Today that got me into Curved Air in the first place.



The musicians on Air Conditioning include Sonja Kristina (lead vocals); Darryl Way (electric violin and vocals); Francis Monkman (electric guitar; Hammond organ; mellotron; electric harpsichord, special effects, VCS3 synthesizer, and piano); Robert Martin (electric bass; backing vocals); and Florian Pilkington-Miksa (drums and percussion). All of the band members are fantastic and Daryl even received formal musical training at the Royal College of Music. Both individual and ensemble virtuosity is high, which was characteristic of the English progressive rock bands in general. Although there is some superb keyboard work on the album, there is also a lot of hard-edged electric guitar work that seems to me to be more of a 1960's psychedelic holdover than anything else. With time however, the emphasis on the electric guitar would fade away and by the time of Phantasmagoria Francis would favor a more keyboard dominated approach. Sonja's lead vocals are superb and really contribute to the unique Curved Air sound, although they are not featured as prominently as on later albums by the group. Curved Air would have a revolving door when it came to bassists and Rob was the first of many - interestingly however, he did contribute a lot to the writing and has at least two co-writing credits with a third composition that he wrote alone (Rob One).



The ten tracks range in length from 1:35 to Darryl's track Vivaldi (7:28). Musically, this is a heady mixture of psychedelic rock, progressive rock, classical, and experimental approaches along with some delicate acoustic moments (the soft track Blind Man is a good example). Perhaps the most 1960's sounding track on the album is the jam-heavy Propositions, which is dominated by heavy/spacey/psychedelic electric guitar work and excellent drumming. Darryl's instrumental piece Vivaldi features the violin as a solo instrument with a thunderous accompaniment by the entire band. My favorite tracks include the acoustic piano led track Situations (Francis does a great job on the piano), Screw, and Vivaldi, although the entire album works for me as a complete whole.



This CD reissue by Collector's Choice Music is extremely skimpy and does not feature any liner notes or other extras. The sound quality is not that hot and the overall sound levels of the different tracks seem to vary.



All in all, this is another great album of progressive rock by Curved Air that is highly recommended along with Second Album and Phantasmagoria."