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What would life be without the small daily surprises?
One of these for me was the discovery of this Curved Air album that, even though I knew and loved the band, I had never considered, especially knowing it was the result of a posthumous reunion of the original band (with Khon replacing Eyre) made in '74 to settle accounts with the English tax authorities with Stewart Copeland already eagerly waiting in the wings (he was the manager of that tour). And yet here is one of the best live albums I have ever heard, in which the band’s classics are reinterpreted with grit, transport, passion, and always with impeccable technical skill.
Especially a Sonia Kristina in a state of grace brings to life the spirit of Joplin in tracks like "It Happened Today", "Back Street Luv", and "Maria Antoinette", the latter with that genius Monkman even more in the spotlight than in the studio version. But the real climax, in my opinion, is reached with the aggressive "Propositions" introduced by Kristina's feral scream: a grand tribute to the Riley-like iterative structures (to whose "Rainbow in Curved Air" the band owes its name) reproduced by the VCS3 synthesizer and the echo effect applied to Monkman’s guitar and Way’s violin. Blessed be the English tax authorities for allowing Curved Air to record this most worthy live epitaph.
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