Review

[Kari Haug <haug%si.uninett%NORUNIX.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>]

Billy Currie (with guest Steve Howe) : "TRANSPORTATION"

Oh, finally. I've been waiting for this ever since late in 1986, after
the release of Ultravox' latest album U-VOX. That was when Billy Currie
said that he planned to "start working on a multi-influenced solo-album".
Was it worth the wait? Oh yes! Released on IRS "No-Speak", "TRANSPORTATION"
is all instrumental, and it reached the import record-stores here in
Oslo last week. The album has 8 tracks: "Airlift", "Traveller",
"Transportation", "Rakaia River"(Mountains to Sea), "India", "Perfect
Flight", "Over-Soul" and "English Home". Steve Howe, (ASIA, YES) helps out
on guitar on 6 of the tracks.
Just by looking at the cover, I could imagine what to expect, what kind of
music it was. My expectations were higher than the highest when I put the
CD in for the first time. Well, and what can I say? Nothing, because what
I then heard was far beyond the power of wordly description!
Something happened to me, and I got so excited I almost fell off the chair.
It was magic, brilliant, breathtaking..... etc. etc... At one point I got
so excited that I stood up and screamed out to my friend "This is better
than Jean-Michel Jarre, but that's impossible because no-one can be better
than him, but this is better than Jean-Michel Jarre anyway, even if that's
impossible"!
All the tracks are a mix of classical and more pop-sounding music, all put
brilliantly together. If I were to guess his sources of inspiration, I
would say Ultravox, Jean-Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield. I especially
detect some Oldfield-sounding stuff here and there, but it is a 100
times better than Mike Oldfield could have done it!
"TRANSPORTATION" is the kind of music which gets better the more you
listen to it. I listen to it all the time, and it takes me high, high,
high.... up to 7th Heaven.
I would like to quote a little story from the "Ultravox in their own words"
booklet. In it, Billy Currie tells us something that happened when he went
to Huddersfield School of Music. He once played a self-composed melody on
the piano, in front of the class, and his teacher said sarcastically:
"What makes you think you're so special"? Oh my God, I really hope that
this teacher now buys "TRANSPORTATION" and really LISTENS to it. That
will put his sarcastic question to shame once and for all!!!!
"What makes you think you're so special"?  Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.......


-- Kari --


PS: I will take this opportunity to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!