Voyage – Fly Away

A rare edition intended for the duty-free Corecom stores during the socialism in Bulgaria and never released in this form on the domestic market!

Voyage cemented their place in disco history with their classic tunes “From East To West” and “Souvenirs”. Their bright breezy sound saw them rocket up the disco charts and “Fly Away” was considered one of the key releases of 1978. The opener “Souvenirs” is indeed dreamy, full of soaring strings, and glorious vocals, percussion, wah wah and an overall ambience that is hard to resist. It segues into the harder “Kechak Fantasy”, with the guys taking over in a hard edged chant, the slapping bass and grittiness being a great contrast to the opener. It mixes into “Eastern Trip”, a short mystical kind of instrumental that kind of slows down the mood to be honest. “Tahiti Tahiti” is appropriately Hawaiian and it’s pleasant enough without being overly exciting. On what would have been side two is “Lets Fly Away”, their top 40 UK hit, which is again pleasant but not that exciting. A soft poppy feel to it is nevertheless effective, especially with its chorus. “Golden Eldorado” is up next a Western type song which improves with its strong and attractive chorus and strings. “Gone With The Music” is the last song, a rock and roll type song that is pretty average although it does end with a reprise of “Souvenirs” which is effective. That is the end of the original album, and in all honesty, it’s not a brilliant album in terms of disco play: I wouldn’t be on the floor for most of it. However, it is made by some great musicians and is a much better album for chilling out to at home rather than boogieing on down at the disco. Disco Recharge is known for its many extra cuts and they pull out all the stops here. The rest of the first disc comprises of instrumental versions of the bands songs that were put out in a Dj-only limited edition at the time: “Lady America” one of their best songs from their first album is awesome, although you do miss the vocals as they are so great on the original. “Let’s Fly Away”, “Gone With The Music” and “Golden Eldorado” are presented in their instrumental versions and are ok but I’ve already given you my thoughts on them. The real treat on here is their singer, Sylvia Mason’s lp that came out in 79. All four of her songs are included in their instrumental versions (the ones with vocals are included on another Voyage compilation by Disco Recharge), the strongest of which are “We’ve Gotta Dance” with its perky guitar, strong piano bass line, horn stabs and lovely strings in the chorus. “Shadow In The Sun” is a slow song that doesn’t really do much and “Closer To Heaven” has a galloping pace and some nifty synthesizer work. It would probably be more effective in its vocal version however. Also hot is “Hello Superduperstar”, another tune with a galloping pace and hot slapping bass that makes this one very funky.
The second disc contains a slew of remixes. “Souvenirs” is presented in its 12” version which to these ears doesn’t sound that much different to the LP version and its 7” version although I never bother with the short versions of disco songs. There are two Hot Tracks remixes of it as well, including one that is pitched up – I gotta hand it to them, they certainly give you bang for your buck with this compilation. The Hot Tracks remixes are interesting by the way. “Tahiti Tahiti” is here in its extended and short version, my thoughts are already documented on that and “Lets Fly Away” is here in its long version too. Finally a short song called “Dance and Romance” is a fairly tame offering from the group under the alias of Disco and Co. There are liner notes from Alan Jones who co-wrote the excellent “Saturday Night Forever” and an interview with one of the ‘Birds of Paris’ who sung back up on the LP. Although I don’t find this album as essential as other people do, it certainly is interesting and for fans of the band, or that shimmery Euro disco sound, you can’t go past this package for the sheer amount of bonus material is a true tribute to the band.

This is a must have - all versions (at least I those I was looking for) of Souvenirs are on it! To me Souvenirs is the perennial song of the disco era, and it is not even from where disco came from (albeit the word discotheque) : France!

Such a happy record! Whenever i'm having a reallllllly bad day I just throw this bad boy on the turntable and dance the drama out of my life (for the time being at least, lol). This is a kick ass feel good record, simply put.