Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Astral Pirates

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You can say that the theme of this album is corny and dated, or that the song "Universal Love" is out-of-place and cheesy here, or that funk and progressive don't mix. But this is a very enjoyable, well-played, well-composed album despite the hurdles it faced. Lenny White plays excellent drums (and some synthesizers) all over this album, along with Don Blackman (vocals, keyboards), Alex Blake (bass), and Nick Moroch and Jeff Sigman (guitars). This is mostly progressive rock/jazz fusion (a la "Romantic Warrior"), with some funk thrown in on the side. Despite the less-than-desirable production sound, I still find this to be a very exciting, interesting and unique cd from a talented drummer and songwriter. If you're a fan of Romantic Warrior-era Return To Forever, this cd is essential.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:

Music quality = 8.3/10; Performance = 9/10; Production = 7/10; CD length = 8/10.

Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 8.2 ("4 stars")

This is a terrible reproduction. The sound quality is awful. The CD I made from the capture of my scratchy old vinyl is better than this. Sound is muddy. Mid-range is totally missing and the high end is not far behind. If all you want is drums (and I mean drums, because the cymbols don't show up for much) then this is it.

Too bad, because this is a great album. Deserves better treatment than this. A remaster would be good.

One of Lenny's greatest albums especially for drumming. The chops were imitated by countless drummers. Assault is probably his greatest solo ever put on wax. Great contributions from Donald Blackmon, his Universal Love is unbelievable. Lenny carried the tradition of Tony Williams by doing fusion his way and not by imitating others. Lenny's next album Streamline is even better which was also released in 1978 which emphasized great songwriting and great drumming. Lenny will always be respected as one the greatest drummers ever.

**Update** This review was based upon the vinyl version. I recently got the CD version and it seems like the vinyl sounds a whole lot better. This is probably due to the aging of the masters. In the tune Universal Love the song fades in from the beginning on the vinyl for dynamic impact but on the CD its gone. Looks like they just compressed the whole album during digital transfer which makes the CD sound kinda muffled.
But on the CD version you can hear the background noises a little clearer than the vinyl (especially on Heavy Metal Monster). So if you never bought this album I would try and find the vinyl first for the dynamics and emotional impact.

~Paul M~

Lenny White ranks among the top drummers in the business. This 70's release is a great showcase for his skill. All the pieces are linked together in a kind of story that takes place as the 'pirates' rocket through space. The cover art illustrates each piece in a "graphic novel" or comic book type panel.

The music is jazz rock fusion, providing a lot or room for some amazing grooves and unbelievably fast sweeps across the drum kit ("as in Assault"). "Prelude" creates an ethereal the atmosphere and sets up tension leading into "Pursuit". A few of the tunes are dated now by arrangements that feature "Return to Forever" type instrumentation and sections of sappy 70's disco style 'woo-woo-woo' and dooby-dooby-doo-blah' lyrics. But the tracks travel through a wide range of moods and music settings and once they get away from the lyrics, the tightly punctuated pieces are great to listen to.

Personal favorites: Pursuit (except disco lyric section), The Great Pyramid, a short jazz piece called "Remembering", "Stew, Cabbage & Galactic Beans", "Heavy Metal Monster", the amazing "Assault", and the final track "Climax: Theme for the Astral Pirates".

'Lenny White's Adventures Of Astral Pirates' is the drummer's fourth solo album and I was very skeptical right from the start.My first Lenny White CD purchase was 'Streamline' and that's probably my favorite of all his albums,and between CD's and vinyl I have most of them,including this one.I am not a huge fan of White's early solo albums-he spends a great deal of time imitating Billy Cobham's spastic fusion drumming style and fills every available space with his instrumentation-much as he also did with Return To Forever.So on 'Astral Pirates' his drumming is very loud,but at the same time is more controlled and explores the sci-fi theme of this music.And the louder numbers are also saddled with simple funk numbers that came to full flower on the next outing.Not only that but this is probably his better crafted material thus far,even the fusion pieces.The presence of more vocals on this album gives White's music a sense of individuality that it didn't tend to have earlier when he was trying to imitate the styles of other fusion drummers instead of working on being his own musician.So in the end I have a vinyl LP copy of this album (not the Wounded Bird CD issue spoken of) but an album is an album and for all interested I strongly suggest that for a good introduction to early Lenny White you should pick this up-it's a great sampler from his fusion side rather then his funk side.For that I suggest 'Streamline'.

I searched all over the place for this recording after hearing part of a song on public radio and finally found a crackly dub from an LP and I was glad I had been persistent because there is some of the best drumming, jazz, rock or otherwise, on this recording. Lenny sounds great and very creative with a deep rich sound that betters Billy Cobham's drum corps drumset tuning.

There is very syncopated, punchy jazz-funk and there is heavy, heavy metallic rock with lightning fast drumset playing on this disc. Highly recommended for anyone serious about playing drums or interested in how experimental recorded music was in the early 70's. Lenny always has a different way of playing fills and creating beats and he really shines in those regards on this disc as well as writing some interesting melodies.

One of the seventys truly great fusion masterpieces!My vinal copy is truly worn so to here this recording all spiffed up is a real pleasure to the ears!The electric guitarist(Nick Moroch) on this cd is a lead playing monster,I,m a guitarist myself and testify that Nick is one of the unsung guitar heros of all time!everything about this cd is 5 stars. Enjoy!! Provo Pete

short and straight to the point. this is a fine example of they
don't do it like they used to. the cd is high energy and displays
true artistic talent,unlike todays programed two beat musicians,
performers??? what can you call them?? lenny white,stanley and
the crew know how to hit a nerve!!!!!!

I was overjoyed when I discovered that this album which I had on vinyl (and played to death) many years ago was FINALLY on CD!
It's really great. It's a little different from Venusian Summer but equally good - I would not be able to rate one over the other. If you're into fusion in any way, you should definitely try this album. It's very good, enjoyable and fun - all at the same time!

one of the ten best fusion albums of all time . this is where buckethead must have gotten the theme for monsters & robots .if you dont have buy it , if you have it .....youre lucky !