Customer Reviews

Weirding

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you like early 70's prog rock like Kansas, ELP, Camel,Eloy, Early Genesis, you'll most likely enjoy this.

Loaded with analog keys, and smooth guitar playing, this is a good cd to close your eyes and drift away with the music. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Weirding was recorded in a garage, and sounds like it. But if you are into 70's Prog rock, this should add to the aura. Astra's freshman attempt is mesmerizing in a nostalgic sort of way for those of us who were alive in the 70's and loved the progressive music of the day with it's melloton induced head spins. We saw no reason for it to disappear. It's nostalgic, only because it did disappear... for the most part. With a new generation, perhaps it's back, and here to stay, for a whole new generation to enjoy without having to have glimpses of the past. Astra's "The Weirding" is a bold attempt to slice into that not so musical mayhem that is Brittney Spears and 50 cent. An attempt to bring real music to the fore and perhaps musicianship to our ears. My only complaint.... the drums are bit lacking and are monotonous and annoying.

As a serious old-school progger (I am not a big fan of prog with hyphens, like "prog-metal" or "neo-prog" or "crossover-prog" or whatever), I am very picky about what passes off as prog today. To me, it necessarily means at least some long songs, some degree of instrumental prowess or at least creativity and exploration, the use, generally, of old-school synthesizers, mellotrons, electric pianos, etc. I realize this is not everyone's definition but by way of introduction, it is mine. Astra has made a very classic-sounding prog record here (down to the sound, which is NOT "bad" as some have characterized it, just not "modern" in the sense of being overly compressed, overly loud, overly processed, and overly overdubbed---it's a good, clean, early 70s sounding record). The songs are good, with lots of melody in both the vocals and the instrumental parts, some nice, spacey jamming (Astra is more, say, Pink Floyd or Caravan than they are Genesis or Yes, in this respect), and delicious use of some Moogs and Mellotrons. In some parts too, in evokes Black Sabbath's more prog moments (let's not forget that in England they were on the Vertigo label initially). Sure, it's derivative----that see-sawing Mellotron part in the title track is an inversion of a similar one in King Crimson's "Cirkus", "Beyond to Slight the Maze" is a rewrite of parts of Pink Floyd's "Echoes"----but that's kind of the point of the band, to evoke a particular period and style of rock that many of us love, and that few bands play today. If you dig "Meddle", "In the Court of the Crimson King", and late-60s Moody Blues, I think you'll really enjoy Astra. Support an up-and-coming band---remember that many of our faves did not make their masterpiece records until their 3rd or even 4th try (e.g., Genesis, Yes). Enjoy "The Weirding" now, and let's see what these San Diego boys can come up with next!

This was an impulse buy based on the Roger Deanesque album cover and music samples. It's a grower! I love it. Mellotron heaven to say the least. Sounds as if the early Moody Blues got together with the original King Crimson Ala "In The Court Of The Crimson King" and smoked a lot of weed before pressing the recording button. I look forward to a new recording with a possibly bigger budget. They have a lot of promise. Great headphone music.

Astra are one of my most pleasant surprises of the year so far. I picked up the album after it was announced that the band would be playing NEARfest this summer which I will be attending. Prior to that I had never heard of the band. To say this album is retro sounding would be a vast understatement. This album could have come out about 1974 and would have fit right in. The band's sound reminds me of the more pscyh oriented stuff from early Black Sabbath mixed with "Echoes" era Pink Floyd. The band is not all that far removed from modern day stoner rock bands such as The Sword either. The 8 tracks here are rather long and plodding, but to my ears they pretty much all work. I like the whole thing, but the tracks "Rising Of The Black Sun", "The Weirding", "Broken Glass", "The Dawning Of Ophiuchus", and "Beyond To Slight The Maze" are my favorites. The one drawback of the album is the actual recording itself. The production is pedestrian at best, sounding like it was recorded in a very lo-fi situation. This muddy mix again makes the album sound retro, but with proper modern production I think this thing could have sounded a heck of a lot better and would have been more effective. Sound problems aside, I think this is one of the best albums of the year and I highly recommend it.

In my opinion, this is a work of pure genius! Astra has managed to create a recording that manages to sound as if it was created around circa 1972. Some may have the opinion it was just recorded badly. I feel it was recorded this way on purpose. ("Flangeing" on the drums is not an accident of bad recording.)The music has a sound and feel equivalent to the Pink Floyd "Meddle"/"Obscured by Clouds" era with sounds also reminiscent of Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust""; Genesis' first album and Trespass; and Hawkwind's "Hall of the Mountain Grill". Not satisfied with just the style and feel of the music they managed to duplicate the sound of recordings from the same time period!

With all their flaws, these recordings from the 70's had their own unique sound. It is really hard to describe unless you pull a vinyl album from the time period and listen to it before it was "remastered" onto CD. With big improvements in dynamic range and stereo separation they still had not yet perfected keeping other instruments from bleeding over into other instruments. Microphones were hung over amps, and the amps were cranked up so they naturally picked each other up. Drums, often, were not isolated so they just bled into everything. "Reverb", was added to vocals and anywhere else it sounded "cool". The result was not a muddy sound but a warm fused together sound, completely unlike to sterile sound of today. It just kind of envelopes you.

The music will not be to everyone's liking. Songs are long, half over 10 minutes, and have a real space rock, psychedelic, sound to them. Extended guitar and keyboard solos are the norm. Songs change and evolve. This is real dim the lights, put on the head phones, fire up the incense and lava lamps stuff here. If you can put on Pink Floyds "Meddle" and relish in it then Astra will take you back to that good place.

This album is excellent. It puts me in another place. The atmosphere is peaceful, yet edgy. . .wonderfully weird at times as only great prog rock can be. It's true what another reviewer said about how Astra's sound on this album is Black Sabbath meets Pink Floyd. I love the vocals and the guitar and keyboards are great. I am a bit disappointed in the sound quality, but other than that, I highly recommend this album. The stand out tracks are; "The Rising of the Black Sun," "Silent Sleep" and "Broken Glass," but there isn't a bad song on this album. It's great from the first listen, and grows on you with each visit to become purely awesome. Buy it!

Amazingly executed, the only complaint anyone could possibly have about this album is it is derivative. But it seems pointless to complain about the bands fidelity when it is done this well!

My brain has been waiting for an album like this for years. The instrumentation, the performance and maybe most importantly, the production, is classic 70s from start to finish. Don't let the Roger Dean-esque cover fool you, these guys don't really sound like Yes, but if you're a fan of early Pink Floyd or early King Crimson, this album is for you. The sweeping epic jams packed with fat mellotron goodness and thick, creamy guitars will take you on an astro-trip, for sure. In short this is unabashed and completely unapologetic SPACE-ROCK brought into the future, also known as our present. With the sea of corporate musical garbage getting bigger and more omnipresent than ever, it makes my heart prick up with notice that there are some members of the human race who actually still enjoy making honest rock music with honest rock instruments. Buy this and crank it up with your bong at the ready.

I bought this CD after hearing the album's best track, "Broken Glass" on the internet and reading the mostly positive reviews here. After about 3 listens to this album, it's just not taking off for me the way I was expecting. Aside from the songwriting and performance, the recording sound quality is very low-fi, at times sounding no better than an 8-track tape from back in the day (maybe that's by design). Not sure how recent this recording is but it does have an authentic 70's quality to it - no instruments on here give you any clue that it wasn't recorded in 1975. Again, the track "Broken Glass" is the finest selection here and the instrumental track that it sequeways into works well next to this song. Otherwise, The Weirding is a fairly bland effort. I think these guys just need to find the right producer and bring their 70's sound into the 21st Century...as I mentioned in my review title, I do hear potential for future great album.