Sunday 22 August 2021

The masterpiece Astre Foresight from 1981 USA




Again, a wonderful cover drawing.

Note the umlaut on the e which advertises the 'progressiveness' of the band:

Astrë was a progressive rock band that existed from 1978 to 1984, although they were best remembered for the classic trio lineup that was active in 1981-1983.

For me this is about as perfect as music gets, a kind of ideal imago that Plato would imagine in the cave in his world of shadows had he been a prog rock fan, which he most definitely wasn't. That was Socrates.  Anyways, the style could be described as absolutely classic American prog rock along the lines of (among stuff posted here) Gold's No Class Whatsoever, Ariel Perspectives, etc., in the matrix of prog delineated by ELP, King Crimson, Genesis, Yes as apex predators, we are leaning very much into the latter as you can tell from the song titles listed for the album and the last side which is a side-long track with all the subtitles that resemble Close to the Edge. I actually might make the heretical statement this LP is better than any one disc Yes or Rush (also similar) created, but I don't want any angry comments.  Right from the intro wail of the synth leading into the obligatory suspended chords on the hammond, you know you're into something so totally unique and disturbing you better not play it loud so the neighbours or your family members overhear it:



While the track called "Lar-Asia" (is that a misspelling of Laurasia, part of the break up of famed supercontinent Pangaea?) is very KC, obviously Larks Tongues era:



Just listen to that guitarist play!

To all you KC fans out there, I'm sorry I like this more than Larks Tongues in Aspic. It's both tighter, more fully developed, and more dissonant.

The way the band plays it like a symphonic movement is just out of this world awesome.  A masterpiece all day long every day of the week all year round really. Ten out of ten or rather ten out of zero.


8 comments:

  1. https://www111.zippyshare.com/v/U61zc5eg/file.html

    https://www.sendspace.com/file/3vi3j4

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  2. Strong words, my friend ... it usually takes me some time to come up with a verdict on a record, so I just rely on your taste here :-)
    But again: Thank you for your work!

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  3. ...let's say KC's Larks Tongues is a bit older, but I don't want any angry comments either... : )

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  4. Just wanted to mention, thanks for introducing me to this fantastic style of music and your fantastic work here.

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  5. Just wanted to mention, thanks for introducing me to this fantastic style of music and your fantastic work here.

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  6. Wow, thx! :)

    Hey wait a sec, why are you posting under the name jt, mom?

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  7. A great prog album but not particularly intuitive and - the most important - a carbon copy of ELP's sound and compositions. At least that's the way I see it.

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    Replies
    1. It's interesting to me that people have such different tastes--to me, it's such a masterpiece, and I agree the hammond makes it elpish for sure

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