'Astra' is the quintessential album of the 60's. Heavy & fuzzy, shrouded in a melodious, psychedelic mist of mysticism.., and perhaps most emblematic of the time, politically active & socially emerged, while never lacking in musicianship or creativity. Globally acclaimed guitarist Julian Laxton's own invention, the "Black Box" gives this album a signature trippy sound which they patched every instrument through; guitars, synth, vocals, organ & drums. His design of this magical, oscillating multi-FX apparatus resulted in an offer by a London based company to prototype it. This funded a summer away from politically contentious South Africa and a dive head first into the psychedelic scene of 1969 London. Despite being unable to perform due to a Musicians Union sanction against South African artists, here they were able to soak up all the influence and inspiration they were so much inept to in apartheid South Africa. Although the London company eventually revoked their offer to prototype Laxton's "Black Box", the band was irrevocably impacted and at least had a free place to live, meet bands and jam where they consequently wrote the most epic and brilliantly crafted psych era album ever recorded. One that, even overlooked, is more ground breaking than anything I've ever heard come out of Pink Floyd or similar such acts. It achieves this lofty position in my book in a way that goes beyond just another good record. This album has a spiritual quality and vigor to it that truly embodies whatever magic it was that occurred in the 60s and does so in a manner which makes you feel as though you're there, even if only as an observer. There's a traditionality and reverence in the voice & lyrics that give you an increasingly strong sense of their message. As the albums journey presses onward, it takes you to a place where you too want to speak out about the self-imposed tragedies going on in our world right now. There's an undeniable presence of authenticity in this distinct primal incarnation of tribal humanity. Our link to the Earth and all living things, a memorial of an obligation long forsaken, saturates every track. This alone is assurance enough for me that those flowery ideals, lovers hearts & long hair are still, if not alive, at the very least assessable and fully capable of a 2nd act. Now is a time where we need it more than ever, a time where technology replaces reality more and more, our emotions squelched out by a tsunami of subversive advertising and thought control. The time is now to wake up, piece together where our crying souls fit into this mess of consumerist, high-tech expansionism and explore the expansion of our minds, the new frontier. Cerebral manifest destiny, let's take new territory and take back what's ours! May we evolve before we dissolve.
No comments:
Post a Comment