ASTRA

After the superior Demon Fuzz probably the pick of the very few South African purveyors of progressive/psychedelic music from the genre's glorious heyday, Freedom's Children did, despite their relative obscurity, make a bit of a splash when they emerged with this debut album in 1970, somehow snaring themselves a profile-raising albeit brief tour of Europe immediately after recording their debut. Entitled 'Astra', said debut is a rough-and-ready affair, featuring a grainy sound quality, lots of fuzzy guitars and some suitably impenetrable sci-fi themed lyrics, though unfortunately it's pretty short on memorable melodies. The group themselves enjoyed fairly legendary status in their homeland, though their sound owes precious little to their African heritage(all six members are white) and there's not a lot to distinguish them from any number of British-or-American groups of the era. Truth be told, 'Astra' is a pretty mundane creation - basically what we have here is a psychedelic rock album with tinges of folk melodies, shimmering organ tones and scuzzy vocals kicked through with a slightly evil bent - though repeated listens do show a more refined touch than initial listens may have you believe. No single tracks stands out, and conversely no single track proves a stinker, though the mystical 'Gentle Beasts Parts 1 & 2' does exude a nice line in complex, almost jazz- tinged avant-garde noodling. If space-rock is indeed your thing you may well feel the need to investigate, especially considering the exotic nature of the album's creation, though don't expect any great shakes. A straight down-the-line, perfunctory slab of psychedelic rock then, but one that at least features a bit of novelty value for your buck if nothing else. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

FREEDOM'S CHILDREN were a six piece band out of South Africa releasing three albums between 1968 and 1971. "Astra" is the second release from 1970. We get a vocalist, bass, drums, guitar, organ and piano/harpsichord. This gets fairly adventerous at times including the singer and I would describe this as Psychedelic music with the fuzzed out guitars helping out with that. The sound quality on mine is not good later on, especially the last couple of tracks but even the rest while passable is muddy sounding. It's hard to hear certain instruments, you really have to strain to be honest.

The one song that stood out for me was "The Homecoming" the second tune and I like the repeated themes over the almost 6 1/2 minutes. Lots of organ and guitar on this one. This one stands out from the rest for me. "The Kid He Came From Hazareth" is about JESUS which is clear from the lyrics but why Hazareth? Another good one especially the guitar at 4 1/2 minutes.

We get some explosives to end the opener and to start "Medals Of Bravery" which has some good contrasts on it between the light and powerful. "Gentle Beasts Pt. 1 & 2" is experimental with strange vocal expressions and then intense later before 3 minutes with vocals. The sound quality is rough here.

And I've heard some of the re-issues have problems with the sound and mine certainly does which is too bad because they had that experimental spirit going on with "Astra".