BORN

I was certain Astra was history with nothing new from them surfacing since 2012 with the Black Chord. And I was right. Keyboardist and vocalist Conor Riley and guitarist Brian Ellis teamed up with bassist Trevor Mast and drummer Paul Marrone and Birth is born (pun unintended, since the album is called Born). It's unsurprisingly like a third Astra album. Conor Riley's keyboard playing is the same as before and same for Brian Ellis' guitar playing. That great retro prog they succeeded at since 2009 but like the Black Chord, they keep the album short. Lots of great use of organ, Moog (looks like the Model D Minimoog from what video footage I've seen, rather than the Voyager), Mellotron (or sampled Mellotron). Guitar playing reminds me of David Gilmour at times. There are elements of hard rock (not of the Aerosmith or Kiss variety, but earlier '70s that still retained psych and even prog elements) but plenty of great proggy passages too. Like Astra before them it's obviously they're paying tributes to the greats of the past. I amazed at the amount of great retro prog since the 1990s, of different varieties and Birth is another great example. Of course if you already like The Weirding and The Black Chord you need this!