ASTRAL PROJECTOR

ZON were a 70's Canadian band who started out life with strong progressive rock leanings. "Astral Projector" is a wonderful album somewhere in the SAGA / STYX vein with powerful instrumentation and highly listenable song writing. ZON were a 5 piece band with the centre piece of the band lying in the theatrical vocals of lead singer (Denton Young) and the winding keyboard runs of Howard Helm. One of the trademarks of ZON were the vocal harmonies of Young, Helm and Brian Miller (guitars) who manage to cover the entire album with great energy.

I recently rescued this album from the attic and gave it a spin on my turntable for probably the first time in 25 years or so.I first became aware of Zon through Sounds a then prominent Uk Music Paper,who were fortunate to have among their editorial team a certain Geoff Barton.Geoff really helped to break the likes of Rush and to a lesser extent Max Webster in the UK and I remember him doing a feature on Canadian bands in the late 70's.Rush,Max Webster,April Wine who I was already familiar with were mentioned but I got drawn towards Zon because of the image of their striking album cover for Astral Projector.I managed to acquire it on import in an electric blue vinyl which made it difficult to select individual tracks,which turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

So my feelings now are much as they were then-there is a whole load of nothing going on here! "Hollywood" is the only track here that can hold my attention for longer than a couple of minutes.It has an interesting synth and guitar break as its set-piece and a theatrical vocal and that's it for the best track.

Trust me when I say that this album and indeed its dreadful follow up "Back Down To Earth" should never be allowed to trouble your ears.Take the worst of Styx and mix it with the worst of,well any late 70's AOR band and you get the picture.This may be Prog-Related but it is neither progressive nor rocky! They may need to be here for the purposes of the completionists but they really neednt be heard by Prog fans....

A massive thumbs down from me.

If you're a fan of classic, late seventies Styx or early SAGA then this album should readily appeal to your aural taste buds.

Zon was a band formed in the mid-seventies. They were inspired by the likes of Peter Gabriel and The Tubes, and wanted to combine a theatrical stage show with music. Early on though, they were warned by Fee Waybill of The Tubes that maintaining a big production interfered with the music and that the band was best off not pushing the stage show too much. The band got signed to Epic which then set about dictating that the band should try to be more commercial and cut back on the longer songs. The producer hired by the label also had some restrictive views on how the band should sound. One night, when the producer had left in haste for an emergency at home, the band experimented in the studio with the assistant engineer. The next day when the producer heard what happened and heard some of the recordings, he lost it and warned the band that if they ever tried too record an organ like that again, they would be fired! Sheesh!

So, Zon's debut album, "Astral Projector" was finally released in 1978 and landed solidly in with the pomp rock sound of the day - hard rock / arena rock with progressive rock approaches to some of the songs. The album's music is strongly based on rocking electric guitar a organ or synthesizers which are backed by a pretty strong bass and drum duo. Denton Young's vocals sound somewhere between Michael Sadler and Denis DeYoung with an occasional hint of Peter Gabriel. The songs generally cover arena rock offerings about life in rock and roll such as "Put On the Show" and "On the Road", and pop rock melody maker with "Melody", and some longer tracks with a little more musical workout like "Hollywood" and "Astral Projector". The bands theatrical side shows up in "Man in the Mirror" and "Point of View / Where to Spend My Dollars", the latter having few lines sung as a light-hearted and presumably tongue-in-cheek impression of a young woman complaining about the prices of things these days.

Special mention should go to the track, "Hollywood" which on the original album release is a heavily edited version of what was intended. The album version begins with the piano-led slower part and changed abruptly into the fast- paced instrumental with the keyboard and guitar solos before ending with great pomp and circumstance. The reissue of this album on the Rock Candy label includes the full version of the song which has a lengthy, building instrumental intro, and more of a developed transition to the faster part. The dramatic climax makes more sense in this version. Sadly, the master tape seems to have suffered some damaged over time and the sound quality is not perfect, the piano even sounding a little warped.

One other bonus here among the bonus tracks is the song, "The Battle" which shows the band's Genesis inspirations very strongly. It's easy to understand why it was left off the album as the style is really quite different. But I think it's rather cool to hear such a strong Genesis influence. It makes me feel like listening to those three Genesis albums of the early seventies.

It seems Zon's "Astral Projector" gets a some pretty low ratings as well as a few pretty good ones. After listening to it, I feel like I want to hear, "Pieces of Eight" by Styx or "Images at Twilight" by SAGA next. No, it's not a prog masterpiece by any means, but it is new in my collection, and I find it to be an enjoyable album that I keep spinning again and again as I sink into the music. Not essential but very good, I think.