ASHRA

"Sunrain" Tranquil electric piano hammers out a soft base for the lengthy Mellotron-like phrases uttered over it. Like a flower, the piece blooms into something brighter and ethereally layered.

"Ocean of Tenderness" The album dives into deeper tranquility, with washes of peaceful sound.

"Deep Distance" The continued serenity, with the high whistling tones, brings Yes' "Soon" to mind. Soon it takes on a lighter countenance of its own.

"Nightdust" It's as though the listener has finally emerged from the aquatic depths and is being lifted toward the stars. Distant tones weave a slow, nocturnal movement, as though gradually inviting the listener to a sleepy oblivion.

All Göttsching's guitars sound heavily treated, which is a good thing. At points, he sounds like that bloke Vini Reilly from 'Durutti Column'. Without guitars this album would be a real bore.

Harald Grösskopf's drums occasionally border on disco beat and are pretty straight throughout. 'Correlations' has, however, that certain something or other that easily stands up to repeated listens.

For God's sake though, don't play it in front of any new girlfriend! She will not be enamoured. It doesn't sound cool at all in 2011. Luckily for me, I've always had a soft spot for this outer branch of Berlin Electronics synthetic sound.

A nice cheery, vocal free album that's good to listen to while cycling or running, but does sound VERY 1979 and cheesy in this day and age.

I've never reviewed such a dead cert three star album before. Perfectly acceptable to my ears, although others may disagree vehemently.

BLACKOUTS is a good album to put on in the background when you need to work on something important or you're hosting a party and want to play some cool background music with some prog points. These are long pieces that rarely change in ground structure with some keyboard melody or teaser guitar solo over the top. If you like the beat/theme/riff/drone, you're good for seven or so minutes; else, hit skip (''Shuttlecock'' is the only one I would skip). It's as good as I can get with the descriptions without mentioning the actual tracks.

The long ''Lotus'' is done well for being seventeen minutes as its parts are kind-of well-defined, but the second part is the most interesting as the structure just destabilizes until the third part suddenly comes in and melody is back. Not bad, but my mind would drift too easily here. ''Don't Trust the Kids/Blackouts'' sounds close to poppy thanks to the big bass synth riff, but it begs to be covered by a rock band, not that these songs are bad but I'm just curious. ''Midnight on Mars'' actually sounds like it could be used on Mars (maybe Young Justice could use this if Miss Martian was to return home...anyone?).

BLACKOUTS is overall pleasant, but I find Tangerine Dream to be generally far more engaging and vibrant despite the cold electronic futuristics.

Blackouts is just as high-quality as New Age of Earth is, and is the perfect companion piece to the debut. Repetitive, psychedelic, beautiful, and warm. Highly recommended.

Hypnotic, simple, and warm are the words that I would use to describe the sound and mood of the album. Simple, catchy, and hypnotic guitar loops intertwine with with thin sounding synthesizers and a rich spacey atmosphere gently warmed by the suns soothing rays. "Nightdust", though, isn't as warm and optimistic as the first three tracks. I'd liken this track to the sound of a more interesting and electronically enhanced Pink Floyd - very slow, psychedelic, and moody with a deep spatial atmosphere.

This album is really great. I've come to realize that bands that are offshoots of other bands tend to not be so hot, so I definitely prepared myself for a letdown with this album. Fortunately, this album is amazing, and I can't stop listening to it.

Listening to it now in 2011, with a cold early March sun outdoors, trying desperately to kick start Spring is the perfect occasion to give this a whirl.

I always find it strange how Ashra went SO electronica after leaving Ash Ra Tempel. In fact I much prefer this to the old Kraut band of the early 70's. Electronic Berlin School fans take note of this one. Don't let it slip under your radar. If you do you're letting a little gem fall through your fingers.

Needless to say that being on 'Virgin' means that the production values are superb. I'm quite sure there's some VCS 3's and Arp's in there somewhere, but the inadequate sleeve notes don't give much away.

If you like 'Timewind', 'Oxygene' and 'Rainbow Dome Music' you'll love this. Too active to be called ambient - but at points it's bordering on it.

A beautiful instrumental album which should be listened to late at night when you're trying to fall asleep but are frustratingly wide awake. Excellent.

Poor electro beats, lifeless music, repetition to the bones. Press next quickly to avoid pure boredom. The problem you will be facing is that the next track isn't any better and the next one ("Pretty Papaya") is of the same texture: a combination of electro music with reggae (same recipe during "Don't Stop The Fan" and "Monsoon")! Ouch, it hurts quite a bit. A rather weak album it is.

"Tropical" rhythms are hardly bearable ("Nights In Sweat") and frankly out of purpose from such a band. The only positive aspect of this album is that it lasts for less than forty minutes? I can't rate this album with more than one star.

The opening track ("Wudu") is a great "press next" tune (?) with no other comment. I will describe the next one "Screamer" as a good new wave song. An incredible beat and a totally "Devo" sound. If you have listened once to their great "Uncontrollable Urge" you could grab the similarity.

Dear Manuel is even integrating some reggae in his music ("Boomerang")! While I did like reggae in the seventies, I am quite surprised to hear such a poor stuff on an "Ashra" album. This is the second "press next" tune out of three. You can do the same a little later with "Kazoo" though?

The wild and upbeat "Aerogen" does feature superb guitar work and it is the best track available here. Still, this has NOTHING to do with prog electronic. At least according to my standards. Anyway, along the whole album, this is the main theme: a total break with the early days.

To be fully honest, a track as "Sausalito" does provide a great feeling: the magical guitar sound is working perfectly after half time (but the intro is quite longish and not very appealing).

This album has very few great moments. "Mistral" is one of them. But it is the closing number and it sounds as a great "Santana" tune: great guitar (but this is only normal), great beat, superb melody. It is a wonderful "Santana" song" indeed. But is this what we expect from "Ashra"???

The longish and repetitive "Code Blue" doesn't add anything tangible to the whole. Two stars, no more.