THE WEIRDING

Astra´s debut album The Weirding is something every early 70´s prog fanatic should listen to. It´s hard to believe those guys are americans and that this album was recorded in 2009. In fact it sounds like it is a long lost work of a Krautrock band of that decade. Even the way it was recorded reminds me of that era (they might have used some vintage recording equipament) Consequently, waves of mellotrons, moogs, space rock guitars and vocals are on the order of the day for those guys. Strong influences of such prog giants like King Crimson (mostly), Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and others.

If you don´t mind an almost total lack of originality, you´ll be enthralled by their excellent musicanship, very good songwriting skills and the fine arrangements. These americans really love the kind of music they are playing and do a great homage of that great time for prog music. Only the vocals are somewhat weak (but so were many bands then). There are no fillers: all tracks are very good and varied. The Weirding is a nice trip back to time, they really got the spirit and did a fine job themselves in writing their own stuff.

A very strong debut and a very promising group of musicians. I´m looking forward to hear their next works. Rating: something between 3,5 to 4 stars. I´ll round up to four because they were not really copycats, but lovers of early prog and were succesfull in churching out great tunes.