Astra Image Plus 6

With critics and listeners seemingly already in their corner, San Diego classic space/prog five-piece Astra make a Moog-heavy sophomore outing in the form of "The Black Chord". Astra won many ears to their side with 2009’s Rise Above debut, "The Weirding", on which they offset retro King Crimson-style melodies with a sense of modern urgency that indeed also shows up throughout the six tracks of the second album. It’s Astra’s balance of old and new that makes their recorded output so fascinating, and as the US has become even more enamored of all things taggable as progressive and/or psychedelic in the last three years - at least in an underground sense – The Black Chord arrives at just the right time and in just the right place for the band to be able to make the most of their songwriting…

Astra are a promising San Diego/California situated band deriving from a psych/space basis - although they are not exclusively reduced on this and implement heavy rocking and symphonic impressions. The songs evolve in a quite varied and interesting manner and you will detect some nice references to bands which must have influenced the Astra crew. They remind of early Pink Floyd and King Crimson but have a sound and style of their own. Astra are a band in love with the ‘70s, and they seem pretty unapologetic about it.