Astralasia Away With The Fairies Legacy Album Review

Astralasia Away With The Fairies Album Review

Astralasia
Away With The Fairies
Talking Elephant Records
2006


A smooth and silky down-tempo psychedelic pumping action drives track one, Seven Deadly Sins, introduced by a sexy saxophone soundalike, possibly an effected guitar or a violin, a rhythm of far reaching melodics swings around the stereo experience. Heady frills and crisp sampled beats give a whole handed approach to the sound, this treacle like texture drips from the amplitude and settles like cooling wax. Tips of the hat in the direction of Enigma give a familiar sense of zone, before the second track submerges us in ethnic abstraction.


Deville's Bridge slides the bar over to one side and allows some more punch to whittle itself into the flow. That crazy instrument pipes up again and it's hard hitting and in key. Wild splurges of honed brilliance crest like waves on the peaks of sound while the consistent drums allow for the grounding element to continue. The polar extremities of this piece go further than before, and our musical landscape is stretched to both sides of the map. An epic track that journeys and spirals in a trippy dance through the undertones of psychedelia, prerequisite to Bitchin' The Brew as track three, this long distance score gives us a chance to sit further back into the world that the album has given us.


Everything becomes very tranquil at the end of perhaps a little exhausting slog through the forest of before, now we're with the infamous brew, the world becomes a little more childlike and dreamy. It settles for a tone or two above that of Disney for just a moment, and as we get used to it, some of the most frantic but strangely satisfying drumming kicks in, carrying an almost jazzical feel that gives a breath of breezy air to the mix. A guitar solo adds to the layering and gives the spiral swirl that little twist that it needs to start spinning again and this time it all gets thrown together with a slice of lemon. The higher pitches and tones in the entire composition allow the speed to feel natural in comparison to the previous expanse of sound that had a more relaxed tempo.


That jazz sound is given new wings as the keys produce fascinating renditions of familiar but Picassoesque depictions of something from that genre. Pushed out waveforms and echoing percussive samples give energy that sounds new for this album and passing the half way mark with fresh sounds means we can be assured the artist is not going to rely on the same formula that has driven the lengthy pieces from before.


By the time we get to Wave of Probability, the older era of this group revives itself for the sound and some relaxing but functional music takes hold with a much more interesting and digestible section. Violin and drum with sweeping pulses of keyboard create a feather mattress for some spoken word lyrical poetry that appeals to that treacle like quality from before. Far from full circle, this evolution of appeal can be traced to the roots but remains a good distance from there they were planted. The over an hour production holds us in place for its duration and formulates an interest that keeps us pinned to the melody, while giving enough distance from the norm to aptly sit in a cosmic portion of the galaxy all on its own.