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Astrakan - Astrakan

SKU ASTRAKAN01
Back in stock and if you don't know this, you should definitely check it out! Highly recommended! The little record that no one here knows about that many folks reading this will probably love. This is totally great in a avant progressive/jazz rock kinda way. A quintet of Michael Garcia: accordion/vibraphone/keyboards, Dave Fowler: drums, Ray Hardy: tenor and soprano Saxophone, Oli Mayne: bass/synth, Jerry Wigens: guitar.
Chris Cutler really liked it and had this to say, "If you gravitate, musically, to the more interesting end of the '60s and '70s, here is a five-piece group that might have been doing just what they are doing now then. As far from revivals, copies and prog horrors as you can imagine, Astrakan conjures the experimental end of Miller, Coxhill, Henry Cow, Hatfield et al, without pressure or imitation (they just think in a similar way) lightly drifting between careful close composition and loose extrapolation with rhythmic, harmonic and melodic ideas always to the fore. This is for the most part thoughtful music, not short on ideas, that nudges at the jazz end of the spectrum. Plenty of dynamics and a programme of honest pleasure without pretension."

They list their influences on their mypace page as: Influences from punk to free jazz to avant-garde classical music, ambient electronica, group improvisation, tango, psychedelia, prog rock etc etc etc. Sounds Like Gong, Soft Machine, Acoustic Ladyland/Polar Bear, Miles, Jaga Jazzist, Peter Thomas Orchestra, Cinematic Orchestra, Mwandishi (Herbie Hancock early 70s band), Frank Zappa, Ozric Tentacles, Return to Forever, Joe Henderson, Girls Aloud.

You can hear their music here

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I don't give out 5 stars lightly, but this little behemoth deserves them. It is absolute ecstasy, beautifully sparkling melodic magic wth surprises around every corner,glittering like the jeweled celestial city of the book of Revelation. Not unlike Tucson's wondrous band Calle Debauche, the long-lived and always evolving Miriodor, with even a little of Carla Bley's delicious sound circa "Social Studies," but nevertheless completely their own. Best disc I've heard this year (2009), and this has been a strong year.
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