New Astral Magic video online etc.!

 Hi there!

Please check out the video for the title track of the next Astral Magic album Dance of Destiny! The album will be out 7.3.2025 and available on limited edition CD and digital download. Would also fit on LP, if some label is interested?!

Other news is that I just got frozen in Facebook again after a few group postings... Seems useless.

Oh, the Chakra Vimana album will be released on Tonzonen Records on 23.5.2025! 300 copies on coloured vinyl and also on digipack CD. I'm so excited!

 

Schizo Fun Addict - An Introduction to...

 Fruits de Mer Records (intro 7)

Schizo Fun Addict is one of the favourite children of Fruits de Mer. Well, actually they've been involved even since the  Bracken Records days releasing two singles on the FdM precussor label as well. On this double-CD-R we have most of the band's Fruits de Mer back catalogue along with some novelties for a good measure. I've always been a fan of the band's take on psychedelic rock that has elements and vibes from the 60s all the way to the 80s, 90s and beyond.

The first disc starts with the band's FdM debut single Volume One and I just love these cover tunes. Three cuts form the Suspiria EP are wonderful too, of course... Then we get the 7" postcard single track "Take a Heart" and several songs from their FdM album The Sun Yard. Then we have pieces from Sunny Spells EP and Head Music 3 3LP and even some rare promo etc. tracks that I have never even heard before! The disc one ends with three tracks from Love Your Enemies album. Wonderful psych pop tunes in there.

 The second disc starts off with even nine songs from the band's The Last Wave album released on Friends of the Fish together with the legendary Flicknife Records in 2020. I missed this one since there were sadly only 99 copies made on LP, so it's nice to have the tracks here, at least. One digital single and split cassette track later we get to the tracks from their El Shoegaze Bossa Nova LP that was actually released on Sugarbush Records, not on FdM. I'm not a big fan of bossanova, so I did not buy that one... But the real gold is saved until the end when we get to hear some alternative mixes and previously unreleased stuff! You'll definitely get your money's worth with this great compilation, warmly recommended. This will be available at the end of this month.

www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sfaintro.html 

schizofunaddict.bandcamp.com/ 

 

 

Astral Magic - Dance of Destiny CD review in Dutch (with English translation)

 A great 4.5/5 review by Carry Munter of the next Astral Magic album out on the 7th of March:

carrysnewundergroundmusic.blogspot.com/2025/02/review-astral-magic-dance-of-destiny.html 

 

 Here's translation for those who do not speak Dutch for some reason:

 

Astral Magic from Finland is the solo project of bassist Santtu Laakso, a member of the psychedelic space rock band Dark Sun, which was founded in 1991.

On September 30, 2020, he released his first solo album, Pathway To The Stars, followed by 65 more digital releases, some of which were also issued on LP and CD through Space Rock Productions, Sapphire Records, Clostridium, Tonzonen Records, and Aumega Project. On March 6, 2025, Dance Of Destiny will be released on his own label, Astral Magic Music, both as a CD and a digital download. The album features eight tracks, with Laakso playing all the instruments himself, except for track 2, where his son Anton contributes on Moog.

The album opens with Intro - Open The Portal, a fantastic up-tempo krautrock piece, followed by the title track Dance Of Destiny, a brilliant space rock song with a steady tempo and a catchy recurring rhythm influenced by the music of Hawkwind.
Next is Distortion In Space-Time, a fantastic up-tempo progressive rock track with an Eastern vibe, space rock influences, a swinging rhythm, and tempo changes, followed by We Plunge Into Chaos, an excellent melodic space rock song with light space rock elements and an infectious rhythm.

In Transmission Psi, Astral Magic delivers a delightful, Eastern-sounding track at a moderate tempo, reminiscent of In The Labyrinth, while Slumber Of The Ancient Ones offers an outstanding space rock song with a not-too-fast pace and a hypnotic rhythm that induces a light trance.

The album continues with Zep Tepi, a swinging, up-tempo space rock song with an infectious recurring rhythm that makes it impossible to sit still, and concludes with Last Days Of A Time Cycle, a delightful electronic track at a moderate tempo, which could easily have been performed by Kitaro.

Dance Of Destiny by Astral Magic contains eight outstanding tracks, primarily categorized under space rock. I thoroughly enjoyed this remarkable album and highly recommend it to every fan of the genre.

Strange Vibrations - a new Astral Magic related project!

Okay, so what is Strange Vibrations and how it came into existence? 

A couple of weeks ago, I received my first new synthesizer for a few years, Stylophone CPM DS-2 Analogue Drone Synthesizer, to be exact. Of course I had to try it out... In a couple of days I ended up with nine experimental tracks all started with the CPM DS-02. I added other synths and then decided to ask Shane to join in, since this kind of experimental stuff always is more interesting (to me, at least) with some spoken word. This time I gave him all the subject matter ideas beforehand with some links to get inspired. Shane did a great job very fast as usual, and really delivered the goods like I knew he would! Later I added more stuff like electric guitars and more synths, even some percussive things. Now this all started to sound like something that should get out there...

I had recently decided not to put out new Astral Magic releases as often as before, so an idea was received from my friend Jaire to release this under a different project name. That I way I could still keep my promise without cheating (much...)! I decided to call this new project Strange Vibrations according to one of the tracks, and Shane liked that too. To shake things even more I did remixes of two of the most "normal" tracks and put those out first as "Astral Magic Mix" single. I added bass guitar and my vocals to these single versions, two of the most recognizable elements from Astral Magic that I have decided never to use in Strange Vibrations to keep some distance.

Jonathan Segel helped us a lot by mastering all the stuff while I came up with all the dodgy artwork myself (Andy was too busy making three different designs for my other projects...). Getting confused? No wonder... Anyway, this is more or less how it all happened. I hope you like it! The album will be out on March the 7th only on Bandcamp (and maybe YouTube) as digital download and limited edition of 33 copies on home-made CD-R. There will also be a new Astral Magic CD Dance of Destiny available then. The Longing for the Stars / Solarwind single was released last Friday when Bandcamp donated all their share to victims of the Los Angeles fires, you can hear and buy it here:

 

New Astral Magic interview online!

 Nick Pipitone has published a cool Astral Magic interview on his magnificent The Third Eye music blog!

 

 To read the interview and know what's going on, please go to:

thirdeyepsychrock.blog/2025/02/07/a-conversation-with-finnish-psych-rock-traveler-astral-magic/ 

Fift Daughter - Stellar Season

 Fruits de Mer Records / Regal Crabomophone (winkle 57)

 Fift Season is the latest new addition to the fabulous Fruits de Mer/Regal Crabomophone rooster. Stellar Season is their debut album and includes an excellent set of songs in the early 70s UK progressive psych folk fashion. They are actually a duo formed by Nicholas Whittaker (you might know him from the excellent prog band Diagonal) and James Howard (ex-member of Running Dogs). The album also features other Diagonal members Luke Foster and Dave Wileman as well as guitarist Will Hoves as guests. 

Like many albums of the original era, Stellar Season is a loose consept album about a rural society far from Earth that was in love with the Sun, Day and Summer with not so good end results. We have seven songs in 43 minutes and they form a very interesting, beautiful, well balanced and rather peaceful arch. We get plenty of acoustic guitars, sitar, great bass patterns, nice harmony vocals, soft rhythms, heavenly keyboards, synthesizers, woodwind and almost everything you would except from an album like this. Well, no clear-voiced female singers or violins, though. All in all, a very enjoyable experience that will give lots of aural pleasure to fans of progressive folk music. There are two different vinyl variants to choose from and the black one is the more limited version. Recommended!

www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/stellar.html

 

Sidewalk Society - An Introduction to Sidewalk Society

 Fruits de Mer Records (intro 6)

This great power pop trio from California loved their 60s mod/freakbeat/garage/psych influences from the US and UK. They were frequently involved with Fruits de Mer since the 2010 compilation LP A Phase We're Going Through until they went on indefinitive hiatus some time ago. Well, until sort of now, of course, when this double CD-R compilation was released last month.

The first disc features all the band's individual tracks for Fruits de Mer (mostly covers, 11 in total) plus nine bonus tracks that are all their own compositions. They cover for example The Bee Gees, Bowie, The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Pretty Things etc. and do a wonderful job at it. Six of the bonus tracks are from their 2012 album Venus, Saturn and the Crecent Moon. Then we get two demos of tracks from the same album plus a short piece recorded for the Strange Brew broadcast. There's lots of stuff to love here! The second disc includes their complete remake of the Strange Roads album by The Action, first time on CD format! I have previously reviewed that album, so please read my thougts over here. 

www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sidewalkintro.html