Astral Projection Amen Nova Tekk / Phonokol (Israel) Transient (UK, Europe)

If you’ve never heard of Astral Projection, then you’re in need of a slap upside the face with a very large and very wet salmon. Which, ironically, is what Astral projection do. Amen is fat, bustling, uplifting and so unashamedly Goan it makes you think you’ve gone back in time and it’s 1996 again (in a good way, mind.) Title track Amen opens the album, and it’s straight in, with a kind of menacing, rising vibe. The trademark Astral full power backend is on display here like a drag queen on gay pride day – proud, happy, defiant – and you’re glad that Astral are back. Chaos is more in keeping with their sound over the last couple of albums - a kind of linear, clubby streak with melodies wibbling as the full-throttle downlayer drives it along. A nice breezy break later, and cascading melodies rise for the main section, with a filtered finale that’ll blow you away. Infinite Justice is swirly yet linear stuff, the melodies you’ll either love or hate, but this does have fantastic movement which even the slightly dodgy chord changes don’t spoil. The Nexus is what psychedelic historians will one day refer to as Astral Classique. Starts nowhere, and builds up swirls aplenty, melodies all over the place, and the definite presence of their edgey psychedelic energy that’s been absent from more recent material. Lovely. Techno Drom goes a little darker, and they manage to pull it off quite nicely – brooding chords, a huge rising vibe and peppered with a lovely 303 that gets the tears of nostalgia welling up nicely. 1,000,000 Years From Now is a frantically-bpm’d demo of what these guys can do best. It sounds very live, very spontaneous – it has that energy right from the start and you’ve got no choice, and this is before the soaring synths and addictive stomplines do their business. Anything Is Possible sounds incongruous to the rest of the album, it must be getting on a year older than the rest of it and while it’s fine, it’s fluffier production and the fact that it’s been caned to death since its release on Transient last year makes it stick out like a porn actress with natural breasts. Heaven’s Gate features some great melodic manipulation  that’ll have Yahel taking notes till Christmas. The defiant, triumphant feel might be a little too saccharine for some, but who’d begrudge Astral that. Electric Blue ends the album in an awesome style – again it’s Astral fresh from the peak time live performance slot, and full of night madness. Of the whole album, and out of anything they’ve laid down in the last couple of years, Electric Blue is one of their most classic, enjoyable, and genuinely transporting tunes in ages. All very well then, but is there anything new here? Well, yes. Most significantly they sound for the first time like a band – they’ve been out and toured the world and they brought this energy right to life on this album. Second up, there’s a more mature and progressive edge to the production that makes for an updated, confident sound. Add to this their wonderful energetic sound, done here in perhaps the most accomplished way yet, and you’re looking at one damn fine release.