ASIA LIVE: 09-XI-90 MOCквA

I remember reading somewhere when this album was released that this was an 'Official Bootleg', as if in some way the word bootleg excused the appalling sonic quality of this release. It doesn't. Like much of Asia's output in the nineties, either with John Wetton or his watered down mini me, John Paine, this is, for the most part, tosh. The mix is appalling, rendering in particular Pat Thrall as potent and relevant as a eunuch in a sperm bank. It's instructiive, I think, that on my version at least (put out by Eagle Records), no-one is credited with producing this mess. Wetton, usually such a competent and rewarding vocalist sounds strained and off key through much of this ordeal, with keyboardist extraordinaire Geoff Downes the only man to escape with any credit. Recorded in 1990, the ecstatic response of the Russian crowd throughout serves only to show how starved of 'first division' western talent they must have been at the time. A shame.