ZON

If you're a fan of classic, late seventies Styx or early SAGA then this album should readily appeal to your aural taste buds.

Zon was a band formed in the mid-seventies. They were inspired by the likes of Peter Gabriel and The Tubes, and wanted to combine a theatrical stage show with music. Early on though, they were warned by Fee Waybill of The Tubes that maintaining a big production interfered with the music and that the band was best off not pushing the stage show too much. The band got signed to Epic which then set about dictating that the band should try to be more commercial and cut back on the longer songs. The producer hired by the label also had some restrictive views on how the band should sound. One night, when the producer had left in haste for an emergency at home, the band experimented in the studio with the assistant engineer. The next day when the producer heard what happened and heard some of the recordings, he lost it and warned the band that if they ever tried too record an organ like that again, they would be fired! Sheesh!

So, Zon's debut album, "Astral Projector" was finally released in 1978 and landed solidly in with the pomp rock sound of the day - hard rock / arena rock with progressive rock approaches to some of the songs. The album's music is strongly based on rocking electric guitar a organ or synthesizers which are backed by a pretty strong bass and drum duo. Denton Young's vocals sound somewhere between Michael Sadler and Denis DeYoung with an occasional hint of Peter Gabriel. The songs generally cover arena rock offerings about life in rock and roll such as "Put On the Show" and "On the Road", and pop rock melody maker with "Melody", and some longer tracks with a little more musical workout like "Hollywood" and "Astral Projector". The bands theatrical side shows up in "Man in the Mirror" and "Point of View / Where to Spend My Dollars", the latter having few lines sung as a light-hearted and presumably tongue-in-cheek impression of a young woman complaining about the prices of things these days.

Special mention should go to the track, "Hollywood" which on the original album release is a heavily edited version of what was intended. The album version begins with the piano-led slower part and changed abruptly into the fast- paced instrumental with the keyboard and guitar solos before ending with great pomp and circumstance. The reissue of this album on the Rock Candy label includes the full version of the song which has a lengthy, building instrumental intro, and more of a developed transition to the faster part. The dramatic climax makes more sense in this version. Sadly, the master tape seems to have suffered some damaged over time and the sound quality is not perfect, the piano even sounding a little warped.

One other bonus here among the bonus tracks is the song, "The Battle" which shows the band's Genesis inspirations very strongly. It's easy to understand why it was left off the album as the style is really quite different. But I think it's rather cool to hear such a strong Genesis influence. It makes me feel like listening to those three Genesis albums of the early seventies.

It seems Zon's "Astral Projector" gets a some pretty low ratings as well as a few pretty good ones. After listening to it, I feel like I want to hear, "Pieces of Eight" by Styx or "Images at Twilight" by SAGA next. No, it's not a prog masterpiece by any means, but it is new in my collection, and I find it to be an enjoyable album that I keep spinning again and again as I sink into the music. Not essential but very good, I think.

3,5 stars !!! In this first work from the Canadian Band ZON "Astral Projector", as soon the track 1 "Put on the Show" starts is practically impossible not make some type of comparison with bands like Styx, The Sweet and Reo Speedwagon and others from prog/art rock molvement from the 70's. Is enough for this inevitable comparison to listen the overture from this first track ( which reminds the track 1 from STYX's -Equinox- "Lights Up"and the track 2 is comparable with lots of THE SWEET songs. In a general way the album is very agreeable and contains excellent vocals and instrumental arrangements. (in spite of some very simple beats and musical themes). My favorite tracks as; Track 1 "Put on the show", Track 4 "Man in the Mirror" with the tubular bells intermission, starting 3 min 20 sec and the subsequent vocals parts, Track 8 "Astral Projector" for the energy of whole music and the last Track "Hollywood" and their Manfred Mann' closing section! My rate is 3 stars, and the detach which the album deserves a place in my collection !

im sittin here crankin MAN IN THE MIRROR brings back memories, this came out in the days of early MAX WEBSTER, GODDO, TRIUMPH etc, this album rocks, if your born post 1970, stop reading now!! i first saw this band at my high school THE WOODLANDS knew every word and rocked with denton young.... I was 13 years old, im 43 now and still get chills listening to this album... if your a kid try it! if your old youll love it

scott

This is a Canadian band I think from Toronto and if you want to try them I recommand ASTRAL PROJECTOR dont even try (BACK DOWN TO EARTH and I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE BOYS) because they are «TRASH«. You could say they are a mix between Styx, Saga and Deep Purple. Hard rock with a touch of prog or commercial prog and don't forget this album was made in 1978 and they even had a commercial success with one or two songs on this album (the song Astral Projector was playing a lot) you could compare that to (Spaceship Superstar from Prism) It's not complicated and it's well done for the time and in those days it was a trend those hotel bands. So I will give 3 stars for the memories of my teens .It's not essential but it is a nice piece for your collection if you are curious. POTS

Imagine,if you will,turning up to an open-air concert on spec and the headliners turn out to be a strange pastiche of Styx and Starcastle at their very worst,it's pouring with rain,your girlfriend has dumped you and your faithful pet dog Rover has been run over by a combine-harvester.Pretty bad huh?

Nowhere near as bad as this album by Zon,I promise you!

Zon are here as Prog-Related-they are related to Prog Rock in much the same way that I'm related to my mother-in-law's step-cousin. Actually they do play instruments,you know,the usuals: lead guitar,bass,keyboards and drums and a few of the guys sing. "Circus","As Seasons Change "and "Gods And Kings" are bearable,just, and are easily the best tracks on the album. Lead vocalist Denton Young makes Styx's Dennis De Young sound like Lemmy in comparison,he's so treacly in his delivery.The attempts at vocal harmonies are risible and the music,if you can call it that,is hackneyed and under-developed.It's not even "Pomp Rock" as it steadfastly refuses to rock-Wimp Pomp anybody?

I'm sorry,but this album is just atrocious AOR and has nothing to offer even the most dainty Prog Rock fan.If you still buy this remember one thing: "don't say you weren't warned!" I own the LP version of this and even the cover is awful. 1 star and I'm, being overly generous.

A friend of mine taped me a copy of this album on a blank cassette and the quality was preety hissy and poor, he taped me a copy saying if you like "PROG" you will like this, so I said "OK I will give a listen"

I played the whole album and was very dissapointed not just of the tape copy I had received but the main album itself was just appauling!!

He told me that they were a 1970's Canadian prog rock band and I felt they were to commercial to be a true Prog group.

Nice little tunes at times but the album is bad, not just because it isn't my type of music but has a blend of naff American AOR and basically that is just what you get, OK maybe it is a little Proggy here and there but this isn't a good Prog album, neither a good Rock album either!!

AVOID this awful Album, and for me to rub salt in a wound I had to listen to it on a blank cassette, that was poory taped from a crackly LP, 5% / 1/5!!!

I recently rescued this album from the attic and gave it a spin on my turntable for probably the first time in 25 years or so.I first became aware of Zon through Sounds a then prominent Uk Music Paper,who were fortunate to have among their editorial team a certain Geoff Barton.Geoff really helped to break the likes of Rush and to a lesser extent Max Webster in the UK and I remember him doing a feature on Canadian bands in the late 70's.Rush,Max Webster,April Wine who I was already familiar with were mentioned but I got drawn towards Zon because of the image of their striking album cover for Astral Projector.I managed to acquire it on import in an electric blue vinyl which made it difficult to select individual tracks,which turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

So my feelings now are much as they were then-there is a whole load of nothing going on here! "Hollywood" is the only track here that can hold my attention for longer than a couple of minutes.It has an interesting synth and guitar break as its set-piece and a theatrical vocal and that's it for the best track.

Trust me when I say that this album and indeed its dreadful follow up "Back Down To Earth" should never be allowed to trouble your ears.Take the worst of Styx and mix it with the worst of,well any late 70's AOR band and you get the picture.This may be Prog-Related but it is neither progressive nor rocky! They may need to be here for the purposes of the completionists but they really neednt be heard by Prog fans....

A massive thumbs down from me.

ZON were a 70's Canadian band who started out life with strong progressive rock leanings. "Astral Projector" is a wonderful album somewhere in the SAGA / STYX vein with powerful instrumentation and highly listenable song writing. ZON were a 5 piece band with the centre piece of the band lying in the theatrical vocals of lead singer (Denton Young) and the winding keyboard runs of Howard Helm. One of the trademarks of ZON were the vocal harmonies of Young, Helm and Brian Miller (guitars) who manage to cover the entire album with great energy.