FIRE IN THE SKY

Quasar's Fire In the Sky presents a set of songs which together form a concept album based around spacey UFO themes. For a long time I'd had a decidedly mixed opinion of it - on an objective level, the production quality isn't that great and the compositions are rather cheesy, but on the other hand there's an undeniably haunting quality to the material here which keeps me coming back even when I've thought I'd put the album behind me, and over the years it's ended up growing on me as a result.

The production quality issues are at least excusable. Before Pendragon established Toff Records, before IQ formed Giant Electric Pea, at a time when arguably only Twelfth Night and Pallas out of the neo-prog crowd were showing a similar level of initiative in terms of going a bit further than just circulating demo tapes, Quasar established their own label - Q Records - to put out their own album. It's understandable, under such circumstances, without even an established indie label behind them that the production quality isn't pristine.

I'd previously been under the impression, as many seem to have been, that the album was recorded and came out in 1984; but whilst Quasar did (briefly) have the backing of Elusive Records, a sub-label of EMI set up by Marillion and Pendragon's manager, they didn't actually record the album under those auspices, instead cutting a new version of the song Fire In the Sky for the Fire In Harmony sampler album which, alongside Pendragon's Fly High Fall Far EP and The Jewel album, would prove to be Elusive's only release as EMI and other major labels began to lose interest in neo-prog. (If you need proof that Fire In the Sky hailed from 1982, look up the album's entry on Discogs.com, where you can see for yourself images from a 1982 copy clearly showing the date and the Q Records branding.)

Although knowing that doesn't change the objective quality of the production, it has inspired me to listen with a somewhat more generous ear, and on doing so I have detected subtleties to the music which I hadn't previously given Quasar credit for. As such, I think it's an album well worth taking in for anyone who is interested in the roots of the neo-prog movement.