ASTRA

FREEDOM'S CHILDREN were a six piece band out of South Africa releasing three albums between 1968 and 1971. "Astra" is the second release from 1970. We get a vocalist, bass, drums, guitar, organ and piano/harpsichord. This gets fairly adventerous at times including the singer and I would describe this as Psychedelic music with the fuzzed out guitars helping out with that. The sound quality on mine is not good later on, especially the last couple of tracks but even the rest while passable is muddy sounding. It's hard to hear certain instruments, you really have to strain to be honest.

The one song that stood out for me was "The Homecoming" the second tune and I like the repeated themes over the almost 6 1/2 minutes. Lots of organ and guitar on this one. This one stands out from the rest for me. "The Kid He Came From Hazareth" is about JESUS which is clear from the lyrics but why Hazareth? Another good one especially the guitar at 4 1/2 minutes.

We get some explosives to end the opener and to start "Medals Of Bravery" which has some good contrasts on it between the light and powerful. "Gentle Beasts Pt. 1 & 2" is experimental with strange vocal expressions and then intense later before 3 minutes with vocals. The sound quality is rough here.

And I've heard some of the re-issues have problems with the sound and mine certainly does which is too bad because they had that experimental spirit going on with "Astra".