ASTRALASIA – Glastonbury Psychfest 2022 – review

ASTRALASIA – Glastonbury Psychfest 2022 – review
Talking Elephant

Blimey! Astralasia, eh? Fair takes me back. As a chap who attended many festivals in the eighties, I was very much a fan of the Magic Mushroom Band (koff). So when they set up their ambient dub side project, I nipped into a tent to find out what was what. And, lo, it was good.

Fast forward through the decades and Sworsfish aka Marc is still doing his thang. Lord knows how many members they’ve been through. Probably as many as there’ve been albums. But here’s a six piece version (plus guest blues harp player – yes, you read that right) blasting through an excellent set at the Glastonbury Psychfest in 2022.

There’s about 70 minutes of music here and if you know anything about Astralasia, that means there aren’t many tracks. Exclude the intro and there’s five. The shortest of which is eleven minutes long. Normally, I disapprove of that sort of thing but when you’re embarking on an ambient dub psychedelic exploration, that barely scratches the surface.

It’s tribal house, it’s actual acid jazz, it’s all points inbetween. And it’s jolly good with ‘Seven Pointed Star’, the highlight. As always trying to work out how to buy the fucking stuff is a nightmare. But for once, it’s on a proper label with an improper website. So, if you like your whooshes and your klangs and your stomach churning with bass, get yourself sorted.

The CD is here – https://www.talkingelephant.co.uk/product/glastonbury-psychfest-2022/
The HTML 3 (Hi, Wilbur!) style, Astralasia website is here – http://www.astralasia.co.uk/