It would be the best, too , if I had their hard-to-locate debut, "Son of A.p. Lady" (love to get a share of it, friends? Mark E.?) I think I'd have the whole body of work, no boots or demos or anything, but I think these guys are unknown outside of "normal" (correct term?) stoner rock circles.....fans of the genre in general likely will know them well, they are a GREAT loud/heavy-psych band with some serious drugged-out sounding spacey stuff.....four damn good LP's here.Astrosoniq are singer Fred van Bergen, guitarist Ron van Herpen, guitarist/keyboardist Tuen van der Velden, bassist Robert-Jan Gruijthuijzen, and drummer Marcel van de Vondervoort .....they hail from Oss, Netherlands, thus earning the wacky nickname "Wizards of Oss"....Oh, stop.
Anyway the previously mentioned "Son of A.p.lady" is a tricky one to locate, at least I've never located one on the net or anywhere.....it was their debut, popping up in 2000. I hope it is close to as good as the rest of their work, because this is some damn fine stoner-space-psych, combining the tripping heavy sounds of recent bands such as Wo Fat and Datura (and you KNOW I like both of those bands' work) with roots deep in the usual suspects, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Hawkwind......I'll bet I'e used similar descriptions for 100 different stoner bands, and some might think "they all sound alike"....well, to a degree they do, as do all country acts, or punk acts, or zydeco acts.....often you need to be enamoured of a "sound", then the rest falls into place. I've loved this heavy psychedelic rock since the early 1970's, nothing has changed for me on that front.
Album #2 is a bit more acessible, 2002's "Sound Grenade"....not quite fully developed yet, but the seeds of what they were to become were there. Loud, hard tunes such as "Astronomicon" and "Daemonology" are cool but they could be better.....and by next album, 2004's "Made In Oss", they stretched out with some long, spacy burners such as "The Magic of the Secret Tiera", or "Soul Searcher" or in particular "Black Chasm", you can hear and feel them finding thier groove.....and they have maintained it since. 2006 saw the release of "Speeder People", they shorten the tracks back up (there are but five on "made In Oss"), but it's between this and "Quadrant", in my opinion, when picking their top work......"Speeder People has some blazing spacy tracks such as "Godeater!" and the freakish, long "Quadrnt El 6500/It's Monster Surfin' Time", as well as the speedy "Red Uns Go Fasta!"......excellent album!
They were not done quite yet though, as in 2009 the released "Quadrant", arguably their best album....it incorporates all of their best traits....the long, instrumental jamming, the heavy guita riffing, the bizarre lyrics, and meld it into a coherent album that ranks, oh, at least ****......pretty damn good run, guys! Don't know if they still be kickin it or not, if so, I'll be on the lookout for future releases.....for now, though, I am quite satisfied with "Quadrant", if it DOES wind up being the final statement for the band's career.....KILLER stoner tracks such as "Faustian bargain" and (maybe their best piece) "As Soon as They Got Airborne", this is a killer album all the way through, with swiriling Hawkwind-like keyboards screaming out as if in competition with guitars that could be from 7Zuma7 or Datura. It's a damn good album, highly recommended (by me, if that means anything), and or stoner rock fans, please check all four, you won't be let down. And, remember"blog friends", we're still looking for "Son of A.p. Lady" if anyone of ya has a copy and the time to share, LOVE to hear it!MADE IN OSS-01 Black Chasm/02 Soul Searcher/03 Space Amazons/04 Solar Machine/05 The Magic of the Secret Tiera
QUADRANT-01 Faustian Bargain/02 Cloud of Decay/03 As Soon As They Got Airborne/04 Play It Straight/05 Lured/06 Bloom/07 Zero/08 Downfall Lover/09 Bored/10 Sin
Links in a little while......these ones rock the hell out.....leave a note if ya like em! Or, hate em!
