Limelight
BIRTH
Astra’s leader dips his toes into Italian and Swedish prog with his latest project.
Looking back: Birth are heavily influenced by the prog of yore.
PRESS/CORY MARTINEZ AND ZACK OAKLEY
FOR DEDICATED SURFERS of the cosmic highway, few bands in recent memory struck a chord like Astra. Led by vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Conor Riley, the San Diego quintet released two extraordinary albums – 2009’s The Weirding and 2012’s The Black Chord – before vanishing mysteriously into the ether, seemingly forever. But Riley’s urge to create magical progressive rock records persists, and now he’s back with Birth. Another spellbinding exploration of prog’s haziest outer limits, the band have recently unveiled their first demo, which is rather generously available for free download from their Bandcamp page.