From: reaume@bmerh962.bnr.ca (Andy Reaume)
Subject: Re: Asia --> Pop-rock not progressive
Summary: Asia Live in Moscow
Organization: Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 92 23:33:09 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.121845.20677@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>, marwood@csri.toronto.edu (Simon J. Marwood) writes:
> You should actually be able to get a UK version of the Moscow disc by now. I
> would not recommend paying import prices for it, although I did, being a
> diehard fan...
> 
	
	You're not the only diehard Asia fan, so am I.

> Yes, Wetton does a couple of old King Crimson tracks on this, one of which
> was Starless. Also, on the video he and Downes do a version of "Rendezvous
> 6.02" which is also from Wetton's pre-Asia days.
> 
	For those of you not familiar with every band Wetton played in, 
``Rendez-vous 6:02'' is from his days when he was a member of
a group called U.K. A *very* progressive band, jazz and rock (it's not
jazz fusion, no hip and bop rythm, just rock with jazz overtones). 
Bill Bruford was in the lineup for the first album, as was Eddie Jobson
ex of Roxy Music and Allan Holdsworth. All three albums U.K. produced 
are available on CD now. The live one was recorded at the Budakon 
theatre in Tokyo.
	Where can I get the video of the Asia tour?

> Having bought the video of this tour, I think I can evaluate the disc a bit
> better than before. It is *not* a great disc, certainly, but isn't too bad
> either. 
> 
> The main problem seems to be that Wetton is very uninspired. In the video, he
> just seems to look around a lot and sing the songs, rather than get into the
> music in the slightest. If anyone has seen the video for "Prayin' for a
> miracle", you would get my point. Downes, Thrall and Palmer get right into it,
> but Wetton is obviously already thinking "gee, what could I be doing instead
> of this??"

	That's funny, because if you ever look at photos Wetton with
any of the numerous bands and projects he's played with and for, in   
almost all of them he's smiling. Most artists give the serious look 
when posing for photos.
> 
> Some songs come across quite well. Others like "Open your Eyes" need the
> overlayed vocals and computerized voice additions in order to sound their
> best, as noted earlier. The hits are done up to par, although I wasn't too
> happy with "Only Time Will Tell".

	I found the sound quality made it difficult to really get into
the songs. You sort of had to know the song beforehand. Downes' 
keyboards were very poorly recorded.

> In order to really enjoy the disc though, you should be at least a semi-Asia
> fan. There are a large # of people around who seem to enjoy buying Asia stuff
> and then saying how dreadful the band has always been. ?
> 
> Simon
>  
	#1) Yes, you must be a diehard Asia fan to like this CD. That's
why I ran out the day it was released in Canada and bought it, not 
caring to shop from store to store for the best price.
	#2) Although Asia is one of my favourite bands, I admit that 
they are not really progressive rock. The first album is a music    
industry classic, that's why it sold 10 million copies and it's one of
my all time favourites and I still listen to it today and it sounds
just great. But it's not very progressive. Only 4 tracks can be 
considered semi-progressive - ``Sole Survivor'', ``Time Again'', 
``Wildest Dreams'' and ``Without You''. Songs like ``Heat of the 
Moment'' and ``Only Time Will Tell'' are pop-rock. Most everything they
put out since then has been pop-rock. That's why I don't consider them
a progressive rock band, I called them the ``Supergroup'' because of
the talent pool of the original lineup. I'm a bit surprised that Asia
is discussed here. I thought that band would just be ignored. The pot
shots at them are a bit justified here because, basically, these guys
disappointed their own fans, those of us who write on this newsgroup,
when they formed Asia. We thought it was going to be the ultimate 
progressive rock band ever and instead were hit with pop-rock that gets 
more ``pop-py'' with each release. They let us down.
	Hey, I love that debut album by Asia, _Alpha_ is pretty good. 
_Astra_, at least most of it, makes me want to vomit (only 3 moderately
good tracks, the rest is garbage). I try to follow these guys whenever
I can but I admit that when I listen to Asia, I'm listening to pop rock 
and not progressive rock.

Andy 
Newsgroups: alt.music.progressive