Asia - Classic Prog Supergroup
 

ASIA

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0...9xuto1_500.jpg

I've been listening to this band ever since I bought Astra on vinyl a few weeks ago. It was at that point that when I saw that Steve Howe and Geoffrey Downes were involved that this band would quickly make it to my favorite artists, and they have. They've released albums from the 80's to more recently 2010 with their Omega album. If you're looking for that classic prog sound, you should have no problem liking these guys.

Their discography stretches from 1982 with the release of Asia and as mentioned before, goes to their 2010 release of Omega.

I'm a closet Asia fan, intepret that how you want:finger:

Their debut is an AOR classic, Asia went for the grandiose arena rock style from the word go and in Mike Stone they had the producer that knew exactly what the band wanted, he'd worked as engineer with Queen in the 70s but it was on Journey's Escape that he emerged as one of the biggest AOR producers around. It also helped that all of Asia's members had impeccable credential as musicians as well. The follow-up albums Alpha and Astra were nowhere as good as the debut and despite having their moments were basically just copies of the debut and sounded rather souless. The group kind of broke up around then, due to their fading popularity and reformed with John Payne as frontman, but they were a much lower key band by then, I know John Wetton has returned to the band but haven't heard any of the recent stuff.

The 2010 release in my opinion is pretty incredible, obviously the vocals aren't the same, but it's still an album that is worth a few listens if nothing but to give respect to the band.

Asia is a tight band.

Asia is merely just an AOR band, calling them "classic prog" is just a misnomer

i do enjoy them in small doses

however, i'd like to say i listen to them based on the same enjoyment as i do to Boston, REO Speedwagon and Perry-era Journey

and not compared to Yes, King Crimson, Gabriel-era Genesis

so i don't really consider them "classic prog"

Asia in their classic era are not remotely prog so I agree with you there, in fact that was the plan of the band anyway. I remember John Wetton being interviewed way back in the 1980s and he stated that the bands aim was to completely break ties with any long meandering proggy songs and go for a slick AOR sound. The only reason prog comes up when talking about the band, is that all the members were from prog backgrounds.

well, yeah, milano by referring to them as having a "classic prog sound" is misleading people

So Milano me old china:) Asia are AOR and if you want I'll more than happy to recommend you a whole load of classic AOR albums.

as will I - mostly the obvious stuff

Boston's debut is legendary

Third Stage is almost equally as good.

How is it misleading when there are prog elements throughout a lot of their albums, and not just including the fact that the members have prog backgrounds? Surely they could be considered a prog band. And I added in classic because they were creating music that some could consider classic rock.

Just because the members have prog backgrounds doesn't make the band prog, the whole idea of Asia was for the band to try something much simpler than what the band members were used to playing. Even famous prog bands such as Yes, Rush, Camel and Jethro Tull made albums in the 1980s that weren't prog at all.

The albums themselves have prog elements. Though I agree that the band as a whole doesn't sound like prog to the extent that a prog band would. But i'm only making a note of that because it can be confusing (to people like me) that the band is or isn't prog based on what they're listening to. I'm not saying I disagree with you at all. I just recently got into this band anyway, but I grew to love them a lot.

The only prog element of those early Asia albums were the album covers and the personnel in the band. If you're referring to clever instrumental sections on the albums that give the general feel to most of the songs, Toto, Styx and Boston had been doing the same thing several years before Asia jumped on the idea.

That's just what I noticed anyway. And yes, that was what I was referring to. Again, just keep in mind that this band is still fairly new to me, so your information is actually a lot more help than you would think. In all honesty, the main reason I stuck to listening to this band was because of Steve Howe. That may have brought upon a lot of bias to think this band was prog. But I can definitely understand why they aren't.

uh, no

cheesy keyboards, simple chords, emptiness of any classical structure, no song cycles, no overall concept, no lengthy passages

Asia is closer to a band like Europe than Yes

as US has pointed out, prog bands have done AOR (it was a pretty popular thing for old prog bands to put out AOR albums in the early 90s), these include:-

Yes - Talk
Procol Harum - The Prodigal Stranger
Jethro Tull - Crest of a Knave
Genesis - Invisible Touch

Yes, yes. I've got that now. If you've read the rest of the comments in the thread you'd realize that i've been informed of this already. But thanks.

I would like to chip in my penny worth and say Asia are a 'stadium band' not AOR or Prog.

Most AOR acts in the 1980s were stadium rock anyway.

Still Stadium Rocking after all these years, here's something from the Omega album. You either like it or don't, but I have to admit that at least calling it Asia is still more marketable (at least in Italy) than Wetton, Howe, Downes, and Palmer. At least it's not as bad as Side One of ELPs Love Beach (The album that sold it's own Jogging Shorts!) - Not great, mind, but just saying...

ELP's Love Beach must rank as one of the worst albums ever recorded, I shuddder just thinking about it.

I bought Love Beach for 50 Cents recently, with the plastic and 99 cent price tag still on. I have to admit that it was worth it for the T-Shirt, Jacket, and Jogging Shorts flyer. I actually like a lot of ELP's albums, but that one was branded Cut Out before the mark down. The Officer and an Gentleman suite on Side Two was barely passable, but not much.

I have Love Beach on vinyl as well. easily one of the worst records i've ever heard. I listened to it once.

Listen to it again and you'll realize its even worse than you thought. The only other album by a critically acclaimed major player that was as bad as Love Beach was Clash's Cut the Crap.

I just listened to Side Two of Love Beach again. The first two parts are OK, but I must have been that forgiving when I first heard parts three and four. Actually, the Piano solos made me go back to something far more better...The Nice's Five Bridges Suite.

Cut the Crap at least had "This Is England." I'm still trying to find something good about the rest except for that it did dabble with some electronic sounds, but not too successfully.

Love Beach, however, had nothing as great as that in my opinion.

Both were bad, but they were at least making the best of a bad situation.

This went from discussing about Asia to throwing in something about The Clash. It's going all over the place! (Laughs!)

I feel like the whole album is just about "the one he loved" and it's ok if one song is like that, but every damn song? Really?

I would have to take a listen to Side One again, but I think there was an instrumental at the end of that.

From what I understand, Love Beach was both a contract filler and an attempt to go Stadium Rock. It was seriously getting to the point when bands like Genesis were crossing over to the Mainstream, and that Rock in general (especially in the US) was already moving there due to business decisions. so it was possibly made with that kind of goal in mind. Hence all of those songs about "the one he loved," meaning "ELP have been neutered for your programming pleasure." A financially disastrous tour with an orchestra that had to be just ELP for a number of dates (Reading the Mojo Prog issue) in my opinion was also a possible extra incentive to go the safe route. After some time away from the music world, two Works collections that saw diminishing returns which saw #2 go Cut-Out in the US with ease, and the 1977 (?) tour were possibly some major signs to change, but it was like a Late 20-something trying to fit into the Jeans of their Teen years.

The song that cracks me up is "Taste of My Love" where almost every Non-PC Rock and Roll Backstage Fantasy Cliche was thrown in, as if that was going to get the FM Radio programmers in the US playing the album. I don't mind those songs, but coming from the usually literate ELP with Pete Sinfield writing the words, that screamed of Last Ditch Attempt.

It had to take a break to get them all to cross over in one way or another. Fans knew that Love Beach was half-hearted, even the suite on Side Two.

On the original pressings, it also should be noted that there was no Producer listed. If that was not a major hint, nothing was.

Kind of makes you wonder if there were already Cut Out pressings made during the second week of its release. Certainly not, but that album gave that kind of feeling. From my experience, it's rare to see a US pressing that does not have that "cut" on the cover.

Most disappoinitng abl
 

The album that disappointed me most

would this make a new message chain?

Genesis' Calling All Stations

gawd!

I have not suffered through that one...yet.

The thing about Calling All Stations was that everyone knew right from the start that it was not going to match up to anything, even From Genesis to Revelation. Without Phil, the instant radio airplay stuff that could have it's moments was gone, and any attempt to return to the old style was not going to cut it without someone like Peter to really have some tale to tell. From what I heard, it was a very pale imitation of modern AOR that was marked Cut Out right from the start, forgotten by about the next month. I did hear that it was a hit in some parts of Europe, though.

In comparison to the two other albums in discussion here...

ELP's tanker was their first real studio effort in years, not counting the Works collections, and until we saw the cover, there was a lot of expectation to see if they could pull it off one more time. Still, considering that Works 2 was also a Dollar Bin wonder, many were possibly not that surprised. Love Beach Jogging Shorts must have filled some Goodwills soon after.

With The Clash, they still had Joe Strummer, but with a lot of "Crap" that could not be cut from the recording sessions, a lot of it Manager-related from what I remember, even his words and passionate singing could not cover up the fact that it was a half-baked affair. Some clips I heard on You Tube, however, showed that if Joe and Paul were to be left alone with the new crew, it may not have been as bad as it turned out. Still..."This Is England" remains the song we can still talk about without cringing.

I should try and set a Poll for Most Disappointing Album. Maybe start up a Bad Album Wars! :rofl:

Love Beach - It's the sound of a bunch of guys in the studio, contract filling, and not giving a crap. For every millisecond that Greg's not singing about his backstage conquest, Keith goes on some major whoop-fest in a Peter Pan style. Ice Skating gone mental!

Sounds about right!

No comment really, what can I add here.......Is it the worst album ever recorded?

I wouldn't necessarily say worst. But it's definitely a contender for one of the most disappointed albums released by a big name.

if you want a good Clash-related album from that era, check out Big Audio Dynamite's This is Big Audio Dynamite (Mick Jones) - the cut and paste technique was highly influential on people like Beck

Oh yeah, the first two B.A.D albums were, and actually still are, something for people to hear if they're interested in that technique.

To those just tuning in - Mick Jones was The Clash's big fan of the early Hip Hop scene and the "Radio Clash" EP (The full four parts/four remixes of it) was a major step in his progression towards B.A.D in my opinion.

Asia have a new album coming out in the next couple months. The original lineup as well:



Sounds really ****ing good.

Asia are one of my favourite bands in that spectrum, though I would have to disagree with whoever said (think it was US) that the debut was better than the first two. I listened to the two hits on that and after that thought it fell sharply in quality. As a matter of fact, the last few tracks are really filler material. "Alpha", on the other hand, showed a much better understanding of what was wanted: a few love songs, some lengthy keyboard passages (have you listened to Downes on "The heat goes on"?) and some hard(ish) rockers. "Astra" sort of followed the same lines ("Rock and roll dreams" is a great song) but again tailed off towards the end.

I personally feel their "comeback", from "Aqua" through to about "Silent nation" (not inclusive) is their best period. The albums during that time (for those who want/need to/don't know, that's Aqua, Aria, Arena, Aura, and of course the two Archiva sets) are some of their best, and it's perhaps telling that once they dropped the "begin-and-end-in-A" idea --- how they kept that going so long is a mystery to me --- the quality began to fall. I personally think that although SN is a decent album it's just that: decent, not great, and I could always rely on an Asia album just to find its way into my collection on release, as I was never disappointed with any of them. "Phoenix" went a huge way to redressing the balance, and though I've only really listened to "Omega" once, I like what I hear. Can't wait for the new one!

For those who have an insatiable need to know, I don't like ELP so won't be commenting on the "other" topic in this thread... :D

Strangely enough, I'm a bigger closet Asia fan haha

As far as Asia goes, I always felt that the self-titled and Alpha were the best from their initial 80's period, while Aqua and Arena proved to be their two best 90's records with Payne at the mic. :)