When I appraised Astralasia's 'Pitched up at the edge of reality' album in Ork Alarm! #17 I was probably too gentle in my criticism of the affrontery of this group in plagiarizing 'Soleil d'Ork' so blatantly. Now I sat down today ready to vent my spleen on their latest creation, only to be astounded by the care Astralasia have taken over what would surely be an almost unimaginable travesty of Vander's music. The strangest thing is that they have converted samples of Stella Vander's voice into an exceedingly enjoyable CD of dance music! Whether or not you like this mini-album will depend to a large extent on how you view the morals of sampling, and what you perceive to be the reasons behind this "tribute" to the people of Kobaïa. The first track 'Univerïa Zekt (Kobaïan love chant)' is the pathetically simple repetition of the introductory theme lifted direct from Magma's 1976 'Üdü Wüdü', as presented on Astralasia's previous disc. At this very moment, I expect Jannick is chalking up a big pentagram and searching for his trident... The next cut is 'Unverïa Zekt (fur dihhël)' and for the first two minutes it is a trance-like cyclical theme composed almost entirely of Stella's voice taken from one bar of... I'm not sure; it's either 'Les Voix' or perhaps 'A Fiïèh'. The backing for these few minutes of surreal vocals is a throbbing ORS synth drone, possibly extracted from 'Üdü Wüdü'. Unless you have a taste for 1990's pop, you may be horrified by the techno-treatment that engulfs the remainder of 'Fur Dihhël', yet much as I dislike this style of music it is certainly interesting to hear what a 1990's Magma pop single might sound like. The timbre of the sample of Stella's voice is breathtaking: it makes me wonder if Stella collaborated in the production of this album?
The last three tracks are wonderful escapist music to get stoned to. The third theme, entitled 'Univerïa Zekt ('Wlasïk steuhn abcension mïx)' allows messrs Swordfish and Haynes to deliver a fine piece of spatial ambient music with an underlying hint of homage to Magma. 'Univerïa Zekt (Mekanïk mïx)' follows, with what sounds slightly like Stella's vocal chords but the tune reminds me more of Tangerine Dream. '1001 mïx' concludes the album with an alternative mix of the previous track. In summation therefore; you should either avoid this album like the plague or buy it immediately - just be prepared to be either astonished.... or violently ill.