San Diego progressive / psych outfit, Birth announce debut album & stream brand new track "For Yesterday"

Comprising members of San Diego's revered retro rockers Astra, along with current or former members of Joy, Radio Moscow, and Sacri Monti, Birth own a cavernous cache of credibility rarely found in developing musical groups. Described as "a magic-eye journey into kaleidoscopic sound", and "a dystopian take on the here and now" the group deliver a blast of vibrant progressive rock rich in cinematic scope and psychedelic intensity.

Featuring guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Conor Riley and lead guitarist Brian Ellis, musicians who burst onto the prog-psych scene in the late aughts with Astra, a formidable, foundational group hailed as "prog goliaths" (AllMusic), who would shape the sound of things to come alongside co-conspirators such as Earthless, Diagonal and Dungen, and whose albums ‘The Weirding’ ("a sublime debut that evokes various '70s colossi - panoramic Pink Floyd, mellotron-era King Crimson, Black Sabbath in philosophical mode - without ever stooping to pastiche...." - Mojo) and ‘The Black Chord’ ("at a time when there's so much creativity within the prog community, Astra have taken a giant leap forward...The Black Chord is dauntingly brilliant." - PROG) stand proud as two of the greatest progressive achievements of this century thus far, there is a palatable excitement surrounding Birth and the group has been pegged as one to watch in underground circles.

So wrote Mary Shelley in Frankenstein, arguably the first science fiction tale. A full 204 years later, the quest remains - how best to elucidate our daily lives with some form of inspiration that moves the spirit beyond its earthly shackles?

On 'Born', Birth musically and creatively constructs a science-fiction-inspired sound-world in which bleak tumult and skybound rapture co-exist. The result is an intoxicating album haunted by earthly concerns while its sonics aim simultaneously for the stars. "I’m a scientist by trade and I read a lot of dystopian sci-fi, which I believe is relevant to many of the events that have been occurring lately," notes Riley. "These views feed a dark, spiritual and mystical relationship that I have with scientific thought”.

Far from the trappings of retro chic and fashion-aligned classicism, the five celestial serenades which make up 'Born' stake their claim in a different headspace to most other exponents of the form. Certainly, it’s true that many of the audial shapes manifesting themselves here - the exploratory jazz-rock diversions, Mellotron and Hammond-abetted textures and the rich melancholia of the song-writing - may recall moments from progressive rock’s past and the listener may be forgiven for losing themselves in a gatefold-sleeved reverie. Nonetheless, this is a band which was thrown into life via the constrictions and temporal shifts of a global pandemic, as well as one which has largely set about chronicling a reality in which the surrounding world appears to be hurrying its own demise.

Track listing:

1.) Born

2.) Descending Us

3.) For Yesterday

4.) Cosmic Tears

5.) Another Time

6.) Long Way Down