Lightyears Away / Thundermother - Astral Navigations (Reissue) (1971/1992)

Lightyears Away is folk/psych band. Relatively obscure uk psychedelia/acid folk from 1971 "Astral Navigations" and "Gagalactycais really a recording of two different bands, Lightyears Away and Thundermother.

These two bands share a side each of "Astral Navigations" which is a nice mixture of folk and psychedelia with lots of fuzz guitar. A very difficult record to find now, the original came with a poster cover and booklet and the reissue came with a booklet and was lavishly repackaged. The five Lightyears Away tracks are mostly quite folky and melodic with pleasant male vocals and the occasional female voice too. The exception is "Yesterday" which begins with a recording of a space launch which leads into lots of fuzz guitar work.

"Gagalactyca" has only been released on vinyl. It is a sister album to "Astral Navigations". There are two „sets” of music : Chris Coombs and Lightyears Away, and Thundermother. Chris and Mike Levon wrote songs for the Light Years Away „side” of the album. Standout tracks are the short though beautiful „That Is What We Need”, and „Cold Tired and Hungry” a storming track featuring Bill Nelson on guitar.[2]

This is mainly the follow-up album to the highly collectable „Astral Navigations” album. Rare early ’70’s privately pressed spacey folky prog mostly recorded with a similar line-up to the "Astral Navigations" album. The music continues the same vein of spacey progressive folk music, and now comes with half a dozen bonus tracks from Thundermother – some of which are also quite trippy. Cosmic and rare as hell.