While receiving some blog acclaim in 2008, Deastro's release Keeper's failed, in some respects, to stir up the excitement that we believe it deserves. An example of this: We were stunned to find that Deastro's MySpace page, at the time of this printing, has received only about 125,000 profile views. WTF!? Talk about head scratchers.

One way to describe the man behind Deastro is that he is this musical prodigy who has been mixing music in his parent's basement since age 12.

Deastro is one moniker - another is Our Brother The Megazord - of indie electronica-pop artist, engineer and producer Randolph Chabot, a native son of Sterling Heights, Michigan. Chabot is not an unknown in the indie music spectrum, especially after the release of his 2007 double album Young Planets/Time The Teenage Twister.

Last summer, Chabot released his follow-up album, Deastro's Keeper's, as an Emusic exclusive digital download. Keeper's is a continium of one masterfully arranged track after another - an eclectic collection of wonderfully-written, well executed songs.

Keeper's is full of driving, lush beats and instrumental embellishments, sprawling and swirling compositions that are transcendental, harmonic and inspirational. Other songs, like the pop acoustic ballads "Child of Man, Son of God" help solidify Chabot's reputation as an amazing artist and technician.

Sprinkled throughout Keeper's are songs that range in style from German electronica, post-punk, new wave rock, shoegaze and psycho-pop. There is no template to pigeon hole Chabot's music - which is one of his strengths - other than a predictability that whatever he puts out has been impressive so far.

It very likely that once you start listening to this album, you won't stop. It might just grow on you, and songs like "Songs like "The Shaded Forests" "Open Up Ye Dark Gates!", "Light Powered", "The Goodman of the House" are hard to turn away from repeating. In fact, just about every song is

Thematically, it's hard to miss an overarching theme - nature, energy and an ode to another time and place. If there is a special place you would like to transcend to, chances are this album will take you there, and you might just find yourself going back to it time and again because "there" is a good place to be.

The entire album is a celebration of one man's ability to make a great record pretty much all by himself, from the writing, playing instruments to engineering and even drawing the album cover art. That makes Keeper's even more impressive, and definitely a keeper.

Enjoy the journey.

"The Shaded Forests" - Deastro

"Light Powered" - Deastro

Stream songs from the album at Deastro's MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/deastro and at http://www.purevolume.com/deastro/

Randolph Chabot on Facebook

Labels: Best Indie Albums 2008, Deastro, Randolph Chabot