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A condensed version of Rob Astor's double disc set MARSTROPOLIS featuring the 17 best tracks. You will still experience a musical journey to a future society on Mars through the many musical stylings offered on the full 2-disc version. Once you've tasted MARSTROPOLIS, be sure to check out what you missed on the full version!

MARSTROPOLIS
CD Liner Notes

This double CD came about in a highly unusual way. I was browsing the Internet one night looking for video game cheat codes and ran across a site where a group of people are making another version of this game. Soon, I discovered they were looking for people to work on it; everyone from graphics to sound, design to testing, and music.
At that moment in time, the Muses sprinkled their magic gold dust over me. This is the only way I know how to describe it. I was instantly inspired and began writing and recording.
The result of this massive infusion of inspiration is the album MARSTROPOLIS, which took one month to the day for me to complete. The CDs are packed full of tunes ranging through a wide variety of styles. You will find New Age, Trance, Dance, Techno, World, Jazz Fusion, Rock & Roll, and combinations of all the mentioned styles. Even though the music is instrumental, there’s something here for everyone.
Below is a fictional look at a story of Mars, set in the future, with each track representing a part of the story. While you listen to the tracks, immerse yourself in this virtual, future world. Take in the sights and the sounds. Be sure to visit often. Once will never be enough.

Welcome To MARSTROPOLIS
You have stepped into the future, a future where the planet Mars has not only been colonized, but has become an independent society. As you step off the landing platform of your transport shuttle, you find yourself inside a busy spaceport connected to cities under protective domes. The surface of Mars is spotted with many a sprawling megalopolis, thriving and flourishing. Gleaming buildings a kilometer tall stretch into the sky. Lanes of traffic float over streets. Even though this isn’t Earth, or it’s moon, the feel is the same. People hurry off to jobs, they shop, eat, visit parks and beaches, or head home to houses constructed of geodesic domes; everything people normally do, simply set on another planet.
The music you will find in this collection was inspired by an idea for a video game. Allow yourself to be transported to a world much like home and feel your way through many styles and rhythms. Use your imagination to unlock the many awaiting pleasures. Enjoy your stay in MARSTROPOLIS.

Rob Astor

MARSTROPOLIS
Š 2005 By Rob Astor
All tracks composed, arranged, performed, recorded, and produced by Rob Astor.

Red City Beat
Your journey within MARSTROPOLIS begins here. After leaving the spaceport, you will find yourself in a bustling city, sometimes larger than New York City, Los Angeles, and Tokyo combined. All around you, there is routine activity; passing hovercars, delivery trucks, pedestrians with jetpacks, launching and landing transport ships. You will find commercial districts, tall buildings, superhighways, hotels, restaurants, parks, beaches; anything you can possibly imagine or need. Mars enjoys prosperous times, having been independent from Earth for several decades. Much like any major city on Earth, it’s a busy place!

Janet Jetson
Meet the leading musical superstar of the 2250s, Janet Jetson. Often, Miss Jetson emulates the music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century pop star Janet Jackson. Selling out arenas with her catchy songs and flashy entourage of dancers, Janet is Mars’ top concert industry attraction. Her popularity has grown to the point where she draws in devoted fans from both Earth and the Jupiter Colonies. There is a staying power in her style you will instantly notice when you tune into the Holo-Entertainment Network. No matter what century it is, people like fun, feel-good music. Janet Jetson delivers. According to her publicist, after recording a new album this winter, Miss Jetson plans to do her first world tour of Earth next year with follow-up dates on the moon, a world tour of Mars, and make one stop in the Jupiter Colonies. Whew! She’ll complete the first ever tour of the civilized solar system!

A Clear Night In Star City
Star City is home to Mars’ publishing industry. Easily, this gem of Martian society is one of the best places to advance your education. Romance and creativity breed ideas for a prosperous future. A brand new genre of superhero stories was born here. One such story, recently made into a Holo-Entertainment flick, features a flight sequence through a quiet city night, high over the buildings while the pair of lovers remark of the beauty of the city, and its peacefulness, at this altitude. Take a ride in a hovercar and swoon through majestically glowing hyperscrapers, illuminating Star City in a wash of crystal light. Head out over the harbor and catch the stars reflecting off the water, mixed with the glowing reflection of the city’s structures on gently rippling water.

Copernicus Museum
Nicolaus Copernicus, long considered the father of modern astronomy, is best remembered for his Copernican Theory, placing the Sun at the center of the known universe, as opposed to the Earth. The vast majority of his contemporaries considered Copernicus’ Heliostatic Cosmology implausible, however, his most notable defenders included Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei. Isaac Newton’s Theory Of Universal Gravitation provided strong theoretical underpinning for the Copernican Theory. Without a Sun-centered solar system, travel in space would have been impossible as known in modern times. Dedicated to the history of astronomy and space exploration in general, MARSTROPOLIS is home to the complex aviary-like structures that make up the Copernicus Museum. There are giant telescopes on display, and in use, as well as replicas of various space probes and launch vehicles. There is also a haunting tribute to the victims of the Epsilon Queen disaster, created from debris recovered from the asteroid belts. A monolithic metal slab bears the names and faces of those passengers and crew who perished decades ago.

Tholos Restored
In ancient Greece, Tholos was home of the temple of Athena Pronaia, Goddess Of Wisdom. A replicated version has been constructed on Mars, in honor of mankind’s achievements, and to remind everyone civilizations can exist in peace and prosper through mutual cooperation, something Athena would applaud. As you walk through the marble structure flanked with towering columns and gaze up at the magnificent statue clad in gold overlay, you might hear distant sounds, almost musical in nature, awakening and heightening your mind.

Tragedy Of The Epsilon Queen
In MARSTROPOLIS, the name Epsilon Queen is synonymous with the name Titanic. When space tourism was brand new, lanes opened between Mars and the Jupiter Colonies, to promote the expansion of civilization. Travel companies invested in a new breed of luxury starships, not unlike ocean liners back on Earth, and began offering cruises to Jupiter. The Epsilon Queen was the first large vessel to use sub-light pulse-fusion engines, a newer technology allowing ships to reach Jupiter in a fraction of the time it took previous crossings. While making one of it transits, the Epsilon Queen experienced navigational difficulties crossing the main asteroid belt nearest Jupiter. Complicating matters, the pulse-fusion engines were pushed to maximum thrust, compromising the ship’s structural integrity, something that had been a calculated risk when building these large craft. The sub-light thrusters broke free and blasted their way through the interior, disintegrating the Epsilon Queen. When rescuers reached the ship’s last point of contact, all that remained were shredded and pummeled debris. Much like the Titanic, the Epsilon Queen created a demand for higher safety standards, being the single worst space accident in the history of mankind. In the wake of the massive tragedy, hundreds of tests were conducted before sub-light engines were again used to take tourists to the Jupiter Colonies. And, much like the century after the Titanic, a number of highly popular stories were written and produced about the Epsilon Queen. The most enduring of these productions is what can best be described as an Avant Garde Opera continuing to enjoy success in MARSTROPOLIS, playing eight shows in six days at the Grand Metropolitan Opera Theatre. It is a Martial cultural staple every tourist plans for in his or her itinerary.

Take The X Train
Becoming an industrial super power, Mars leads the way in innovative technologies. Mining at the northern and southern polar caps feeds raw materials to the equatorial settlements. Using electromagnetic rail guns and vacuum tubes, the X Train can reach a speed fifty times faster than the Bullet Train back on twenty-first century Earth. It’s possible for Martian residents to live in the warmer climate of the equator and commute to lucrative jobs located in the far reaches of Mars’ northern and southern hemispheres. Comparatively, the X Train on Earth would enable someone to live in Los Angeles and work in New York City. Commute time? A mere matter of minutes.

Rock & Red
As cultures divide and expand, small parts begin to evolve into brand new cultural shoots. Music is no exception. Every variety has found its way into Martian culture where it is reshaped and takes on new life. Rock & Roll has transformed in the hands of Martians, giving birth to what is commonly referred to as Rock & Red; Rock & Roll Martian style, as evidenced in this track.

Holographic Nightclub (Dance Of The Boytaurs)
Put on your finest neon, as in lights, and visit one of the most popular nightspots MARSTROPOLIS has to offer, the Holographic Nightclub. Here you will find people dancing to percussion heavy music all night long. Some patrons take the extra expense to have holographic projections added to their bodies, to transform them in some unique way. You might find yourself dancing or drinking with a small dinosaur, or someone with an extra set of arms or legs. At first, the experience is completely bizarre. Once you get used to it, and once you realize the imagination is limitless, all of the strangeness around you will ease into second nature.
(There is a private joke that goes with this track I want to share with you. I was writing a science fiction short story at the time I was recording MARSTROPOLIS where there is such a place as the Holographic Nightclub existing in the world of dreams. In one scene, there’s a male character with an extra set of legs; a “Boytaur”, like a Centaur from Greek Mythology; who does a dance. After I finished this track, and every time I listened to it, I kept thinking of the scene in this story. It would crack me up. Adding “Dance Of The Boytaurs” to the title felt natural, and quirky. Chalk it up to good imagination.)

Canopusopolis Carina
Welcome to the finest, most posh and luxurious resort getaway destination in MARSTOPOLIS. From its spacious suites, to its glittering pools, casino, and the absolute most delicious food found anywhere in the inhabited solar system, the Canopusopolis Carina will make your visit the most memorable experience imaginable. The staff is ready to serve you any time of the day or night.

New Pompeii
New Pompeii is a lovely settlement constructed with an Old World Italian flavoring imported from Earth. Sun-bleached buildings and columns surround spacious green parks, grape vineyards and delicate shorelines. Within its dome, citizens of New Pompeii lead simpler lives and lead them in quieter times, by choice and by seclusion from the more massive metropolises. This small city rests at the base of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano known in the solar system. The view is spectacularly breath taking from within the city limits. There are also daily expeditions to the mountain’s summit, as well as specialized mountain climbing groups. New Pompeii is becoming a popular getaway destination where Martian vacationers come to relax and unwind.

Falling Up
The world of sleep and dreams has always been a part of human kind. There have always been dreams more common than others. For example, dreaming of flying, or being nude in public are dreams everyone has had at some point in their lives. On Mars, a new class of dreams is emerging, a phenomena accredited to human exploration and expansion into the farther reaches of the solar system. Basically, the dream is of falling up into the sky. Dreamers find themselves laying on their backs looking at stars, or going about daily business only to find themselves drifting upward, floating between the giant hyperscrapers of the cities, until they are far above the planet and flying between stars. Psychologists attribute this to the human desire to continue pushing their limits and to develop distant worlds, and literally reach for the stars as it becomes more and more possible, and likely, mankind will one day touch them.

Orbital Arcade (Video Game Carnival Version)
Mars is host to one of the most spectacular attractions in civilized space aimed at a teenage audience, the Orbital Arcade. Here, there is a perpetual carnival atmosphere. Every single holo-game known to exist can be found in this gigantic tritanium sphere. Be sure to see the Mid-Way Circus, sample good old-fashioned county fair food, and try the latest sport, Hyperpulsion Skating. Also, there’s an array of extreme roller coasters, a massive water park, and a zero-g auditorium where the wildest concerts have taken place. Janet Jetson is scheduled to appear this summer!

Technical Dyslexia
Because there are so many opportunities for employment in the field of electronics on Mars, medical science has identified a new pre-existing condition in people who are exposed to too much new technology too quickly. Without the proper training, anyone will feel intimidated by the complex holographic computer systems commonplace in modern society. When someone is brand new to certain computer functions, or is unable to comprehend what they’re doing with the equipment, they are said to have Technical Dyslexia. Not to worry; in most people, Technical Dyslexia is temporary and passes once they understand their gadgets. We find it laughable now, however, on Earth in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, there were people who couldn’t program a computerized clock on their entertainment devices. Obviously, Technical Dyslexia is a condition born of the electronics age.

Race To Northpoint Station
At the height of the Martian summer, there is an exciting race born of Mars. Beginning in MARSTROPOLIS, competitors fly electromagnetically charged hyperpulsion hover vehicles across open plains, through rift valleys and craters, and across the frozen carbon dioxide northern polar cap to Northpoint Station, an isolated military outpost and target destination of the event. Fans who flock from all across civilized space are as rabid as Earth-based NASCAR fans in their loyal following. Merchandisers make a decade’s wages during this weeklong gathering. However, the race isn’t for the faint of heart or the inexperienced. Situations get dicey real quick when you run out of space and face crashing into a jagged canyon wall. It’s a dangerous competition where many brave men and women have lost their lives for the thrill. The most seasoned of veteran racers have nothing but the utmost respect for fellow racers. This year’s circuit has been extended to include a leg through Valles Marineris, adding five thousand kilometers and two days to the statistical tally. Sponsors are eagerly making preparations for a similar race across the icy crust of Jupiter’s Galilean Satellite, Europa. As a special treat and added bonus this year, the Martian National Anthem will be performed by none other than Miss Janet Jetson.

Trappings Of Time
Mars has always had time. Time to witness catastrophic bombardments in the solar system’s distant past. Time for microscopic life to develop. Time for its life giving oceans to evaporate. Time for life to leave its footprint in the planet’s fossil record. Time for giving serious thought to splitting in half. Time to wait an eternity for life to return to its barren surface. In modern times, the spirit of Mars has been reawakened with human intervention. For Mars, now there is time to live. Time to breathe. Time to grow. Time to flourish. Time to thrive. Time to dream of a future once lost to oblivion.

Blue Sunset
On Earth, the nitrogen and oxygen atmosphere scatters blue rays from sunlight, making the sky blue. At sunset, red rays make the sun appear orange-red as the planet rotates, causing light to filter through thicker layers of air before reaching the surface. Except within Mars’ domed cities, the red planet’s atmosphere is carbon dioxide, which scatters red rays from sunlight, giving the Martian sky a rusty tint. This makes for a truly unique and beautiful sunset of blue. There are many parks and viewing platforms in Mars’ cities where you will find young lovers at sunset, bathed in the haunting blue light.