astreal progression

astreal
fragments of the same dead star
(emi, 2006)
www.astreal.net

the name astreal is almost a misnomer, now that its sole original member is muhammad. yet, more than 8 years after its debut ouijablush, the band with its new members trudges on and we have the long-awaited sophomore fragments of the same dead star!

the new album contains brand new songs, studio versions of their past 'live' material, all three tracks from the projection e.p. and rerecorded versions of two earlier released songs. frankly, i am a fan of the old sound – a mix of shoegazer, krautrock and synth pop, smoothed out by melissa's vocals. for me, part of the attraction of early astreal is melissa’s voice. reminding me of a gloomier and dreamier laetitia sadier from stereolab, her tone is resonant but soft, cool but not cold.

oh well, that is history. astreal has evolved and the new astreal has earned their chops through gigs that rock and encapsulate audiences in dense sounds of guitars and effects. the new sound is darker, harder and grittier, best compared to songs that fuse rock-style guitars and drums with electronica by bands such as m83, curve and ladytron. it only seems like a natural progression as astreal dissolved and reformed, moving away from songs such as the sugary june 12 on ouijablush to the unsettling blush response on the no excuse compilation. both songs are rerecorded here with ginette on vocals.

thankfully, ginette is a competent replacement for melissa, sounding wistful on the slow flowing songs and defiant on the fast rocking ones. almost every track on the album is of single material. a favourite is wallflower that when played out loud, hits and washes over me like waves crashing to shore with multi-tracked vocals and guitars. another favourite is control that has ginette fighting to be heard against a machine of buzzing guitars and ringing cymbals.

my only grouse is the production has placed the guitars too upfront, leaving the drums thudding rather weakly in the background for most tracks. but this is a personal preference that hardly affected my enjoyment of the eagerly-anticipated release.