Orchids:Astral

Title: Orchids

Label: Melting

Genre: shoegaze/prog

Rating: 5.7 of 7

The most impressive element of Astral is the full and brooding sound they create with only three people. Out of San Francisco, Dave Han (vocals/guitar), Amy Rosenoff (bass/backing vocals) and Shawn Poh (drums) blend characteristics of dark shoegaze, spacey prog and the shadowy post-punk for the soundtrack to the lonely midnight drive home. Their guitar sound is very impressive, heavy on the spaced-out reverb and slight delay; it just about carries every song. The well played drums bend toward the progressive-rock side, because of their full sound and the heavy use of toms. The only aspect of Orchids that really needs any work at all is the lyrics. The vocals themselves are not that bad, though they seem to be overshadowed in most songs, but the lyrics neither fall on the weary shoegaze side nor the sinister prog side. Rather, they just seem to be a side element to the rest of the Astral sound. Overall, this is a very solid record and is worth being played.

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