Album Notes

Vibraphone Records is proud to present the new full length album from Astral, titled "Sleepwalker". This is the long awaited second full length album from the San Francisco based band featuring 10 brand new songs recorded since their debut album, "Orchids" (visit www.cdbaby.com/astralmusic2), which charted CMJ 200 in 2004, as well as numerous Top 10 radio station charts such as KEXP, KYMC, KFJC, among many others.

"Head Astral-naut Dave Han and crew continue to produce some of the most transcendentally spacey shoegazer rock the Bay Area has to offer." - Wiretap Music, 2007

"There's a sense of majesty and mystery to Astral's monumental soundscapes that is actually quite rare among the current legion of American dreampop bands." - The Big Takeover, 2007

"The band's whispering vocals cut straight to the heart and although some would say that dream rock is better suited for the 80's, Astral has successfully adopted the best of both generations." - Zero Magazine, 2007

"Sleepwalker" chronicles the next evolutionary stage of the band's distinguished sound, formerly quoted from reviewers as "shoegaze with a post-punk edge" and "My Bloody Valentine meets the Cure". The album is dynamic with polyrhythmic, acoustic songs such as "Hindsight", etherial, psychedelic melodies driven by analog beats as in "A Lullaby from Amsterdam", and has driven, angular punchy songs such as "Cracked" and "Ways and Means". The undertone of the album is romantically dark with an occasional excursion into the melancholy. With this new release, unlike so many recordings today, Astral maintains their tradition in sonic integrity by recording soley with 8-track analog tape and therefore no digital editing was used.