Astro - Astral Orange Sunshine (2007)

GENRE..... Noise
LABEL...... Blossoming Noise
MODE....... VBRkbps / Joint-Stereo
REL.DATE.. 06-10-2008

Space music has always been hard to precisely define. Is it the goofy sci-fi of Gong and
Hawkwind? Or is it the ambient mass of Tangerine Dream? Would personally suggest Astro's
Astral Orange Sunshine as an excellent document of the semi-genre. Astro (AKA former
C.C.C.C. member Hiroshi Hasegawa) uses nothing but synths for this spacey, instrumental
slice of psychedelia, managing to combine the best of both the sci-fi and ambient sides of
space music and that combination has caused dreams to careen through outer space every time
you've fallen asleep to the record.

"Incubation," the half-hour behemoth of a first cut, opens with some inviting, tingly notes
that would not be out of place in one of Acid Mothers TempleÆs more ambient passages.
Astro, however, quickly reveals his roots as a noise artist with a towering wall of grating
fuzz that consumes any lingering invitingness left in the music. Such giant sounds
occasionally pass through the music, invoking in the willing listener the image of massive
comets passing overhead. The journey that is "Incubation" generally follows the "quiet-loud-
quiet-loud" pattern to its end, but the moments of noise manage to arrive in sudden,
surprising fashion, giving the piece a spontaneity all too uncommon in space music. As the
piece progresses, the quiet portions become more eerie while the noisy portions grow more
chaotic.
"Still Water" immediately dispenses with the notion that the space presented on Astral
Orange Sunshine is a friendly one with a dense, abrasive wall of sound. To put it into
Hawkwind terms, the awe-inspiring comets have been replaced by a terrifyingly large enemy
spaceship. The recordÆs final song, the comically titled "Shine On You Crazy Crystal Machine,"
serves as a second psychedelic bookend to the middle noise piece of "Still Water."
Fifteen minutes of gloriously fuzzy, noisy, and loud psychedelia, the overwhelming "Shine On"
is the albumÆs best cut. Where "Incubation" was a journey, "Shine On" is more of a chaotic
tailspin.

Astral Orange Sunshine succeeds as a whole thanks to the fullness and spontaneity of its sound
Astro has the chops and the vision, both of which are on full display here as his version of
space music has given us one of 2007Æs strongest releases.

Track 1 was recorded at Astral Orange Echo Studio on August 2004.
Track 2 was recorded live at Tokyo Keizai University on January 2007.
Track 3 was recorded live at Yahiro Highti on July 2006.

Mastered at Astral Orange Echo Studio on January to March 2007.

Tracklist:

01 incubation
02 still water
03 shine on you crazy crystal machine

Astro-Astral_Orange_Sunshine-2007-D2H

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