Astragal
by Broken DC

From MadhattanJack 12/17/2025 01:06 | #312166

Based on their promotional stuff, Broken DC wanted you to know they were a post-punk/post-hardcore band, not a shoegaze or experimental band. They were really a slowcore band, except that slowcore was more of a 90s phenomenon and this album was made in 2016. To make things more confusing, an unrelated (and unabashed) shoegaze band named "Astragal" also appeared in 2016 with an EP, entitled simply "EP." ("Astragal" is actually the title of a French novel published in 1965 about a girl who breaks her ankle in her escape from a prison school, and indeed the word is derived from the Greek word for "ankle joint.") Finally, there's precious little information on why there's a "DC" after the word "Broken" in the band name — it normally stands for "di capo," which means "to start over" in Italian, but they don't seem to have been in a previous band called "Broken." There are, however, many other bands named "Broken," so maybe it just means "don't confuse," but alas, it's too late for that. As for the album, if you like your post-punk downtempo, slightly droney, and maybe a little phantasmagoric/psychedelic to boot, you might very well like this. The vocals are a bit weak, but that doesn't detract much from this kind of material. Nevertheless, if they called themselves "post-hardcore" because they wanted you to think they were a high-energy band, then they recorded and mixed this album all wrong - everything should be clearer and brighter than this, with less reverb, and the vocals and drums more up front. Instead, it's mixed to sound more like a shoegaze album. I prefer that myself of course, but not everyone is like me. (Thankfully.)