Blackout Transmission – Twilight & Resonance

After a critically acclaimed debut full-length, “Sparse Illumination,” Blackout Transmission returns with another fine piece of sonic artistry that will immediately appeal to all those listeners who appreciate clever songwriting and flawless performance. Heavily promoted by “Lullaby,” “Ourselves United,” “Losing Light,” and “Beyond The Sight Lines,” four incredible compositions that serve as a perfect showcase of what you might expect from their latest material, “Twilight & Resonance” represents a second full-length album by this outstanding Los Angeles-based band. Lyrically, this collection of eight marvelous songs explores themes such as displacement, connection to place, and the search for authentic grounding in an increasingly disconnected world. It’s a highly relatable material that covers various sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances, and will certainly resonate with the broader audience. Sonically, Blackout Transmission leans toward dreamy post-punk sound, as their music dominantly explores this genre, but do not be surprised if you stumble upon some of the finest properties borrowed from shoegaze, dream pop, indie rock, psychedelic rock, post-rock, and many other similar styles. They use all these additional sonic ingredients as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to elevate their music to an entirely new level while simultaneously remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction. Although this material carries qualities that meet all the trends in contemporary music production, you’ll notice how Blackout Transmission wisely implements subtle touches of nostalgia, evoking the eighties and nineties era when all the mentioned styles ruled the airwaves. This level of dedication to the craft is rarely heard or seen nowadays, but their music resonates with such precision and finesse, proving they assembled these songs with such ease. Therefore, these experimentations with various approaches, different techniques, careful blends, and many complementary styles resulted in a fascinating material that will not only resonate with post-punk, shoegaze, and dream pop fans but also with anyone who appreciates cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed music.

This epic sonic journey commences with “La Tierra Drift,” a dreamy, shoegazey composition that vividly showcases what you might expect from the remainder of the song. It gradually introduces listeners to Blackout Transmission’s luxuriant sound, built upon calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal chord progressions, generous servings of reverb, ear-appealing vocal harmonies, and well-accentuated, moderate rhythmic patterns. Still, this track also carries particular moments where the band incorporates distortion, an important detail that acts as a counterbalance to the dominantly calm atmosphere. It’s such a perfect introduction that promises many pleasant moments throughout the entire material. “Ultra Azul” combines all those fundamental elements of indie, post-punk, and dream pop together, creating an otherworldly listening experience. The vocals act as a centerpiece, commanding attention and elevating everything to new heights while jangly, angular chord progression shapes a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. This track carries many psychedelic rock moments thanks to reverb and echo effects included along the way. You’ll also notice how the vividly hearable, warm-sounding, intricate basslines provide more heaviness, clarity, and depth while the exceptional drumming performance based upon tastefully arranged beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics keeps everything in line. Blackout Transmission are masters in blending music genres, and Ascension (Sangre Skies) exemplifies their mastery. You’ll notice how all those fundamental elements of post-rock lurk around while the band retains the strong indie and post-punk core. The band expertly implements additional instrumentation, expanding this composition and making it even more complex along the way. It’s nearly mindblowing how all those layers articulate together without overwhelming each other.

“Calantha Dawn” dives even deeper into psychedelic rock and post-rock, thanks to all those wisely constructed interplays between synth pads and guitars. On one side, you’ll notice all those ambient sequences resonating with many soothing notes, while on the other, the guitars articulate together, delivering jangly chord progressions, harmonies, melodies, and themes. During these interplays, the rhythm section contributes groove, pace, and detail, delivering more than necessary dynamics that define this song. The band slows down the pace with “When The Apsens Turn,” a marvelous composition where these outstanding musicians dive even deeper into psychedelic rock aesthetics while still remaining loyal to the post-punk, shoegaze, and dream pop sound. These experimentations with various music genres suit them well, mainly because their instrumentations merge so well throughout the entire track. All those reverby, lush guitar works perfectly match calm vocal harmonies while the cleverly constructed low-ends and moderate beats shape a foundation for even more exploration into the psychedelic aesthetics. It’s one of those standout tracks that immediately invites you to spin the entire album all over again. “Las Estrellas En Alta” starts as a cinematic ambient track but gradually develops into another exceptional song that showcases all their signature moves. Like previous songs, this one also carries every bit and piece that defines Blackout Transmission’s luxuriant sound. “Beyond The Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras)” is also one of the many standout tracks here. The guitar delivers another barrage of psychedelic chord progressions that suddenly expand into reverby riffs heavily drenched in delay. The other guitar strums chords effortlessly, making the ambiance even more complex yet ear-appealing at the same time. It also carries many interesting, clever ideas and arrangements that work quite well with all the orchestrations, proving that Blackout Transmission consists of intelligent songwriters who know their sonic direction. This epic sonic voyage comes to an end with “Kairos,” a perfect closure that sums up everything Blackout Transmission intended to achieve with this material. At first, you might think this is just a stripped-down outro, consisting of vocals and guitars, but the band suddenly introduces the rhythmic support and more synth pads, fully expanding this track to another lush track that carries many listening pleasures.

Blackout Transmission has created a comprehensive collection of eight fascinating songs that vividly showcase their tremendous experience, knowledge, creativity, talent, and skills, transformed into many brilliant ideas and incredible orchestrations, incorporated throughout the entire album. “Twilight & Resonance” carries everything you ever needed from post-punk, shoegaze, dream pop, and indie music, as it breaks all the rules and shapeshifts all the boundaries, proving that even longstanding music genres like these can still sound fresh, unique, innovative, and exceptional. This is how music should sound nowadays, and you should immediately place “Twilight & Resonance” on your music radar, because Blackout Transmission deserves your utmost attention. The album is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!

https://open.spotify.com/album/6rX1cy9GMaIThlvHzutNKC?si=A1WoT3c0Q5yxqCmp64nfmA

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