xraythepharaoh
Best of 2021! The songwriting and song structures anchor the swirling neopyschedelia, shoegaze, and post-punk elements in the best possible way. The ideas are informed by a UK amalgam from Liverpool (Echo & the Bunnymen), Oxford (Ride, Swervedriver), Great Yarmouth (Catherine Wheel), and Manchester (Doves, Oasis, Magazine) but have a vibe wholly their own. Repeat listens reveal really rewarding nuances.
Favorite Tracks: Heavy Circles, Pacifica, Tactile Responses, Sleepwalking Again
Favorite track: Heavy Circles.
Secret Wilderness
Ride and Swervedriver guitar vibes cascade across all 8 tracks. Sparse Illumination is full of catchy riffs and driving drums, a healthy dose of UK homage with LA grit.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$7USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
A deluxe 12" vinyl version of "Sparse Illumination" pressed on a rare metallic orange vinyl featuring artwork from Stockholm-based artist Robin Gnista throughout the matte LP Jacket, Labels, and Innersleeve.
Includes unlimited streaming of Sparse Illumination
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 4 days
Purchasable with gift card
$18USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Classic black vinyl 12" vinyl version of "Sparse Illumination" featuring artwork from Stockholm-based artist Robin Gnista throughout the matte LP Jacket, Labels, and Innersleeve.
Includes unlimited streaming of Sparse Illumination
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sparse Illumination
Blackout Transmission | 2
Etxe Records & Productions | 26
Press for Album:
"Their first full-length album, Sparse Illumination, is a whole host of sound influences and well-channeled emotions. The eight tracks combine for 34 minutes of exodus into the sunsets that seek the moon, towards dreams and between the electric waves of those guitars that form layers that suffocate everything else. The 80s are a source of inspiration and the 90s are the boost their music needs to spawn little hymns that will bring to mind names like Echo and the Bunnymen, Ride, or Teenage Fanclub. . . They sound like a light in the dark; a hope in the face of adversity. "
- SOUND & VISION MUSICA (CDMX)
"The L.A. quartet’s debut album summons the powers of ’80s and ’90s British post-punk and shoegaze bands, majestic on tracks such as “Portals”, or dark and anxious in “Heavy Circles,” or floating on *something* on “Pacifica.” For fans of guitars, and beautiful blurs of textures."
- Buzzbands LA
“Sparse Illumination nails the shimmering, chiming guitar sounds of the 80s Liverpool and Manchester scenes ... this is above all an album dripping in psych...it delivers an abundance of mesmeric moments that touch the stratosphere ... this soundscape has more than enough candlepower to light up our permanent pandemic twilight.”
-Echoes & Dust
Press for Tracks:
"The album’s touchstones include the likes of Echo & the Bunnymen, Ride, the Telescopes and Chapterhouse, but the first single “Portals,” with its shimmering grandiosity, actually recalls the dark, first-album music of the Verve. Take it as the first dose of their long-playing intoxicant."
- Buzzbands LA
"Portals opens with a dusty tremolo guitar sound, like a grungier Duane Eddy, with vocalist Christopher Goett showcasing a voice that’s uncannily similar to Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch. It’s a fuzzy, hard-driving rock ‘n’ roll track at heart, but it’s wrapped up in a dense, swirling array of effects, offering an otherworldly, cosmic, psychedelic illusion without ever taking its feet off the ground."
- Treble
credits
released February 19, 2021
Christopher Goett | vocals, guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer
Adam D’Zurilla | lead guitar
Kevin Cluppert | bass guitar
Anthony Salazar | drums and percussion
Scott Holmes | synthesizer, 1; guitar 3, 7; percussion 1, 6
Words and music by Christopher Goett (Undercast Music/SESAC)
Arr. Goett, D’Zurilla, Cluppert, Salazar, Holmes
Produced by Scott Holmes with Christopher Goett
Recorded and mixed by Scott Holmes
Engineered by Scott Holmes and Christopher Goett
Recorded at Dream Machine | Long Beach, CA
Additional recording at Twin Dragon West | Los Angeles, CA
Mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters | Los Angeles, CA
Artwork, design, and layout by Robin Gnista
Blackout Transmission logo by Mark Peterson
The best of the MPLS region are contending for the world-wide title. Another epic journey blending acoustic flourishes with thick reverb-drenched tones to sonic perfection. Aces! Blackout Transmission
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