Press Roundup for Blackout Transmission's "Twilight & Resonance" LP!
Blackout Transmission’s sophomore LP has been widely reviewed to widespread positive acclaim. We’ve compiled 25 album reviews spanning 10 different countries below replete with translations into English.
LA CAVERNA (Mexico)
https://lacaverna.net/blackout-transmission-redefine-el-shoegaze-en-twilight-resonance/
From the heart of the New Mexico desert, Blackout Transmission returns with “Twilight & Resonance”, an album that captures the vastness of the landscape and human introspection with an almost spiritual precision.
This second work from the American collective marks a significant sonic evolution from their debut, shifting their urban post-punk sound from Los Angeles towards a more contemplative, desert-rooted shoegaze. Through its eight tracks, the album explores the relationship between displacement, memory, and connection with the environment, creating an experience that moves between the earthly and the cosmic.
The opening track, “La Tierra Drift,” sets the tone: reverberating guitars and a voice suspended between nostalgia and calm draw an inner geography where the human and the natural merge. Its verses—“Beneath the shadows of clouds, La Tierra drifts”—evoke the passage of time as an almost geological movement, full of beauty and resignation. In “Ultra Azul,” the group transforms sonic trance into mental expansion: “Find the calming waters, wade into their offers” functions as a mantra for those seeking solace amid chaos. “Ascension (Towards Sangre Skies)” raises the intensity with lyrics of spiritual resistance and an energy that borders on the redemptive, while “When the Aspens Turn” encapsulates the melancholy of seasonal change in just a few luminous verses.
The album closes with “Kairos,” a meditation on time and consciousness that reaffirms the introspective nature of the work. Produced by Scott Holmes and C. E. Goett, “Twilight & Resonance” is both a physical and an inner journey. Its limited-edition purple vinyl—featuring artwork by Jonathan Keeton—completes the sensory experience: a collector’s piece that captures the precise resonance between landscape and soul.
FLEX MUSIC BLOG (UK)
Blackout Transmission conjure a desert haze for their sophomore LP 'Twilight & Resonance'
Blackout Transmission’s 'Twilight & Resonance' is a record that breathes and swells as it plays. Recorded in the stark expanse of New Mexico, the duo's sophomore LP transports us away from city grime and into the rhythm of open skies, shifting sunlight, and the subtle pulse of the high desert.
Opening with 'La Tierra Drift', we are immediately immersed in a liminal space between memory and present, urban life and natural wonder. Goett’s vocals hover in the mix with a gentle insistence, allowing Donaldson’s melodic basslines and Ivey’s nuanced drumming to paint landscapes that are expansive without feeling overstated.
Tracks like 'Ultra Azul' demonstrate the band’s ability to combine texture with tension, as phase-shifted guitars shimmer over analogue delays. Meanwhile, 'Las Estrellas en Alta' and 'Kairos' extend the LP’s meditative qualities. Polyrhythms and modulated guitars unfold over subtle synth patterns, while double-tracked vocals drift through the ether, underscoring the themes of impermanence, place, and reflection that run throughout the album.
At thirty-four minutes across eight tracks, 'Twilight & Resonance' doesn’t overstay its welcome. Blackout Transmission have crafted a record that merges post-punk energy with the meditative expanses of shoegaze, delivering a listening experience that is both grounding and transcendent. For those willing to surrender to its ebb and flow, this is an album that that will truly strike a chord.
MYSTIC SONS (United Kingdom)
https://www.mysticsons.com/article/blackout-transmission-twilight-resonance
US outfit return with a broad and emotive sophomore LP
by Chris Bound: October 10, 2025
8/10
Blackout Transmission’s sophomore album 'Twilight & Resonance' is a masterclass in atmospheric tension and expansive soundscapes, marking a significant evolution for the New Mexico-based collective. Following 2021's 'Sparse Illumination', the eight-track record channels the high desert’s vastness into a hypnotic blend of post-punk drive and shoegaze shimmer, proving that geography can be as integral to music as melody.
From the opening moments of 'La Tierra Drift', we are transported into an otherworldly terrain where cascading, reverb-laden guitars swirl above Ivey’s restrained yet propulsive drumming. Christopher Goett’s vocals float with nostalgic longing, narrating the transition from urban confinement to open spaces, while the bass underpins the track with warmth and melodic tension.
Tracks like 'Ultra Azul' and 'Ascension (Sangre Skies)' demonstrate the band’s dynamic range, balancing phase-shifted psychedelia with post-punk urgency. Analogue delays, tremolo washes, and cathedral-like reverb create a lush yet edgy backdrop for Goett’s introspective lyrics, while 'Ascension' elevates the record’s social consciousness, layering anthemic crescendos atop a meditation on collective resilience. 'When the Aspens Turn' distills complex emotion into deceptively simple guitar motifs, echoing the spatial grace of Slowdive, while 'Las Estrellas en Alta' introduces mechanised rhythms filtered through dreamy textures, offering an almost hypnotic meditation on seasonal and personal transformation.
The album closes with 'Kairos', a contemplative finale where layered guitars and sequenced patterns pulse with urgency, framing Goett’s double-tracked vocals in a haze of tape echo and plate reverb. Across its runtime, 'Twilight & Resonance' balances narrative cohesion with sonic exploration, rewarding repeated listens and revealing hidden nuances with every play.
'Twilight & Resonance' cements Blackout Transmission as innovators of desert-infused post-punk shoegaze, creating a listening experience that is as much about place as it is about introspection. For those seeking music that navigates vast landscapes, this record is an essential journey.
THOUGHTS WORDS ACTION (Serbia)
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!
THE INDIE GRID (United Kingdom)
‘TWILIGHT & RESONANCE’- BLACKOUT TRANSMISSION, A JOURNEY THROUGH SPACE AND STILLNESS
4/5 Stars
Blackout Transmission’s ‘Twilight & Resonance’ is a mesmerising study in atmosphere and emotional breadth, a record that moves as much as it envelops. Emerging from the vastness of New Mexico’s high desert, the band have crafted an album where space is as important as sound, and where each note seems carefully placed to evoke the slow burn of reflection, the tension of anticipation, and the quiet thrill of discovery.
Across its eight tracks, the album unfolds with a hypnotic precision, balancing post-punk immediacy with shoegaze’s immersive textures. Guitars shimmer with reverberant detail, weaving through layers of synths and intricate rhythm work. Drums are both grounding and fluid, driving momentum without ever dominating, while basslines provide subtle, melodic counterpoints that add warmth and resonance to the expansive soundscape.
The record carries an unmistakable sense of place, but it’s equally concerned with inner landscapes. Themes of displacement, reflection, and connection to one’s surroundings run throughout, but never in a heavy-handed way. Instead, the music invites us to inhabit its world, letting textured harmonies guide a meditative journey. There’s a sense of motion and stillness coexisting, where moments of propulsion give way to washes of ambient sound that linger, creating a feeling of contemplative weightlessness.
‘Twilight & Resonance’ is an album where production, arrangement, and performance converge to create a fully realised universe. It’s a record that confirms Blackout Transmission as a band capable of marrying intensity with introspection, and innovation with emotional resonance.
RGM PRESS (United Kingdom)
https://rgm.press/we-review-the-new-album-from-blackout-transmission-twilight-and-resonance/rgm-usa/
There’s a certain kind of record that doesn’t just play through your speakers — it soaks through the walls, creeps into the corners of the room, and sits quietly behind your eyes. Which way will Twilight & Resonance by Blackout Transmission go? We dig in and investigate.
The opener La Tierra Drift eases you in with that heavy, washed-out guitar shimmer the band’s been flirting with since their early Los Angeles days. It’s got this slow-burn pulse — like Echo & The Bunnymen had a fever dream. It’s patient, textured, slightly narcotic in the best possible way.
Ultra Azul is where the album starts showing teeth. The reverb is dialled up, the rhythm section kicks into that tight post-punk thrum, and suddenly there’s a horizon to this world. The guitars glide and snarl, never fully committing to one or the other, and it gives the whole thing this brilliant sense of restraint. If you’re into Wire or The Church, this is going to feel like a warm, strange hug.
Ascension (Towards Sangre Skies) levitates. It’s slow, deliberate, and has this gorgeous airy tension that feels like standing on a cliff edge. The vocal delivery isn’t trying to overpower — it’s weaving in with the guitar lines, ghosting through rather than leading. It’s clever, a tad pitchy, but still cleaver.
Then comes Calantha Dawn, and here’s where things could divide listeners. It’s got this hazy psychedelic drift, beautifully recorded, but it flirts with becoming background music. It’s not bad — far from it — but it’s the one track that seems content to float rather than push forward. If this album has a weak spot, it’s right here.
When The Aspens Turn corrects the course. It’s delicate but alive, the kind of track that sounds like an old Cure record left out in the sun. You can almost taste the dust in the air. Las Estrellas en Alta continues the mood but brings back some bite, with the rhythm section locking into this hypnotic pattern that just doesn’t quit. It’s the kind of thing you want played through a massive sound system, in a half-lit room at 2am with people quietly losing their minds.
Beyond the Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras) is the album’s gut punch. It’s layered, dense, and doesn’t give a fuck about being tidy. The band lean fully into their post-rock tendencies here, building something that breathes, swells, and collapses in on itself. It’s the highlight — no question.
And then Kairos closes things off like a last cigarette at sunrise. It’s warm, cracked, slightly fragile. There’s something romantic and ruinous about it. It doesn’t try to tie things together with a bow — it just lets the whole record drift back into the landscape it came from.
Sonically, this is Blackout Transmission operating at a different altitude. Trading Los Angeles concrete for desert air has done something to them — they sound stretched out, bolder, and strangely spiritual. The guitar work is stellar, soaked in effects but never drowning. The rhythm section keeps everything moving forward like it knows exactly where it’s going.
For all its texture, the album occasionally blurs into itself. A little more dynamic lift between tracks would have made the whole thing hit harder. But honestly, that’s nitpicking — this is a band who know exactly what world they’re building.
SAVOY TRUFFLE TUNES (South Africa)
Post-Punk Rhythm Meets Shoegaze Dreaming on Blackout Transmission’s Twilight & Resonance
Oct 13
Written By Jeremy Bregman
Twilight & Resonance is the outstanding new album from New Mexico-based outfit Blackout Transmission, a collective known for their mesmerising blend of post-punk and shoegaze. Released just a few days ago, I’m already completely under the record's spell - drawn in by its psychedelic flourishes and deeply immersive arrangements.
La Tierra Drift kicks the album off, immediately plunging the listener into a hypnotic blend of reverb-drenched guitar and hazy, shimmering goodness. It's the perfect start, and sets the scene beautifully for the haunting sounds of Ultra Azul to come into play. Offering up more dreamy and layered textures, it's a tune that picks up where its predecessor left off, gliding through a mirage of washed guitars and cinematic emotion.
Ascension (Sangre Skies) is a moody little track that leans into post-punk territory. A song that the band frames as their sonic response to contemporary social discord, it's a superb showcase of Blackout Transmission's overall songwriting flair.
Calantha Dawn is an instrumental piece of genius, and its successor, When The Aspens Turn, is equally stunning.
As for the remaining three tunes that make up Twilight & Resonance, the final pieces of this record are best experienced without spoilers. Step in slowly or plunge headfirst - either way, you’re in for a journey.
SOUND & VISION MUSICA (Mexico)
A journey between the earth, the sky, and the noise: let’s listen to ‘Twilight & Resonance’, the new LP by Blackout Transmission PREMIERES
octubre 13, 2025
Blackout Transmission has already released their second new studio album, Twilight & Resonance, continuing what they started in 2021 with their splendid debut LP—expanding their bursts of soft, harmonious white shoegaze, melodic and introspective.
The New Mexico-based group presents an emotional odyssey from urban landscapes to the reflective isolation of the mountainous desert. Each of these tracks builds a sophisticated narrative about uprootedness, connection with nature, and the search for authenticity and meaning in life, through reverberating mists of floating electricity, as if clouds of noise descended to warmly embrace us.
Imagine Ride, Slowdive, and Lesser Care gathered on a hill to watch the horizon, chatting about spiritual and philosophical topics as the psychedelic sky is painted with colors.
NDIE DOCK MUSIC BLOG (United Kingdom)
https://indiedockmusicblog.co.uk/?p=32257
Geography has always been destiny for the most interesting bands. The Fall had Manchester's grey brutalism, My Bloody Valentine had the suburban ennui of the Home Counties, and now Blackout Transmission have traded Los Angeles for New Mexico's high desert—a move that reshapes their entire sonic architecture. *Twilight & Resonance*, their second album, maps this transition with the kind of attention to detail that suggests the band understand exactly what they've lost and what they've gained in the exchange.
The opening salvo of "La Tierra Drift" announces the shift immediately. Vocalist Christopher Goett sings of swapping "urban murmurs and side-eyes for southern bound birdsong and budding cones of piñon," and you believe him. The guitar work cascades like water over high desert rock formations, reverb-drenched and shimmering with that particular quality of light you only find at elevation. The rhythm section—Donaldson's melodic bass threading through Ivey's propulsive drumming—provides the kind of hypnotic foundation that early shoegaze bands built their cathedrals upon. This is music that understands space, both geographical and sonic.
"Ultra Azul" pushes further into psychedelic territory, its phase-shifted guitars and analog delay cascades creating a sense of dislocation that feels appropriate for a band caught between worlds. The track builds from Goett's urgent, cathedral-reverbed vocals into walls of distorted tremolo before dissolving into ambient washes—a trajectory that recalls the best moments of the Brian Jonestown Massacre without simply photocopying Anton Newcombe's playbook.
The album's political heart beats strongest on "Ascension (Towards Sangre Skies)," which addresses contemporary social discord through post-punk urgency rather than didactic lecturing. The song builds from contemplative verses to an anthemic coda about rising "above the tree-line" through collective will, and the metaphor works because Blackout Transmission have actually done it. They've climbed to higher ground, literally and figuratively, and the view has clarified things.
"When the Aspens Turn" demonstrates the band's gift for deceptive simplicity. The refrains feel immediate and accessible, but underneath, layers of jangling guitars processed through vintage amplifiers create the kind of spatial depth that made Slowdive's *Souvlaki* such a landmark. This is sophisticated music masquerading as straightforward rock, and the disguise serves it well.
"Las Estrellas en Alta" grounds its synthesizer washes with modulated guitar work, Ivey's drumming adding rhythmic complexity that filters Neu!'s motorik precision through dream pop sensibility. The mechanical pulses and hazy atmospherics create tension between the organic and electronic, mirroring the album's broader themes of displacement and searching for authentic grounding.
The closing "Kairos" explores the weight of present moments through layered guitars and analog sequencer patterns, Goett's double-tracked vocals floating through tape echo and plate reverb like ghosts in the machine. It's a fitting conclusion to an album concerned with time, place, and the difficulty of being fully present in either.
Producer Jeff Holmes deserves credit for capturing the band's expanded sonic palette without sacrificing clarity, while Jonathan Keeton's artwork apparently reflects the album's desert mysticism (the dark purple vinyl edition sounds particularly fetching). At 34 minutes, *Twilight & Resonance* understands the virtue of concision—it makes its points and departs before outstaying its welcome.
Comparisons to Echo & the Bunnymen's oceanic expansiveness and Ride's gossamer guitar interplay are warranted, but Blackout Transmission carve out their own territory here. This is lysergic post-punk shoegaze filtered through high desert air, where the space between notes matters as much as the notes themselves. The band have found something genuine in their geographical shift, and *Twilight & Resonance* documents that discovery with intelligence and feeling.
Not every track reaches the same heights—some moments drift when they should drive—but the album's cohesive narrative rewards repeated listening. Each encounter reveals new textural details and lyrical connections, like hiking the same trail and noticing different plants each time.
For those seeking music that bridges exterior landscapes and interior reflection, *Twilight & Resonance* offers both refuge and revelation.
OBSCURE SOUND (USA)
https://www.obscuresound.com/2025/10/blackout-transmission-twilight-resonance/
BY MIKE MINEO
OCTOBER 14, 2025
Enveloping with its moody, atmospheric rock builds, Twilight & Resonance is the impactful new album from Blackout Transmission. The New Mexico-based band draws upon post-punk and shoegaze inspirations, in addition to a recent embrace of the Mountain West’s high desert landscape, a departure from their previous city-set Los Angeles living. The album proves riveting throughout, and is also available as a dark purple vinyl edition, featuring design and layout work by Jeff Holmes and original artwork by Jonathan Keeton.
Album opener “La Tierra Drift” rides on a warming mixture of twangy guitars and caressing synths, bolstered by hazy, steady vocal precision — altogether reminding fondly of Spiritualized in aesthetic, especially as the more vibrant guitar distortion flashes in the closing sequence.
The ensuing “Ultra Azul” is another gorgeous piece of songwriting, “Find the calming waters, wade into their offers,” the vocals let out amidst shimmering guitar jangles, arriving thereafter into lingering guitar intrigue — which combined with post-punk rhythmic nostalgia reminds enjoyably of Chameleons UK and The Church.
A range of invigorating distortion and vibe-y jangling also takes hold on “Beyond The Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras),” stirring especially in its magnetic “we endeavor for stillness” refrain and ensuing “we are woven” artfulness, where spacious guitar trickling and climactic percussion drive into scenic lyrical enthrallment: “Dark clouds congregate / Around mountains to relay.”
Twilight & Resonance consistently enthralls in its atmospheric, melodically unfolding productions — seamlessly melding post-punk, shoegaze, and psychedelia.
“Ultra Azul” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
IGGY MAGAZINE (France)
The Blackout Transmission collective, hailing from New Mexico, unveils its second album, Twilight & Resonance. This eight-track record marks a notable evolution, leaving behind the urban hustle of Los Angeles for the vast desert expanses of the Mountain West, offering a more introspective and expansive sonic experience.
Right from the opening track, "La Tierra Drift," the band immerses the listener in an ethereal atmosphere, blending reverberated guitars with enveloping synths. The following tracks, such as "Ultra Azul" and "Ascension (Towards Sangre Skies)," showcase their ability to fuse the tension of post-punk with the fluidity of shoegaze, while addressing contemporary social themes with poetic urgency. Like us, you will be swept away by this high-quality musical interlude, igniting a deeper desire to explore Blackout Transmission’s musical catalog.
"When the Aspens Turn" evokes the changing landscapes of the desert, while "Las Estrellas en Alta" and "Kairos" delve into more mechanical and meditative sonic textures, reminiscent of the aesthetics of bands like Neu! and Slowdive. These compositions reflect meticulous sound exploration, where each note feels deliberate and each silence meaningful.
Available in a dark purple vinyl edition, Twilight & Resonance features cover art designed by Jeff Holmes and original illustrations by Jonathan Keeton, reflecting the mystical spirit of the desert. This album stands as a transitional work where Blackout Transmission transcends geographical and musical boundaries, offering a listening experience that is both introspective and expansive. Without further ado, dive into this musical break below.
LOOP SOLITAIRE (United Kingdom)
https://loopsolitaire.co.uk/blog/blackout-transmission-twilight-resonance/
With Twilight & Resonance, Blackout Transmission offers a captivating journey across wide desert skies and the even vaster terrains of the inner self. This sophomore album from the New Mexico-based collective blends immersive rock arrangements with psychedelic warmth, dreamy textures, and a deep emotional current that pulses throughout its eight tracks. Each song feels tethered to a place, a memory, or a shift in atmosphere, creating a record that feels as lived-in as it does visionary.
There’s a richness to the production that immediately draws you in. The band’s signature use of layered guitars kaleidoscopic soundscape that invites repeated listens. Tracks like “La Tierra Drift” set the tone early with hypnotic guitar patterns that seem to stretch toward the horizon, guided by steady percussion and melodic basslines that bring shape to the haze. The song captures the feeling of transition, moving from city chaos to open air with an emotional clarity that lingers long after.
“Ultra Azul” pushes the envelope with analog textures and shifting tones, creating a cosmic swirl of sound that manages to feel grounded by its emotional weight. The balance between vintage effects and focused songwriting is a highlight throughout the album, and nowhere is it more striking than on “Ascension (Towards Sangre Skies),” a track that builds to a soaring, cathartic conclusion without losing its intimacy.
There’s a subtle thread of singer-songwriter introspection underneath the album’s shoegaze and post-punk elements. The lyrics unfold with poetic restraint, allowing the mood to speak as much as the message. “When the Aspens Turn” channels that dynamic well, pairing jangly guitar melodies with reflections on change and seasonality. The folk undercurrent adds depth to the dreamy aesthetic, giving each track a sense of purpose that’s emotional rather than just sonic.
Closing track “Kairos” ties it all together in an expansive blend of analog pulses and whispered urgency. It’s a moment of stillness within movement, mirroring the album’s overall ability to explore motion without ever feeling rushed. Vocals float in and out like thoughts on the wind, reinforcing the album’s meditative quality.
Twilight & Resonance is a fully realized experience. With its mix of psychedelic guitars, post-punk roots, and moments of quiet folk intimacy, the record creates a unique world that feels both vast and personal. Blackout Transmission has crafted something that sounds timeless and grounded, a reflection of landscape and spirit fused into a cohesive and beautifully produced whole.
WE WRITE ABOUT MUSIC (USA)
https://www.wewriteaboutmusic.com/reviews/blackout-transmission-twilight-and-resonance
Blackout Transmission finds transcendence in the desert on “Twilight & Resonance”
With Twilight & Resonance, New Mexico’s Blackout Transmission have given the world an album that feels timeless and undeniably original. The post-punk shoegaze collective, once rooted in the dense sprawl of Los Angeles, has traded neon-lit freeways for open horizons, and the change in scenery reverberates through every second of this mesmerizing eight-track journey. Released via Etxe Records, this sophomore effort captures the feeling of twilight in sound form.
From the first moment, Twilight & Resonance feels like an evolution rather than a reinvention. The band’s signature intensity remains intact, but there’s newfound space in the sound, like an expansiveness that has taken on their new city surroundings. The album is drenched in texture from reverberating guitars, basslines that pulse with heartbeats, and percussion that feels organic. Every instrument breathes within the mix, creating an immersive and psychedelic listening experience that’s equal parts meditative and cathartic.
Clocking in at 34 minutes, the album is the literal definition of cohesive! It’s best experienced in one sitting, the kind of record that unfolds gradually, revealing hidden layers and lyrical motifs on each listen. The production, lush but not overdone, allows the band’s intricate interplay to shine. One of our favorite things in a record is the track order and how they manage to balance the energy. Whoever was in charge of that here absolutely stuck the landing.
On the lyrical end, the band channels the tension between urban detachment and rural stillness, crafting poetic lines that actually make you think. It’s music that looks outward at vast landscapes but also turns inward, exploring the resonance of solitude, distance, and connection. The result feels like something that could soundtrack a movie.
The influences are clear, from UK-inspired shoegaze, neo-psychedelia, and darkwave, but they’re never derivative. Instead, the band revitalizes the genre with sincerity. There’s a sense of craftsmanship that demands the full vinyl experience. In fact, the forthcoming dark purple edition (pic below), featuring Jeff Holmes’ design and Jonathan Keeton’s artwork, promises to be the ideal vessel for this collection’s visual and sonic beauty.
Ultimately they’ve created a work of stunning cohesion and atmosphere, like an album that bridges the gap between post-punk urgency and mysticism. It’s essential listening for those who crave music that doesn’t just play, but transports. In a world that moves too fast, this record dares to slow down, to drift, and to find meaning in the hum between twilight and dawn.
Without all the fancy words, the record is legitimately amazing and deserves your undivided attention to really take it all in! Go ahead and click those links below to enjoy, follow along, pick up a record, and of course to stay tuned for the latest.
MUSIK GALAXIE (Germany)
https://www.musikgalaxie.com/post/twilight-resonance-von-blackout-transmission
"Twilight & Resonance" by Blackout Transmission is an impressive testament to both sonic and spiritual transformation. Having departed from the urban noise of Los Angeles for the vast silence of New Mexico's high desert, the band channels their new environment into a hypnotic blend of post-punk density and shoegaze atmosphere. Every note seems to hover in heat and wind, vibrating between isolation and transcendence. The result is an album that sounds as if it were unearthed from ancient sands, drenched in reverb, and reassembled under a violet twilight sky. The opening track, "La Tierra Drift," serves as a compass for the journey ahead—an invitation to leave the pulse of the city behind and surrender to open space.
The guitars shimmer like sunlight on stone, stretching and collapsing in slow motion, while Goett's voice drifts through the haze like a half-remembered dream sequence. This is a song about place and displacement, about finding balance between the human and the elemental. The production is crystal clear yet serene, allowing every frequency to breathe and reflecting the vastness of the landscape that inspired it.
Tracks like "Ultra Azul" and "Ascension (Towards Sangre Skies)" deepen the exploration of contrasts between chaos and calm, shadow and light. "Ultra Azul" rises on phase-shifted guitars that seem to melt into the sky, while "Ascension" pulses with a steady rhythm embodying collective resilience.
In these songs lies a cosmic urgency, as if the band is mapping emotional topographies through shifting timbres and rhythmic mirages. "When the Aspens Turn," on the other hand, offers a moment of silent reverence—its repetitive refrain capturing the fragile beauty of transience. Elsewhere, "Las Estrellas en Alta" pulses with a celestial rhythm, weaving the mechanical precision of motorik beats with vast, dreamlike soundscapes. Every layer feels deliberate yet organic—a testament to Blackout Transmission's mastery in blending analog warmth with atmospheric experimentation. The finale, "Kairos," arrives like a ritual—patient, cyclical, transcendent.
Guitars shimmer like desert heat, synthesizers pulse like breaths, and Goett's vocals rise through the static haze until everything transitions into pure resonance. With "Twilight & Resonance," Blackout Transmission has created more than just an album—it is a meditative experience shaped by landscape, time, and transformation. Their sound has expanded into something panoramic yet deeply intimate—an echo of both solitude and belonging. It is one of those rare albums that seems to exist between worlds: where the edginess of post-punk meets the boundless expanse of shoegaze, and where music becomes a mirror of the soul, in search of stillness amidst endless motion.
HYPEHUB MAGAZINE (USA)
https://www.hypehubmagazine.com/2025/10/blackout-transmission-illuminate-high.html
Blackout Transmission illuminate the high desert psyche with new album "Twilight & Resonance"
HypeHub Magazine. / October 21, 2025
New Mexico's very own post-punk Blackout Transmission rises from the ashes of previous incarnations with the release of their latest project, "Twilight & Resonance," through Etxe Records. Over eight tracks and 34 minutes, the band exchanges its characteristic metallic hum of Los Angeles for the open skies and reflective solitude of the Mountain West, marking a decisive new turn towards sound and vision.
As much a spiritual document as a musical one, the album effectively captures the evolution of an artist wheeled out of the city and remade within the peaceful residence of high desert grasses. The band establishes a meditative atmosphere from the get-go with the opening track, "La Tierra Drift", the lyrics are all cinematic, immersing you in the textures of nature. At the same time, the music churns with glowing distortion and melody. It's up to you to breathe deeper, feel every gust of desert wind.
The trip goes on with "Ultra Azul", a hallucinatory meditation on time and self-expansion, and "Ascension (Towards Sangre Skies)", which finds the band's post-punk urgency flaring up against the forces of human judgment. But in the midst of all that intensity, a track like "When the Aspens Turn" provides quiet fury, serving as another reminder that resilience so often springs from reflection. Its standout closer, "Kairos," embodies something profound about the album; it's a meditation on moments that define us. It's a haunting, transcendent end of an episode that will haunt long after the last note rings out.
With each listen to Twilight & Resonance, new constellations, faint echoes, and lyrical threads form both within the album and between its tracks. With artwork by Jeff Holmes and original art by Jonathan Keeton, the pressing is on 180-gram dark purple vinyl. It brings to life the album's dusky mystique, an LP worthy of collectors of ethereal soundscapes and introspective travels.
Twilight & Resonance is a threshold. Step inside and you are transported between worlds, where night meets morning, where Resonance becomes revelation.
ROADIE MUSIC (Brasil)
Twilight & Resonance | Blackout Transmission releases an album that blends the urban environment of Los Angeles with the expansive desert of the Mountain West
Diego Pinheiro / outubro 20, 2025
The gentle, soft, and delicate manner in which the song begins is truly impressive. Blending a narcotic bed from the keyboard with a fragile rhythmic beat and a carefully tinkling guitar amidst its sharp riff, "La Tierra Drift" promotes an intersection between torpor, introspection, and reflection. Aromatic and comforting, the track stands out by lifting the weight of time and space, leaving the listener floating in their own orbit of tranquility—something that remains unchanged even with the presence of a softly deep male timbre.
Maintaining this same line of soothing and tranquilly ecstatic elements, the new composition unfolds within an equally delicate structure. Interestingly, the listener encounters a more precise rhythmic drive here, though it does not undermine the structural vulnerability of the composition. Narcotic to the point of bordering on the esoteric, "Ultra Azul," narrated by an exceedingly serene male voice, is graced by slightly sour pulses, calculatedly inserted by the bass into its melodic foundation.
Enchanting, the developing track features a keyboard responsible for constructing a transcendental sonic foundation that makes it overtly intoxicating. Thanks to a carefully syncopated rhythmic scope, the composition is not only graced by a swinging sense of smoothness but also imbues its ecosystem with an appealing sense of movement. Elevating the esoteric notion identified in "Ultra Azul," "Ascension (Sangre Skies)" stands out for providing a kind of penetrating, spirited experience that robs the listener of all lucidity.
It feels as if, from atop a hill, the listener could witness the birth of the day in the distance. As the darkness of night gradually takes on purplish tones with the progressive touch of sunlight, the idea of rebirth and life begins to fill the ecosystem undergoing its own genesis. Lexically narcotic and introspective, it is surprising to encounter the dramatic nuances that its instrumental scope offers. It is important to mention that "Calantha Dawn" even carries an epic character that makes it remarkable amidst its reflective breezes.
The syncopation enters with considerable finesse against the track's initial landscape. With precise and consistent drumming perceived within a softened rhythmic motion, the bass takes over the melodic foundation with the reverberation of its deep tone, giving the music a curiously attractive sinister touch. As the guitar develops the melody, however, freshness assumes hypnotizing transcendental silhouettes that, when coming into contact with the base guitar's sound, acquire a slightly sticky sense of melancholy. Serene, introspective, and even aromatic, "When The Aspens Turn" stands out for its contemplative energy and lexically vulnerable sonic nuances.
It may seem simplistic, but the truth is that Twilight & Resonance can be accurately defined in one word: "esoteric." Of course, when dealing with a material that includes an eight-track listing, this single word isn’t enough to fully describe the work in its entirety.
With delicate, aromatic, and amorphous textures, the album stands out by crafting sonic landscapes that blend intimacy, reflection, and transcendence. In this mix, however, it’s the spirited character that binds the genetic layers together. This is because the synthesizer, keyboard, and guitar play a crucial role in constructing a touching sensory spectrum, allowing individuals to connect with the deepest parts of their own essence.
While this may be more noticeable in the album’s first five tracks, the record as a whole is a sonic journey into the unimaginable—a stroll through the oneiric with mystical undertones. Twilight & Resonance thus establishes itself as a work that fuses psychedelic post-punk with rural shoegaze.
Mais informações:
Spoitify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/artist/4n2ykF3x1012RcXlPEUDYs
ETXE Records: https://www.etxerecords.com/blackout-transmission
YouTube: https://soundcloud.com/blackouttransmission
Bandcamp: https://blackouttransmission.bandcamp.com/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRx4tFtO0fEkUONQQR7o1Bh8sX_I-824L
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackout_transmission/
PITCH PERFECT (USA)
https://www.pitchperfectsite.com/indie-music-album-reviews/blackout-transmission-twilight-resonance
10/21/2025
By Matt Jensen
Twilight & Resonance begins like an exhale, the kind that empties the lungs after too long under fluorescent light. There’s a gravitational calm at work here, a pull toward stillness that feels earned. Blackout Transmission have returned from the mesas and monsoon skies of New Mexico sounding utterly renewed, as if the desert had dissolved the static that once clung to their Los Angeles era. Their second record, released through Etxe Records, pares back the noise and density of their debut in favor of something sharper and more elemental. What remains is their sense of vastness, the shimmer between melody and mirage, but now filtered through a rawer, more deliberate lens.
I could feel the album tracing a kind of spiritual migration, the band searching for balance between memory and reinvention, between human presence and the natural expanse that swallows it. “La Tierra Drift” sets the tone with a patient groove, its white noise and steady pulse carrying a sort of Lou Reed nonchalance. The vocals move naturally within a tight range while the hook opens up, letting waves of reverb spill across the mix. It’s pure shoegaze in its texture but confident in restraint.
“Ultra Azul” sharpens the edges a bit. The guitars glint with more clarity, and I liked how the delays build into a soft blur that never fully resolves. The vocals here are some of the most melodic on the record, hovering above the mix like a second instrument rather than a narrator. “Ascension (Sangre Skies)” continues that balancing act between haze and intention, its picked guitars chiming against a relaxed vocal delivery that keeps everything grounded.
My favorite track, “Calantha Dawn,” feels like the band’s most transcendent moment. There’s a post-rock sweep to it, something both ethereal and epic, that draws emotion from texture as much as from melody. The bass anchors the whole thing beautifully, keeping the song from floating entirely into abstraction.
“When the Aspens Turn” carries a soft melancholy that transforms in the vocal phrasing, while “Las Estrellas En Alta” folds in a hint of Americana, its slide guitar glowing like desert twilight. By the time“Beyond the Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras)” hits, the band channels a slow-motion intensity that recalls Slowdive at their most panoramic. “Kairos” closes the record with open-air serenity, as if the wind itself were the final instrument.
Twilight & Resonance is a gorgeous evolution, a record that connects its songs like constellations, each one distinct yet orbiting a shared emotional center. It’s spacious, patient, and alive with quiet conviction. I kept wanting to play it again just to stay inside its atmosphere a little longer.
APRICOT MAGAZINE (USA)
BLACKOUT TRANSMISSION REDEFINE DESERT DREAMSCAPES WITH TWILIGHT & RESONANCE
New Mexico’s post-punk shoegaze collective Blackout Transmission returns with Twilight & Resonance, their highly anticipated second album released on October 10, 2025, via Etxe Records. It’s not just an album but an immersive sonic landscape — a journey through shifting deserts, fading light, and the emotional resonance that lingers long after the sun dips below the horizon. Spanning eight mesmerizing tracks, this record captures the essence of transformation, displacement, and rediscovery in a world that often feels untethered.
Trading the urban intensity of Los Angeles for the still, reflective atmosphere of the high desert, Blackout Transmission crafts an album that feels both expansive and intimate. The move from city to solitude has clearly seeped into every corner of their music, shaping it into something deeply spiritual yet unmistakably raw. Their signature blend of post-punk urgency and shoegaze immersion remains, but here it’s filtered through a new lens — one filled with sand, wind, and starlight.
Twilight & Resonance is a record born of place and perspective. It’s rooted in New Mexico’s endless skies and its emotional echoes, exploring what happens when the external landscape mirrors the internal. The band’s sound has matured into something cinematic, guided by an unflinching attention to tone, atmosphere, and texture. Their reverb-heavy guitars shimmer like heatwaves, while the rhythm section provides a sense of grounded motion, propelling the listener through dreamlike terrains.
The album opens with La Tierra Drift, a haunting yet hopeful piece that sets the tone for everything to follow. The song captures that feeling of movement — both physical and spiritual — as frontman Goett’s evocative vocals drift across a field of cascading guitars and rippling basslines. It’s a moment of release, of trading noise for nature, chaos for calm. His lyrics reflect on leaving behind the crowded hum of the city for the quiet call of the desert, painting images of “southern bound birdsong and budding cones of piñon.” The sound is patient, organic, and alive, unfolding like a sunrise over an unfamiliar horizon.
From there, Ultra Azul bursts forward in a swirl of psychedelia and power. Phase-shifted guitars and analog delay form a kaleidoscope of sound that blurs the boundaries between structure and surrender. Goett’s voice becomes an instrument in itself, echoing through the layers of distortion and light. It’s a track that builds to a crescendo before dissolving into pure ambience — the kind of sonic tension that Blackout Transmission handles with effortless grace.
If Ultra Azul represents chaos giving way to peace, Ascension (Sangre Skies) embodies defiance rising from the dust. It’s the most socially charged song on the record, addressing division and disillusionment with a sense of urgent reflection. The verses simmer with tension before breaking into an anthemic final section where Goett sings about transcending boundaries and “rising above the tree line.” The song carries the intensity of early post-punk but expands it with the cinematic scope of shoegaze, creating something that feels timeless yet utterly current.
On When The Aspens Turn, the band captures nostalgia in its purest form. Shimmering guitars evoke autumn light filtering through trees, while the rhythm flows like a heartbeat. It’s deceptively simple — just a few chords and a repeating vocal line — yet it speaks volumes about memory and impermanence. The track recalls the beauty of Slowdive’s Souvlaki and the emotional clarity of The Cure’s most introspective moments.
The band’s experimental edge comes to the forefront with Las Estrellas en Alta. A mix of shimmering synths, modulated guitar tones, and precise drumming creates a hypnotic pulse that feels mechanical and organic all at once. Ivey’s drumming anchors the track in motorik rhythm reminiscent of Neu!, while the layers of sound drift like distant clouds across a night sky. It’s both grounded and transcendent, offering a meditation on change and cycles.
The record builds toward its conclusion with Beyond the Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras) and Kairos, both of which exemplify the album’s themes of reflection and revelation. Beyond the Sight Lines leans into darker textures, its title suggesting unseen distances and hidden truths. The interplay between the guitars and bass forms a haunting dialogue, with Goett’s voice emerging like a signal through static. It’s introspective yet cinematic, evoking vast open spaces both physical and emotional.
The closing track Kairos feels like the record’s spiritual center. Named for the ancient Greek concept of the opportune moment, it’s a meditation on presence and awareness. Layers of guitars, sequencers, and ambient textures move in sync like breathing. The rhythm is steady but never static, pulsing like a heartbeat under starlight. Goett’s double-tracked vocals drift through the mix, half-whisper, half-incantation, guiding the listener through one final moment of transcendence. As the song fades, it leaves behind the impression of both ending and beginning — a fitting conclusion for an album so concerned with cycles and transformation.
Every detail of Twilight & Resonance feels intentional. The dark purple vinyl edition is a visual extension of its sound, rich and enigmatic. The artwork by Jonathan Keeton and design by Jeff Holmes perfectly encapsulate the record’s atmosphere — a collision of earth and sky, motion and stillness. It’s a project that thrives on contrasts, using them not to create conflict but harmony.
Ultimately, Twilight & Resonance is more than an album; it’s an experience of place, emotion, and evolution. Blackout Transmission have created something that resonates far beyond the confines of genre — a record that feels as vast and alive as the desert that inspired it. For listeners drawn to the intersection of post-punk, dream pop, and ambient rock, this is essential listening. It’s music that doesn’t just occupy space but transforms it, turning every listen into a personal journey between twilight and resonance.
APOLLO’S HARP (Egypt)
https://www.apollosharp.in/blog/album-review/-post-rock-blackout-transmissions-twilight-resonance
Oct 22
The listening experience of Blackout Transmission’s ‘Twilight & Resonance’ is extraordinary. A collection that grows full with dazing textures, vibrations, and luminosity. Sound that is dimensionalized with space and human emotions. It’s as if the artist introduced the song through the filters of the human experience. And what comes out on the other side carries beautiful moments of it. It’s not just sound, it’s a sense of style that is viscerally informed by a sense of self.
The album opens with ‘La Tierra Drift’. It’s a sound that comes out of the song. A mellow acoustic guitar line floats within a moody atmospheric drift of riffs and synths. Like a fly caught in amber, the song contrasts sharp sounds with dazed and dispersed moments. An interesting post rock performance. Even in tracks like ‘Calantha Dawn’ and ‘Las Estrellas En Alfa’, we see these sounds floating into each other. Like clouds passing through each other. The spatial patterns and explorations that the artists get into are quite fantastic.
‘Ultra Azul’ is marked by its emphatic beat line and is contrasted by the dispersing baritones. The shoegaze textures are never far behind in this album. They fog up the mind, casting a strange clarity as you process through it. ‘Beyond the Sight Lines’ also creates horizons. The phantom landscapes that form in your mind start to reveal something in your reality. It has such a contemplative pulse, and gives you that space to spread out into it and discover parts of yourself, of time, of feelings.
‘Kairos’ concludes the album. All the dreamy, surreal moments of the collection culminate here. The twilight frames, blues and purples are all over you, drenching you in its mystery and empathy. As the vocals slowly disappear into the oncoming darkness, the final streak of resonance holds a beautiful luminescence. The glistening piano melodies, the warm bass lines and the bleaching riffs. It all feels transient, like you’re walking through a whole other world on your way back home.
FALCODICE (United Kingdom)
https://falcodice.com/album-review-blackout-transmission-twilight-resonance/
With Twilight & Resonance, Blackout Transmission trades the neon buzz of Los Angeles for the windswept silence of the Mountain West — and the result is a record as expansive and meditative as the landscape that inspired it. The New Mexico-based post-punk/shoegaze collective returns with a sophomore album that’s both a sonic evolution and a spiritual recalibration. Across eight tracks and 34 seamless minutes, the band explores themes of displacement, grounding, and inner clarity — not through lyrical exposition, but through mood, texture, and a hypnotic sense of space. While their signature darkwave roots remain intact, this record reaches deeper into the soil, reflecting the band’s journey from urban noise to desert stillness.
The opening track, La Tierra Drift, sets the tone with shimmering, reverb-laden guitars and ambient bass lines that glide beneath poetic reflections on place and memory. Tracks like Ultra Azul and When The Aspens Turn showcase the band’s deft layering of analog effects, phase-shifted tremolo, and tape-warped ambience — evoking the psychedelic lineage of bands like Ride, Slowdive, and Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, while remaining firmly rooted in their own sonic identity. Ascension (Sangre Skies) delivers one of the album’s most urgent moments, marrying post-punk tension with melodic uplift, while Las Estrellas en Alta pulses with Neu!-inspired rhythm and dreamlike synth atmospheres, blurring the line between the mechanical and the mystical.
Closing with Kairos, the band fully leans into their existential leanings — exploring the weight of presence and time through analog synth pulses and cavernous vocal echoes. The result is an album that rewards immersion. Every detail — from the crackle of vintage amps to the carefully layered reverbs — serves the larger narrative arc. Twilight & Resonance is not just a collection of songs; it’s a geographic and emotional landscape rendered in sound. For fans of post-punk, ambient shoegaze, and psych-inflected introspection, this is essential listening. It’s music for the dusk hours — when shadows stretch, silence deepens, and the inner world begins to speak.
MUSIC FOR ALL (Brasil)
Antonio Mendes
October 22, 2025
Blackout Transmission's debut album was 2021's "Sparse Illumination." Since then, the New Mexico band has been out of recording for a while, but they've resurfaced with this album, "Twilight & Resonance." In their shoegaze post-punk style, the sound stands out for its acidity and complexity. The Etxe Records release allowed the album to be equipped with eight songs, including the atmospheric "La Tierra Drift." Here, a true journey through musical sensuality will penetrate your ears, making you increasingly excited by its magic. This first moment of the album acts as a red carpet for the great star's entrance.
During the short hiatus, the band made a geographic shift, leaving Los Angeles, an urban city with a large volume of commerce, nightlife, and residents, to focus more on the mountains to the west, where an endless desert stretches. You can see this landscape by looking at the album cover, which is a great representation. In the meantime, you can continue enjoying the next song, "Ultra Azul," a combination of elements that creates a soft, smoky melody. With a light cadence, the track obediently follows the rhythm dictated by the guitar riff, which uses a clean, metallic timbre.
This new phase of Blackout Transmission ushered in an evolution in the band's creative approach. While this is evident, the essence that identifies their sound is always permeating the mood of their songs. A perfect garage sound inspired by the post-punk movement that began in the late '70s and continued through the '80s. It's with this nostalgic vibe that songs like "Ascension (Sangre Skies)" resonate. A song that vividly recalls the back alleys populated by youth free from social constraints, where music and diverse body language communicated in clubs filled with smoke and cheap booze.
For vinyl lovers, good news: "Twilight & Resonance" was released in this format with Jeff Holmes's layout. The original artwork was designed by Jonathan Keeton. The "record" is dark purple to match the cover's earthy, natural colors. Some songs in the repertoire hint at something more virtuosic, bordering on psychedelia, like the instrumental "Calantha Dawn." A gift packaged by the duo Christopher Goett and Nathaniel Donaldson, who lead the project. A truly transcendental and intimate journey through the ideas of these musicians and composers.
The album essentially reflects Blackout Transmission's shift in philosophical direction and rational direction. In other words, the Blackout Transmission that began its work in Los Angeles is not the same as the one that now focuses its foundations on the deserted mountainous West. Songs like "When The Aspens Turn" help transport us to this new direction. The soft touch of the riffs, the introspective groove of the vocals, and the increasingly soluble vocals form a kind of identity that will gradually define the project's banner and its structural metamorphoses.
An interesting fact about this album is that, although some songs exceed five minutes, the repertoire never becomes overwhelming. The variations surprise the listeners, and even songs like "Las Estrellas En Alta" are among the longest, their charm is felt at all levels of enjoyment. The sound is formed by textures that make the listening experience more engaging. Everything here is versatile, everything is innovative, without immediacy, everything in its own time, strongly expressing the musical and lyrical quality. From the beginning of the song, with a brief bagpipe emulation, to its final chord, a melodic tapestry envelops us.
"Twilight & Resonance" is an album that's just over half an hour long, and if you surrender to its layers of sound, you'll go far into thought and meditation. Audiences for climactic post-punk, psychedelic shoegaze, or psychedelic folk can't hide from this. Although it's a niche audience, as its songs don't scale like pasteurized, shelf-stable songs, we easily find a catalog of several anthems here. Anthems like "Beyond The Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras)" feels like an ultralight trip over the mountain landscape.
To conclude this journey, the song "Kairos" closes the album's playlist as one of the most profound songs on the list. Light texture, intimate melody, and a soothing harmonies are what this song brings. In fact, it's just a glimpse of the essence we began to sense from the first track. The difference is that here some guitar distortions set the tone, but the concept, embellishment, and final product follow an untouchable standard. With this work, Blackout Transmission manages to bring together all the delicacy, sensitivity, and musicality of a melancholic style that, at the same time, becomes liberating.
Find out more at:
https://www.etxerecords.com/blackout-transmission
https://soundcloud.com/blackouttransmission
https://blackouttransmission.bandcamp.com
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRx4tFtO0fEkUONQQR7o1Bh8sX_I-824L
https://www.instagram.com/blackout_transmission
MESMERIZED MAG (United Kingdom)
Blackout Transmission Deliver Aural Escapism in New Album ‘Twilight & Resonance’
Written By Gabriel Mazza
Published on 23/10/2025
This record is for all the dreamers out there. For all the humans in search of escapism and abstraction. ‘Twilight & Resonance’ is exactly what you were looking for. Penned by New Mexico-based post-punk and shoegaze outfit Blackout Transmission, the album feels as expansive and sonically large as it could be. Fuzzy and spacious guitar tones create a sense of infinity in each song, an aural dreamscape that’s lush and intense, quite poignant too. Opener ‘La Tierra Drift’ is the perfect evidence of that.
Later on, ‘Twilight & Resonance’ seems to blink an eye to ethereal, shimmering indie-pop (’Ultra Azul’ and ‘When The Aspens Turn’), but always coming back home to noisy and chaotic post-punk goodness (‘Las Estrellas En Alta’). A certain cinematic prowess is observed in ‘Calantha Dawn’, with the track itself offering a whirlwind of opposing emotions and personal catharsis.
Whichever way you look at it, there’s no doubt that ‘Twilight & Resonance’ threads the fine line between spacious escapism and urban chaos, a contrast that can also be found in the collective’s own creative space, moving between Los Angeles and the New Mexican desert-laden natural landscape.
Packing eight malleable and chill pieces, ‘Twilight & Resonance’ is also available in a dark purple vinyl edition, featuring design and layout work by Jeff Holmes and original artwork by Jonathan Keeton. Overall, the record marks out point of entry into Blackout Transmission’s artistic universe, a space we won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Recommended!
EXTRA VA FRENCH (France)
Blackout Transmission Unveils "Twilight & Resonance": The Mirage of the Inner Desert
Published October 24, 2025
From the ochre heights of New Mexico, Blackout Transmission charts a path few dare to follow. Their new album, Twilight & Resonance, released on October 10, 2025, under the Etxe Records label, is a sensory odyssey: eight tracks to traverse an arid landscape where each note seems sculpted by wind and silence.
The band, now far from the urban frenzy of Los Angeles, embarks on a journey into the heart of the desert and themselves, blending atmospheric post-punk with hallucinatory shoegaze. Here, the guitar becomes a mirage, the bass a compass, and Christopher Goett's voice acts as a whispered prayer at twilight. Light, dust, doubt—everything becomes sonic material. The entire album floats between two states: dream and consciousness.
La Tierra Drift
The album opens with a breath. Reverberated guitars unfold like a heat haze above the sand. Goett sings "urban murmurs and side-eyes" fading behind "southern bound birdsong." The imagery is striking: a man leaving the city to reconnect with the earth. Everything is slow, hypnotic, yet charged with an underlying tension. It recalls Ocean Rain by Echo & the Bunnymen, those soundscapes where melancholy dissolves in light.
Ultra Azul
The most psychedelic track on the album. The guitars spin, blend, and tumble into whirlpools of analog delay. The voice is lost in reverb, as if emerging from a submerged cathedral. Midway, the song collapses into a bath of blue distortion—a marine echo in a dusty desert. It's the beating heart of the album, the one that makes time capsize.
Ascension (Sangre Skies)
The tension rises. Here, the band revisits the post-punk edginess of their beginnings: tight drumming, magnetic bass, guitars cutting like shards of glass. But instead of anger, a sense of elevation prevails. "Rise above the tree-line" repeats Goett—a near-political mantra, a call to rise above fear and division. The luminous final coda evokes a sunrise over the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
Calantha Dawn
A lull. Everything becomes more airy, almost ambient. The track unfolds over diaphanous synth layers, suspended guitars, and barely perceptible drums. It’s a moment to breathe. The title suggests a fragile, ephemeral bloom at dawn. A suspended instant before the journey resumes.
When The Aspens Turn
One of the peaks of Twilight & Resonance. The song is built on a circular guitar melody, heartbreakingly beautiful, streaked with golden reflections. It speaks of change, the end of seasons, life continuing despite everything. The production, broad and organic, is reminiscent of Souvlaki by Slowdive—an infinite space where every sound breathes.
Las Estrellas En Alta
The most mechanical facet of the band. Drum machines and modulated guitars intertwine in perpetual motion, almost krautrock. Think Neu! filtered through Mazzy Star’s dream. Ivey’s percussion traces a hypnotic path while the synths stretch toward the horizon. It’s a night song, studded with stars and shadows.
Beyond The Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras)
A passage toward the invisible. The track floats between post-rock and ambient, with each instrument seeming to dissolve into the distance. The "nubes oscuras"—those "dark clouds"—become a metaphor: for thoughts, doubt, mourning. The emotion is raw, contained within almost sacred silences.
Kairos
The perfect finale. "Kairos," the Greek word for "the right moment," concludes the album like an epiphany. The rhythm, slow and mechanical, evokes the heartbeat of a cosmic machine. The guitars stack up, the doubled voice becomes spectral, and everything merges into an infinite echo—that of a world where every resonance matters.
Twilight & Resonance is an album of transition: between the tangible world and dreams, between humanity and the landscape. Blackout Transmission boldly embraces silence and slowness in an overstimulated era. An album to listen to with half-closed eyes, somewhere between earth and sky, when the day fades, and everything turns blue.
An album for wanderers, contemplatives, insomniacs. An album where every sound is a footprint on the warm sand of twilight.
Rock Era Magazine (Egypt)
https://rockeramagazine.com/blackout-transmission-twilight-resonance/
UNDER THE SAME STRANGE SKY
OCTOBER 24, 2025
Twilight & Resonance is, indeed, magnetic. The way it opens, breathes, and unfolds like dusk settling over an unfamiliar landscape. With this second record, Blackout Transmission sound like a band that has shed its skin. Once anchored in the sprawl of Los Angeles, they now channel the hush and expanse of New Mexico’s desert air. The shift isn’t just geographical; it’s spiritual. The noise is still there, but it’s been purified: stretched out, softened, and made luminous.
“La Tierra Drift” sets the tone with a slow shimmer that feels like dust rising in the heat. The guitars glisten, not in a polished way, but in that imperfect, hypnotic way that lets you breathe between notes. It’s patient, grounded, and quietly cinematic. By the time “Ultra Azul” arrives, the pulse tightens. The rhythm section locks into this steady, motorik thrum, while the guitars flicker and blur around it, all motion and mirage. The sound feels lived-in, not crafted for effect but discovered in real time.
“Ascension (Sangre Skies)” hovers somewhere between a confession and an invocation. The vocals drift like vapor, detached but tender, while the music swells beneath them like wind over red earth. There’s beauty in its restraint; the band knows when to hold back, when to let a melody almost escape before reeling it back in. “Calantha Dawn,” on the other hand, expands into something more panoramic: a slow-motion bloom that blurs post-rock and dream pop into a single glowing horizon.
Each track feels connected, like a constellation rather than a playlist. “When The Aspens Turn” aches in amber tones, while “Las Estrellas en Alta” folds in gentle percussion that beats like a pulse under the stars. And then comes “Beyond the Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras),” the record’s storm center: dense, unhurried, breathtaking in its gravity. It swells until the edges blur, and suddenly you’re not sure if you’re hearing guitars or weather. “Kairos” closes it all like a soft afterimage, a moment caught between fading light and first dawn.
What makes Twilight & Resonance so compelling isn’t just the sound, it’s the sense of direction. You can feel the band looking outward at vast landscapes, yet turning inward in the same breath. It’s about presence, not perfection; about distance and belonging all at once. The production is lush but organic, every layer given room to breathe. The album feels reflective, restrained, and utterly transportive.
Through Twilight & Resonance, Blackout Transmission create a language of echo and patience, where melody becomes terrain and silence feels alive. It’s music that still believes in atmosphere, in the beauty of space, texture, and time; and here it is, quietly burning under the same strange sky..
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YOU! ME! DANCING! (Brasil)
https://medium.com/youmedancing/blackout-transmission-twilight-resonance-7e748ddf01fa
The second album by Blackout Transmission is living proof that shoegaze remains strong, vibrant, and creative today.
André Salles / October 23, 2025
Based in the American state of New Mexico, Blackout Transmission is a post-punk band with influences of psychedelia and shoegaze that released their second full-length album in early October. Almost five years after their excellent debut with Sparse Illumination, the quartet now presents Twilight & Resonance, an album with eight tracks that reflect their personal and artistic growth over this time.
The album revolves around a central narrative that feels as exploratory and adventurous as it is reflective, touching on themes such as belonging, physical and emotional displacements, with an air of curiosity and resolution. The tracks tell stories that, when combined, speak of a constant search for authentic connections in an increasingly cold and distant world. These themes illustrate a genuine sense of self-awareness that can only be reached through the passage of time and lessons learned gradually.
The sound crafted by Blackout Transmission draws heavily from the classic shoegaze of the 90s, reminiscent of names like Slowdive and Ride, and even Leisure by Blur. However, their soundscapes prove to be considerably more vivid, bringing a certain positivity not commonly seen in the monochromatic panorama typical of the genre. The best example of this can be found in the instrumental "Calantha Dawn," which employs traditional dense textures and atmospheres alongside vibrant, stimulating details.
Twilight & Resonance is an album that constantly plays with expectations, showing a band capable of diving into the classics and reproducing them perfectly ("Beyond the Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras)") while also infusing the music with their own personality and charm. Their songs maintain a strong connection with the geographical space they occupy, incorporating its vastness and terrain in a sensitive and very real way—like in the impeccable opener "La Tierra Drift."
A journey as physical as it is spiritual, Blackout Transmission’s second album illustrates a band capable of evolving and expanding their horizons beyond what is expected. Nevertheless, their shoegaze remains dedicated and faithful to the style, even as the quartet shines in their experiments. Rich in relevant and current social commentary, as seen in tracks like "Kairos" and "Ascension (Sangre Skies)," the band freely plays with their own ideas, bringing with them an emotional depth and intensity that are both beautiful and profound.
Twilight & Resonance feels like a natural maturation of the work presented by the band in Sparse Illumination, but this time elevated to its maximum. A dreamlike album always rooted in reality, Blackout Transmission moves with cinematic precision and delicacy, even in their most tense moments, balancing heaviness and lightness in a way that would make Milan Kundera proud.
An album like Twilight & Resonance is a fascinating example of how shoegaze remains as alive, creative, and sharp as ever. Perhaps even more so than in the past, as Blackout Transmission manages to reference with admiration while daring with a sense of novelty. Twilight & Resonance is vibrant and pulsating from beginning to end, and a perfect illustration of its title: an introspective twilight with global reach, just like the daily dusk. A whirlwind of classic and fresh ideas fused together in their best forms, appearing so early in the career of one of the genre’s most promising names.
Don’t forget to follow and keep up with Blackout Transmission on their Instagram, YouTube, X, and Facebook pages, as well as on Spotify and Apple Music. Also, check out the official site of their record label, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp if financial support is possible, as it’s always very important for any artist. Be sure to follow our On the Radar playlist, which features their track "Beyond the Sight Lines (Nubes Oscuras)" along with other new releases.