After nine years long hiatus, the Melbourne-based rockers Blackchords are back with their killer, diverse record Connected // Forgotten that’ll be out on the 1st of September, 2023. Mixing their influences into something their very own while collaborating with string arranger Tamil Rogeon (Aloe Blacc, Dandy Warhols) and drummer Daniel Farrugia (Angus and Julia Stone, Missy Higgins), Blackchords are taking us into a special sound experience. Let me tell you more about it.
Blackchords opened Connected // Forgotten with the spacey psychedelic More Than You May Ever Know. It has a deep groovy bass line and jazzy clever drums, both setting the pace for the ambient mood-setting guitars, dreamy vocals, and beautifully arranged orchestrations coming ahead. What an amazing start for this musical journey. Steering towards a more upbeat sound with subtle disco influences, Trawler comes next. It has that significant enjoyable bass while incorporating more electronic elements into Blackchords’ sound, all building up with the dominating vocals and guitars towards a vintage irresistibly moving progression. Although it opens with a dark slow intro, Mystified smoothly picks up with its predecessor’s energy in a seamless fluid progression with hooking dynamic twists and turns and killer guitars. It has all the powerful Blackchords elements, this time pushing towards a bigger, catchier, and haunting sound that would be appealing to a wide range of audiences. With an emotional melancholic sound and beautiful fluid melodies, Shadows comes next. It sounds like a unique mix of Coldplay catchiness and Pink Floyd’s deeply psychedelic atmosphere, in a heartfelt piece with the perfect flow. Unending Stream dives deeper into the realms of post-rock, with its spacious big sound and psychedelic tendencies it takes us into an extremely haunting sonic trip with a breathtaking dramatic progression. Bonne Berceuse offers a chill relief as we reach the center of the record with its soothing arrangement. No Place to Be digs hard into a heart-hitting emotional sound with its dark melodies, intimidating guitars, and threatening progression. It peaks into a hurricane of streaming fluid guitars with a large sound without compromising its mood. Through The Windows picks up the mood and builds on it into a piano driven mellow pace, hitting the listeners emotions on a whole new level with a well-arranged and layered journey of sounds and floating notes. Liminal Spaces creates a build up and an atmospheric resonating sound that contrasts the raw sound of Wide Awake. Wide Awake offers a surprising sound twist right at the end of Connected // Forgotten, it has a big experimental side that’s mixed with some old-school influences in a big progression moving forward towards a bigger and more epic mellow sound, ending the record on a high emotional note.
Connected // Forgotten is a solid record and a great comeback by Blackchords, it shows their seasoned writing and well-knowledge of their sound and direction. It has some cleverly crafted and detailed structures that project lots of emotions in some extremely enjoyable arrangements. Looking forward to more from Blackchords, keep on rocking guys. Cheers!