Making good use of the lockdown, artist/songwriter Dalton decided to start writing for his solo project Luma Fade, and dropped his debut record Lunar Decay on the 22nd of December 2023, an atmospheric journey through the apocalypse. Let me tell you more about it.
Lunar Decay opens with Passion Fall, a mellow tune with a groovy flow and fluid melodies. It engages in a smooth progression that softly moves forward with a dreamy sound as atmospheric elements are added as the song’s deep emotional vibes escalate, creating a hypnotizing organic structure with diverse synth, dream pop, and subtle post-rock influences all fused creating something really original. Luma Fade steers into a more psychedelic sound in Nove Sunshine. They cleverly crafted its sound with resonating deep bass and ambient guitar melodies that slowly build the song’s melancholic sound and reach its peak when met with this heart-hitting vocal melody, keeping the listeners hooked on its touching nature. Spring Sobriety comes next building on its predecessor’s sound, while experimenting with a slightly faster pace and more dynamic structure. It has balanced layering and arrangement that allow him to deliver tight sound shifts, creating smooth escalations and powerful melodic streams with multiple elements where each element is well heard and digested.
Monsoon Morning sends some doomy/goth vibes within its dreamy core, showing another side of Luma Fade‘s writing. It has a surrounding dark sound with hard-hitting bass and a fuzzy atmosphere, deepening its emotions. Autumn Endings picks up Monsoon Morning’s mood and builds upon it, introducing some catchy, open-sounding melodies with heavy, energetic strumming while keeping the mysterious, dark vibes intact and even more powerful as they added fast heavy riffing to their mix that shook the dynamics off. Dimmer Summer keeps the melancholic mood going with some heavy influences and raw riffing mixed with Luma Fade‘s dreamy fluid sound and ambient surroundings, giving the song a mix of progressive, psychedelic, and stoner rock tastes. Loop Analog comes with a groovy flow and melodic riffs that introduce a sweet chill sense to Luma Fade‘s dark sound, and as it moves forward those melodies guide the song’s progression toward a big spacious sound without compromising its mood as it takes different shapes throughout its subtle twists and turns. Getting a more upbeat treatment as we get closer to the end of the record, comes Twilight Hours following its predecessor’s melodic riffing and flow while taking it to the next level within a spacious structure with a dreamy atmosphere filled with fat enjoyable basslines. Its sound seamlessly escalates with an inviting flow, keeping its psychedelic vibes intact while steering towards catchy, poppy twists. Winter Warming ends the record on a high note, nearly mixing every part of this journey and leaving us with a taste of Luma Fade‘s original elements from the atmospheric mood and the deeply emotional psychedelic touch to big progressions, open-sounding riffs and solid mood, all in an extremely interesting structure with a lot of exciting sound shifts that leave the listeners playing the whole record again from the top.
Lunar Decay is a great introduction to the world of Luma Fade, it shows his seasoned writing skills and well-knowledge of his sound and direction as he kept his mood and vision uncompromised throughout the whole record while freely moving between different elements and sounds. Looking forward to more from Luma Fade, keep on rocking man. Cheers!
