CASTLEBEAT, Spirit Goth Records founder and half-Korean, half-Spanish artist Josh Hwang’s lo-fi indie rock project, and has released his LP "Revival". Comprising sixteen songs and clocking in at just under 47 minutes, the album drenches listeners in a lush, cobwebbed atmosphere of introspection, and shimmery, DIY-inspired craftsmanship.
Inspired by basement and garage-recorded classics, from the 60s to early 90s, the album wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, offset by layers of CASTLEBEAT’s signature glassy guitars as it travels the lo-fi sound through nostalgic memories of youth and the tracks that sound tracked our own formative experiences, learning that dreams don’t match reality, but the journey is important. Where 2024’s Stereo drifted on breezy indie-pop bliss, Revival delves into shadow and texture: a widescreen production, but one that continues to rest on the warm imperfections that make Hwang’s music so human.
The album begins with “Way Too Much,” an introspective brood of pensive restraint with an airy arrangement and moody pull that welcomes us into the pained, dreamlike world of CASTLEBEAT. Other standout tracks include “Ivy League,” whose malevolent darkwave synths are punctuated by crisp percussion, and “Tonight,” a nocturnal, hypnotic workout that comes to a simmer with hushed urgency. And “Call Me” and “With You” glisten with crystalline synth-pop brightness, provide bursts of light that help keep the record airborne in its darker moments.
For established fans, songs such as “Downtown” and “Heaven” are touchstones, reminiscent of the immediacy of their previous albums "Half Life and Nothing." But "Revival" is hardly a retread. Each song sounds meticulously layered, mixing post-punk bite, dream-pop haze and cassette-tape warmth into a record that is intended to be listened to again and again. The last song, “Never Seen Your Face,” ends the journey with haunting subtlety, its echoes hanging long after the actual record stops playing.
At root, "Revival" is a testament to perseverance and self-reinvention. It’s the culmination of almost a decade of work from CASTLEBEAT in a record that’s both comfortable and full of risk, an authentic, flawed and fiercely emotional reminder of everything that’s timeless about indie.
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