The Whitest Blackout is the debut album by Jakarta based Indie Trip-hop crew Gho$$ who recorded at Rossi Musik Jakarta. Gho$$ produced the album themselves and it was mixed by Daniel Clift Papilaya and mastered by Stephan Santoso at Slingshot Studio, Jakarta. Gho$$ are Diego Shefa Dilanegara, Dhemo Anugrah Poetra, Otin Sinambela, Daniel Clift Papilaya, Kazumasa Albert Pontoh, Madukina and Acha Mono. Most of the album was written back in 2017 but due to health issues the pandemic and life getting in the way it has taken them to 2026 to complete the album.
The album opens with Train that sounds like they are entering the scariest ghost Train track you've ever been on, its gaining speed, horror film noises and slow dark keyboards drive this train around those dark scary bends. Her is a trip hop meets Faithless style modern pop song, about the despair of someone close to the edge of ending everything, not knowing how to stop fighting and avoid falling into eternal sleep.
2N8 seems like it is a sweet modern pop banger, with cool synths and sweet vocals, with cool effects and laid-back beats, but listen a little closer and the lyrics are far darker than the music might suggest, he's had enough and need forgiveness for all those wrongs he did to you that's left you in a right state.
Idkdudethissongisawesome makes clear that he can't take it anymore, the bass drum almost sounds a bit gamelan, but the slow thoughtful synths and chimes help explain just how fucked up they feel.
Break Feat. Madukina is slow song about love falling apart, how it makes you feel when everything goes wrong, no matter how sweet the harmonies, they will still have regrets and be unable to forgive the wrongs you did to them.
My Song 6 has a heavy bassline and grinding guitars and a claustrophobic feel, for the reality that no one escapes death, no matter how great they are at turntablism. 666 isn't the normal hymn to the number of the beast, this has scratchy turntabilism, skittery percussion with the feeling that the devil really does have the last laugh, with everything that haunts you in your life, like The Avalanches really were Lucifer's finest sons.
#SADBOYSCLUB is about having the strength to admit your depressed and might need some help, rather than falling into an abyss of drink and drugs, its ok to be sad so long as you are not afraid to seek help from your friends.
Purple Season is a well-trodden tale of a guy whose girlfriends parents hate him, because they think he's weird and going to take their daughter away from them, probably also think he's not good enough for her, how do the couple find a way to convince the parents they are not as freaky as they fear they are.
Bridges takes an early digital phone ring buried beneath the synths and guitars to signal the fears they have for crossing to the other side of those bridges, trying to rectify earlier mistakes and bring resolution.
SAME is a plea to be allowed to live the life you want to live and not be forced to conform to others ideas of how you should be, they despair at all the bullying and cry out repeatedly "we're all the fucking same", it seems the pointless bullying is universal, this keeps the fraught trip hop aesthetics and adds some extra noises to make plain the exasperation of it all.
The album closes with Die And Go that is dedicated to founder member of Gho$$ guitarist Diego Aditya, this spills out all the heartbreak and sadness they feel that he wasn't able to live out a full life, cruelly cut short, this is a sad tribute to a fallen brother whose passing shattered all there lives, dreams turned to nightmares, while almost sounding like a East 17 ballad.
Find out more at https://ghoss.bandcamp.com/album/the-whitest-blackout https://www.facebook.com/ghosstheband
