7 Oct 2024
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The Transits - Album Review: The Transits

13 Feb 2024 // A review by Kerry MB

The Transits self-titled debut album is a result of 3 talented musicians who sucker punch with passion, creativity and consistency, and that’s just the opening track.

With members across two countries (Dom Antelme (vocals, bass) and Tyrone Smith (drums) from Auckland, New Zealand and Ryan Lunn (vocals, guitars, synths) in Durban, South Africa, respectively.

Regardless of time zones, they combine a pretty attractive medley of synthetic pop, indie, rock and punk. It’s quite the powerhouse, made even better by the fact that they’re best mates who know themselves and what they’re created. Did I mention how much they blow it out of the water too?

Their debut is a pleasure to experience, and each track takes you on a slightly different journey, but what lies beneath each song is ultimately what it means to navigate life, with its ups and down and the chaotic world we live in.

Their newly released single, and opening track, Heartbreak Queen embodies the start of that journey, reflecting on relationships in youth, and the rollercoaster ride of it all. It’s a driving narrative peppered with such high energy and infectious riffs. A hell of a bop that automatically takes you right back to your own youth and nostalgia, but emotively, could also translate into the same rollercoaster of adulthood.

Equally as damn catchy and emotive is another single, Lost Ones. Heavily infused synth and solid riffs. It really showcases strong lyricism and solid production.

Saving the best till last, when you think these 10 tracks are already pretty damn good, wait till you reach the 9th, Light My Way Back Home and get back to me.

There is so much heart is in this track, as it speaks of the 2022 South African riots. Even with such troubled subject matter, The Transits have managed to create such beautiful and uplifting art. Trust me when I say this one will leave you sitting and thinking for a minute.

What a solid and masterful debut. This is what music is all about.

 

About The Transits

When the three original members of long-lost Durban, South Africa-based teen-punk band Cabbage reunited many years later under a new guise - the multinational The Transits - to record a song they hadn’t finished properly back in the day, they had no reasonable expectation they’d be issuing their debut self-titled album just over a year later. Yet, here we are.

Despite creating their music remotely - two of the band’s members (Dom Antelme - vocals, bass and Tyrone Smith - drums) are now based in Auckland, New Zealand, while one (Ryan Lunn - vocals, guitars, synths, production) still lives in Durban - they’ve channelled individual successes and experience in other bands and projects in the intervening years into The Transits - and they’ve made it sound effortless. Their compact, hard-hitting songs, possessing earworm melodies, classic pop-punk songwriting, searing guitar hooks and intricate production, have grabbed media attention and yielded instant success.

Within days of releasing their debut single, When You Went Away, the song was soundtracking NZ TV’s The Project, before receiving further international radio and music video TV spin. Two of the four singles released ahead of the album have charted in the top 40 in South Africa, with When You Went Away charting in the top 10. The band has had glowing features and reviews across major music media in the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, capped by a feature in Rolling Stone magazine.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for The Transits

Releases

The Transits
Year: 2024
Type: Album
When You Went Away
Year: 2023
Type: EP

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