Synth Single Review: “Until The End” by LightSource & DRUMxWAVE

by Karl Magi

LightSource & DRUMxWAVE’s “Until The End” begins with gently touching tones cascading above wispy sonic clouds before easygoing drums tap and DRUMxWAVE (Juan Calixto) captures feelings drifting from loss to affection. The beat supports all of the quiescent emotional tones within the vocals as patterns of indigo light inscribe themselves in synthesized sound.

Soaring skyward, Juan Calixto’s voice pulls me with it, fully revealing the depths of sensation within the words. A textured melodic pattern paints a portrait of broken hearts and possibility, reflected in the trembling caring of Juan Calixto’s performance.

As the tones yearn, radiating the half-light of a rainy day, a synth spins delicately as it interweaves with the vocals. Supporting rhythmic pulses slip while phosphorescent tones add illumination before the song slips to a close with piercing tenderness.

Saying that he doesn’t want to fight tonight, our storyteller notices something in the air. He points out that “it’s the glow of the city lights when I’m alone with you” and rain on a cloudy day. It’s a time for them to take things slowly, “all the things that we didn’t say to hide behind our truth.” He adds that there’s “no way for you to come around, for us to start again.”

Wondering “do we do it, talk this through?” the narrator can’t imagine living without the other person whose smile tells a tale. He says, “Don’t take the wind out of our sails tonight.” They’ve said what they needed to say and “we look down as we walked to the edge,” and it feels bitter but he won’t know the end.

“You’re cold, keep away,” and our storyteller sees the other person breaking the static. He adds, “You feel it and everything is wrong.” The song’s subject holds his hand and can’t understand, with all that was said, “how you played off the pain.” He points out that he won’t “deflect this weight off my chest, at times I felt nothing, you’ve got me down until the end.”