White Hills – Previewed

If Friday nights just aren’t the same without a prolonged and infectious aural assault, never fear, we may have just the suggestion… 

This Friday, The Kazimier welcomes with open arms the return of New York City-based survivors, White Hills. A lazy journalists dream, the band tick a number of those hip-sounding boxes, you know the type of thing we’re talking about, we use them all the time! Attracting various wild and ludicrous descriptions of their oeuvre, our personal fave reads: “A label like “space-rock” deserves music that’s as nuanced and limitless-feeling as space, and space-rock deserves a band like White Hills. Not only do they add urgency to familiar psychedelic rock templates, but they pay just as close attention to the quiet moments as the raging ones”…

Sometimes however, a band comes along which it’s fair to say, justifies the outlandish imagery attached to them, and rather than being weighed down by the hype, it fits snugly, like a favourite sweater. In White Hills we find such a band. Off the back of a year which involved appearances at ATP and Roadburn festivals, coming in for some rave reviews along the way, they’ve just released Frying on This Rock, their third record for label Thrill Jockey in as many years.

Boasting epics like Robot Stomp, the record is made up of journeys rather than songs, to be endured and enjoyed in equal measure: this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we’re just saying they don’t have many of what you’d call ‘little ditties’ to their names. Interestingly, the label blurb states ‘White Hills newest and most energized recording to date is bursting with raw energy packed into their most concise songs to date’. Interesting because Robot Stomp comes in at over 10 minutes long, and we’re willing to bet it’s not the only track that does so. Concise isn’t what we’d call them, and nor would you want them to be, especially for long-term fans out there.

Fans like the promoter Behind The Wall Of Sleep, who previously put them on a few years back in Liverpool at St Brides Church, and have secured them again this time around, say they can’t wait for this one. And who can blame them? We imagine the relentless epic nature of White Hills in a live setting only adds to the depth of a band dealing in layered and wave-like statements, presumably at times, leaving audiences in trance-like awe.

See how hard it is to steer clear of those hip pigeon-holes and metaphors? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, we say. So for our part, if you’re looking for a band delivering deep-space, sprawling psych-rock, White Hills fit the bill perfectly. We defy anyone to argue with that…

White Hills Friday 23th Mar 8pm @ The Kazimier with support from Mugstar and Mind Mountain Tickets £6.50