Search Results for:

WHITE HILLS

White Hills

The Revenge Of Heads On Fire

    “Pure psychotropic madness.” A screaming head on fire penetrated my chest, jolting me from the universal plane back to earth.” Guitarist/Singer/Sonic Alchemist Dave W’s vivid fever dream ignited The Revenge of Heads on Fire, WHITE HILLS’ latest release, which harnesses the energy of ferocious, hedonistic rock with blissful passages of dark ambience.

    Exploring themes of mortality, transformation and rebirth, the band reveals a spiritual depth unparalleled in previous works. The roar of fire, swirling of oceans and hallucinogenic visions can be heard throughout the 75-minute journey. From the intrepid prelude “The Instrumental Head” to the closing punk blaze of “Eternity”, the album ebbs and flows, smoldering and seething in the middle with the 21- minute mammoth opus “Don’t Be Afraid”.

    “’Don't Be Afraid’ alone makes this an essential listen for fans of contemporary psychedelia.” -All Music.

    The Revenge of Heads on Fire consummates Dave W’s prototype for the 2007 release on Rocket Recordings, Heads on Fire, later picked up by Thrill Jockey. Six rediscovered songs accompany re-mixed versions of the original material, fulfilling the master arch of the pyre lit long ago. Recorded during the band’s tumultuous early years, the music vibrates with the energy and volatility of a sonic boom. 

    TRACK LISTING

    1. The Instrumental Head
    2. Radiate
    3. Inoke Tupo
    4. Oceans Of Sound
    5. Speed Toilet
    6. Is This The Road
    7. VTDS
    8. Don’t Be Afraid
    9. Vision Of The Past, Present & Future
    10. Silent Violence
    11. Eternity

    White Hills

    Splintered Metal Sky

      New York’s WHITE HILLS are the opposite of a comet. They suck up an explosion of energy on the surface of the earth; from spirituality, from adrenaline, from the history of synthesized electronic music, from substance use, from philosophy, from friends and enemies alike, from MOTHER FUCKING ELECTRICITY and they focus it into a blinding beam of energy which they reflect back out into the void and this beam is a message. It is a statement which reads: “FUCK YOU. WE ARE HERE. WE ROCK, THEREFORE WE ARE.” -John Doran, The Quietus. October 2020 brings the release of Splintered Metal Sky, the long-awaited new installment in the ever vast musical cannon of WHITE HILLS. The album takes the listener on a post-punk, psychedelic ride fueled by industrial-strength fuzz and propelled by powerful beats where songs weave in and out of each other to imitate the rhythm of the city the band calls home. Splintered Metal Sky is about oscillation and evolution. It’s metamodern music looking at human existence in relation to technology and the hyper-driven architectural reshaping of a city. The music was largely inspired by the drone and roar of machinery pulsing through New York City, which is in a never-ending state of demolition and reconstruction. Dave and Ego took to the streets, gathering field recordings of sounds from the subway, drills, jackhammers, people in parks, traffic, mayhem and the occasional silence.

      These recordings were then manipulated and constructed into rhythmic lines that were used as the basis for songs. The music, mixing noise with disciplined beat, embodies the paradoxical nature of the city: the grimy littered dead end alley just steps away from the sleek luxury skyscraper; the half eaten chicken bone being devoured by a rat on the subway tracks just beneath the glittering facade of the Chrysler building; the endless milling about of the 8 million people who call this slab of land home on their way to and from everywhere and nowhere. Informed by industrial innovators Einstürzende Neubauten and SPK, the avant garde post-punk of Tuxedomoon and the dub-electro of Cabaret Voltaire, the album vibrates with the energy of a sensually feral, raw beast.

      TRACK LISTING

      1/Midday Memory
      2/Now Manhattan
      3/a:CoNSTRUCT, B:CoNSTRUCT C:CoNSTRUCT (features Synth And Samples By Jim Coleman And Ambient Guitar By Jim Jarmusch)
      4/Digital Trash
      5/No Fear
      6/Honesty
      7/Rats
      8/Morning Memory 9/Illusion 

      “White Hills have emerged from its deep sheets of psychedelia and smoke machine-cascading haze, glaring lights and all-out noise for a sinister beast of minimalist psych grooves and seductive danceibility.” - Noisey

      “A prolific band with a restless streak.” - Paste

      “A staple on the touring circuit where their explosive fusion of psychedelic, space rock, post-punk, krautrock, and ambient experimentation makes their performances feel less like traditional rock shows and more like full body and mind experiences.” - She Shreds Magazine

      Having continually refined their sound, pushing the boundaries of psychedelic music, White Hills have flipped the script on their new album, ‘Stop Mute Defeat’. Members Dave W. and Ego Sensation have brazenly produced an industrially-charged record that pulsates unlike anything they’ve released before.

      Mixed by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, Afrika Bambaataa), the album was influenced by dance hall, drug den and bar, the Mudd Club - New York’s legendary haunt in the late 1970’s. Following similar techniques to those propagated by William S. Burroughs (a regular at Mudd Club), ‘Stop Mute Defeat’ sees White Hills break free from the guitar-driven structure of their earlier releases and create sounds that call to mind ‘Xtrmntr’-era Primal Scream or Cabaret Voltaire. Despite the band’s newfound approach, their criticisms of rampant consumerism and the proliferation of post-truth mythology are at their most scathing.

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Barry says: Brain-meltingly psychedelic breakdowns, grooving sludgey walls of sound and cosmic synth swells, all accentuated with distorted vocals and churning industrious bass. I loved their album with Manc psych-nutters Gnod, and I love this just as much. You will too.

      TRACK LISTING

      Overlord
      A Trick Of The Mind
      Importance 101
      Attack Mode
      If...1...2
      Sugar Hill
      Entertainer
      Stop Mute Defeat

      White Hills / Radar Men Of The Moon

      Split Single No 8

        White Hills and RMFTM are the latest additions to Fuzz Club Split Single alumni, one which already boasts rock n roll leviathans The Black Angels, A Place to Bury Stranger, Alan Vega and The Telescopes.

        Psych-rock favourites RMFTM contribution to the series the colossal soundscape ‘Decadence’. The Dutch instrumentalists have released three sold-out albums since their inception and ‘Decadence’ is typical of their explorative style. Coming in at just under ten minutes long the track opens on harsh industrial noise pounding through a constant wash of eerie reverb, guitar riffs chime in as tooth-rattling percussion submerges you further into this huge, ethereal wall of noise. ‘Decadence’ is truly testament to the bands limitless avant-garde capabilities. The track continues in the hypnotic, abstract sound RMFTM have built with their previous record Subversive 1 (whose follow up Subversive 2 is currently in the works) and invites fans to follow them deeper down the musical rabbit-hole.

        Joining RMFTM is one of New York’s most prolific bands, stoner / psych / space outfit White Hills. The duo - whose fruitful existence has spanned over a decade and seen forty releases - contribute their space-rock epic ‘You Pass By’. Having already built a dedicated cult following, the band recently gained further notoriety after an appearance in the Jim Jarmusch film Only Lovers Left Alive. ‘As You Pass By’ is a climactic otherworldly mix of swirling electronics building up as deep bass roils beneath singer Dave W’s gravelly vocals until the song erupts into a whirlwind of bluesy distorted guitars and screeching feedback, underpinned by a chilling spoken word sample. Both acts share a love of the surreal and approach music as experimental art. Their avant-garde soundscapes are the perfect foil for one another, proving that in the case of Fuzz Club Split Singles, the whole is truly more than the sum of its parts. 

        TRACK LISTING

        White Hills - As You Pass By
        RMFTM - Decadence

        White Hills

        Glitter Glamour Atrocity

          'Glitter Glamour Atrocity' is a snapshot of the band in the midst of an incredible burst of creativity, and was recorded during the same sessions that produced 'Heads On Fire' and 'Abstractions & Mutations'. Sonically, it is radically different from anything else coming out of the New York underground at the time, and it set the template for the singular concoction of heavy psychedelic music, krautrock, and a worship of pure sound they have explored in different variations ever since.

          Throughout the album the band explores themes of greed, misinformation, war, hypocrisy and their outcomes within the world’s political and economic systems, presenting these weighty topics with the same air of mystic understanding that underpins their music. Glitter Glamour Atrocity includes the song “Under Skin Or By Name,” the longest running staple in the band’s live set, which the band performed in the acclaimed film Only Lovers Left Alive at the request of director Jim Jarmusch. It is one of only two performances in the movie, which is enamored with the music making process and record collector culture.

          Following the mood-setting intro track and the meditative bombast of “Under Skin or By Name,” WHITE HILLS settle into the sparse groove of “Spirit of Exile,” an expression of a desire to live apart from a culture that one does not fit into. These songs glow with the burning vitality and passion of free thinkers trapped in the waning years of the Bush administration. Those sentiments are perhaps most compellingly expressed on “Love Serve Remember,” a warped, surreal vision of life after 9/11 seen through the eyes of someone who witnessed the event first-hand, interspersed with a brilliantly edited speech by Bush himself in which he admits “I was a threat to the United States.”

          Glitter Glamour Atrocity was recorded with the first iteration of the trio line-up with Dave W on vocals, guitar, synthesizers, and sound collage, Ego Sensation on bass and vocals, and Bob Bellomo on drums. It was recorded at Bellomo’s studio in Passaic, NJ, and produced by Dave W.

          TRACK LISTING

          01. Air Waves
          02. Under Skin Or By Name
          03. Spirit Of Exile
          04. Distance
          05. Somewhere Along The Way
          06. Long Serve Remember
          07. Passage
          08. Glitter Glamour Atrocity

          White Hills newest and most energized recording to date is bursting with raw energy packed into their most concise songs to date. Fear not long time White Hills fans, there is still loads of killer guitar work and fuzzed out psychedelia on 'Frying on this Rock. The album opens with an under five minute scorcher and closes with a 15 minute track that reminds us why space rock gatekeepers like Julian Cope were very early supporters. The end result, Frying on this Rock, is an invigorating deep space rock album. An album that is at once able to channel the energy born of a collective anger into a swirling psychedelic, brutalizing musical statement that mainlines the thrill of defiance straight to the listener’s heart.

          “...White Hills have established themselves as some of America’s foremost proponents of fuzz-driven space rock... Its latest effort H-p1 expands upon the the legacies of Hawkwind, Can, and early Tangerine Dream with synapse-frying deepspace epics” - SF Weekly; “A darkly hypnotic mix of churning guitar, distant vocals and swirling synth drones, this record conjures a riff-heavy psychedelic vibe that picks up where the Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3 left off. Far out.” - Los Angeles Times.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Darryl says: More epic fuzz-psyche onslaughts from the current leaders of the pack, the White Hills. Molten guitars and a pummelling rhythm section, create a swirling wave of noise taking space rock to new dimensions.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Pads Of Light
          2. Robot Stomp
          3. You Dream You See
          4. Song Of Everything
          5. I Write A Thousand Letters (Pulp On Bone)

          White Hills

          Heads On Fire (Re-Issue)

            Overdue reissue of Heads on Fire, the out of print second album by New Yorks White Hills. Since this release their first for Rocket the band have gone to release several very highly regarded albums for Thrill Jockey. Ever changing and always striving to push the envelope, White Hills album Heads on Fire finds the band playing a heavier style of spacerock. Relentless and punishing, the album kicks off with the spacey swirl of the song ‘Radiate’ and ends with the speedladen blast of the track ‘Eternity’. Along the way, a mesmerising blend of growlling fuzz / wah guitar, pounding bass, sprawling synth, and chaotic drumming doses one’s head three sheets to the wind.

            Whether it be the mere one minute track ‘Return of Speed Toilet’ or the 26 plus minute ‘Don’t Be Afraid’, the listener will be taken on ride through a world that is all encompassing from beginning to end. The band started in New York as a solo project by Dave W. Since then it has turned into a trio, with Ego Sensation (bass) plus various drummers which has included Kid Millions of Oneida fame. Like Oneida, White Hills also share a love for a hard rock stripped of its bombast, their heavier, dirtier, earthier influences contend with airier atmospheres while combining steadiness with spacious soaring guitars, these heads are always on fire!

            TRACK LISTING

            01. Radiate
            02. Oceans Of Sound
            03. Return Of Speed Toilet
            04. Visions Of The Past, Present And Future
            05. Don’t Be Afraid
            06. Eternity


            Latest Pre-Sales

            148 NEW ITEMS

            Cheeky restock on this amazing new Resista title. You'll afta be quick tho! BACK IN STOCK: King Of Town 'Lord Have… https://t.co/iAF3AGkFAi
            Mon 20th - 11:55
            Join us at 4pm on Wednesday 22/3 to listen to the new Lana Del Rey album. All attendees of the listening event wil… https://t.co/Q3vFKYqUVX
            Mon 20th - 10:14
            💜 NILE MARR 💜 The new album from @NileMarr ‘Lonely Heart Killers’ is now available on vinyl. It was amazing to cel… https://t.co/NgVSkLW9nH
            Fri 17th - 2:53
            The SALE continues and we have further reductions. Any 3 SALE items for £30. Swing in. https://t.co/INbwX81ReG https://t.co/flDLIbHErs
            Fri 17th - 2:16
            E-newsletter —
            Sign up
            Back to top