Whirr-Heavy

Whirr have gone through many different forms since their initial inception. There was the strict shoegaze sound of their Distressor EP, the more '90s fuzz rock sound of their debut album Pipe Dreams, and then finally the sprawling/cascading sound that emerged on their Around EP last year. With each release, the band ventured into a new area of the shoegaze sound, exploring all the possibilities that the genre tag would allow in conjunction with the ever changing shape their band existed in at the time.

Now though, Whirr may have finally found their sound with their new album Sway. The band has seemed to have refined the more crushing aspects that they made on Around, focusing their sound to less of a build/climax style than to a more everlasting sludging through brightness quality. A taste of this was heard in the album's first single "Mumble", but the full effect of this is more present on "Heavy". Opening with thunderous drums and a wall of static fuzz, the track quickly gives way to a beautiful gliding guitar that sets the tone of the song. The production is what makes "Heavy" work so well. Every instrument shines through instead of colliding with one another like on previous Whirr albums. The thick thumps of the rhythm section are always ever present even as the noise swells more and more as the song progresses. The utterly beautiful guitar work is layered, the perfected melding of distorted riffing and noisy soundscape. Even the lose of the key balancing component of female vocals has been worked out with an ever so added presence of  Loren Rivera's vocals, which in turn give the track a lovely distant quality to it. With "Heavy" Whirr have finally whittled their sound to its core, and have crafted a pitch perfect piece of shoegaze around it.



Links:

Whirr's Facebook
Pre-order Sway here from Graveface Records

EP Review: Whirr-Around

Let’s cut to the chase; Whirr are trying to make a radically different statement with the release of Around. Why else would they go and open the EP with the likes of “Drain”, their longest song to date? I think the trick to it is that it doesn't seem like Whirr are doing something at first, opening the song with the same type of quiet, ringing chords that opened their magnificent Pipe Dreams. However, the song shifts quick, into an eight minute sprawl of consistently cascading guitar riffs with the same three lines repeated again and again. “Drain” almost comes close to being sludgy, (especially once it hits its apex and the lyric “Drain me” is practically droned out) if the post-rock tint of hope didn't linger in the song’s background.

The song is a stage setter for the rest of Around to be sure though. “Swoon” gives way from its booming opening to a noisy calm of night time shoegaze riffs and atmospheric fuzz in the back. Steadily, the track rises, and before long the track is booming again, gliding on the soaring, flat out heavenly vocals of Kristina Esfandiari, which maybe the corner stone of this EP, consistent and even more prominent then they were on their debut. In fact, nearly everything on Around rings out cleaner as the ever present fuzz of the previous releases is nearly discarded here Meaning the shoegaze heavy warmth of Pipe Dreams isn’t here, but it allows them to go into the darker direction they want to here. All the songs feel heavy, not only sonically but emotionally, the screeching ups and quiet downs now present in the songs just add to this feel. Lyrically as well, as buried as they may seem for a band like Whirr. They are filled with a sense of disconnect to everyone else and the world at large. “Keep” is an embodiment of this; roller coaster bursts of shoegaze to puncture indie rock fall downs, all while soundtracking the EP’s most isolated lyrics. The only track that is different is the title track, the EP's only earnest call for company, and appropriately it is sonically different from the rest of the EP too, built around little more than clean guitar strumming and Esfandiari's vocals. It’s as close as Around gets to quiet, but at the same time gorgeous and lovely as well.

Around is a massive step for Whirr; slowed down tempos, shifts in dynamics, and more purely darker tones to their songs. More so, it appears that they are actively trying to step out of the pure shoegaze mold, trying to find something else. It’s hard to say what they will reach from just the four songs here, but Around is still an absolutely gorgeous coalition of noise and post-rock, another wonderful release from one of the best shoegaze bands making music now.



Links:

Whirr’s Facebook
Buy Around here, from Graveface Records

Whirr-Swoon

How it that Whirr, of all bands, doesn't have a song called "Swoon" already? As possibly cliché as it might be for a shoegaze band to have a song named "Swoon", there are few better titles that could suit a song like this one. "Swoon" is just that, an ever ebbing and flowing cascade of Kristina Esfandiari's pillowy vocals and the vortex of guitars created from all three of Whirr's guitarists attacking their instruments at once over the song's near six minutes. The track nicely parallels Pipe Dreams opening cut "Reverse"; a pick up of noise before falling into a stretch of humming guitar ambiance before exploding into pure, shoegaze bliss. The added length of "Swoon", though, gives Whirr time to expand upon their sound, letting it build and swell to greater heights than they were able to previously. Sergio Miranda's drum work really glues the track together, the only instrument that doesn't blur on "Swoon", but instead confidently pounds and crashes to give the song the final piece to make it the shoegaze epic it is. I am bias in my approach to Whirr (I mean, I thought Pipe Dreams was the third best album of last year), but I don't care. Whirr are one of the best shoegaze bands out there, and "Swoon" only serves to confirm that fact.



Links:

Whirr's Tumblr
Pre-order Around EP here, from Graveface Records

Also, Whirr recently got a bunch of their amps and pedals stolen due to a recent robbery. They put some T-Shirts for sale raise money, so if you want/can support them, do it here.

Top 25 Albums of 2012

Every year for about the past five years, at one point or another some publication will releases an article talking about the "death of the album as we know it". And every year since those articles have begun to appear, bands worldwide have continued to put out thought-out, cohesive,  40-80 suites of music designed to be listened as a unit. Here now, a little after 2012 and looking back at the year, there were some truly incredible albums released during those 366 days. No trends, no requirements: just 25 really excellent albums that everyone should have gotten last year.
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25. Gap Dream-Gap Dream: I want to call Gap Dream’s debut simple, but that feels like it is doing it a disservice somehow. Gap Dream feels like it’s from another era, 10 cuts of AM Gold influenced, burnt out psych from the mind of Gabe Fulvimar. It’s hazy in nearly every aspect, from the production, to the mood, to even the cover art itself. Still, it manages to claw its shimmering hooks inside the brain, its demented take on the genre(s) so well-crafted in the likes of “58th St. Fingers” or “Leather” that it feels like the album was actually plucked from the ‘70s, albeit an alternate dimension version of the decade.

24. Born Gold-Little Sleepwalker: Reinventions are nothing new with electronic artists, but rarely are they as much of a flip as Little Sleepwalker was with Born Gold. Completely stepping away from the creative bombast of Bodysong, Born Gold fully embrace mainstream pop, Burial style dubstep, and cut up synthpop, to craft a deeply twitched and new sound on Little Sleepwalker. Born Gold goes so far as to shift his vocals several octaves higher to change his sound even more. However, as current as Little Sleepwalker sounds, it is still a Born Gold, meaning that no matter what root Born Gold starts from, the end result is more off-kilter, more different, and more creative than where he started from. And that is no different with the ethereal Little Sleepwalker.

23. Royal Headache-Royal Headache: It seems so simple and so stupid at the same time; craft honest, genuine soul songs and have them backed by a garage-punk band. It could have easily turned out horrible, but Royal Headache’s self-titled debut instead turned out sort of really great. Shogun’s vocals are powerful, and well, deeply soulful, while the album’s clean production lets every instrument shine through, while still retaining more than enough energy to give every track a small, rough-around-the-edges quality. If this is what soul-punk is, less than three minute blasts sharply articulated of love and life, than I’m all for it.

22. Andrew Bird-Break it Yourself: I feel like Andrew Bird has never gotten the credit he deserves for his past few records, despite how solid each of his releases has been since The Mysterious Production of Eggs. Break it Yourself is another album to add to that cannon of quality works, a more cohesive album than expected that allows Bird to stretch out his legs sonically. Only two of the fourteen tracks are under four minutes, yet nothing feels unnecessarily long or forced. Instead, Break it Yourself is just as breezy as its predecessors, its hour length passing in the blink of an eye. Brilliantly constructed and intelligent indie-folk that feels instantly timeless. But what’s new for Andrew Bird?

21. Divine Fits-A Thing Called Divine Fits: Super groups, indie or not, will always get the short end of the stick with music history, not only having to create music of merit, but also having that music stand in the shadow of each member’s other musical accomplishments too. This is nothing new with music, or any musician who starts a new band after their initial one breaks up. Still, I feel it was that perspective that robbed people from fully appreciating A Thing Called Divine Fits. A deeply moody record that nicely balances Dan Boeckner synthier style to Britt Daniel’s bare-bones indie rock, ego doesn't prevail with Divine Fits but substance does. The pure intensity of “What Gets You Alone”, the sparse dance-rock of “Like Ice Cream”, the pitch perfect, and near haunting rendition of “Shiver”; if A Thing Called Divine Fits was nothing but the leftover scrapes from Boeckner and Daniel, they were more than substantial.

20. Dan Deacon-America: If America is what Dan Deacon sounds like grown-up, I do not mind him growing old at all. The shift is noticeable from the very beginning with “Guilford Avenue Bridge”, a track that begins with Deacon’s usual sonic barrage but instead tempers out to something more digestible half way through. Then there is the new found lyricism of “True Thrush” and the minimal, electronic burst (for Deacon) of “Lots”. Though what clenches Deacon’s stylistic shift is the epic, four part “USA” suite that ends the album. In those four tracks that can only be seen as a whole, Deacon creates something truly poetic and memorizing that he has never managed to accomplish before. America is a beautiful, chaotic, beep-filled sprawl, much like the thing it’s named after.

Whirr-June

Thanks to Bridgetown Records, I got acquainted with the next great shoegaze hope that was Whirl and their debut 7 song EP. Since then a lot has happened for the band: they changed their name to Whirr, got signed to Tee Pee Records, and are planning to release their debut LP. In the mean time, they have released a nice little 7" to tide folks (me) over. "June" is a nice small step for the band (as every new release seems to be true for any band). The sound is a little less in the red and lo-fi, though no less pure, unequivocal shoegaze goodness. the band seems to have indulged in the Slumberland discography while making this song because there is a real Rocketship backbone to "June", though considering how wonderful and under appreciated Rocketship were for their time, I mean that in the best way possible.



Links:

Whirr on Tumblr
Buy the 7" here, from Tee Pee Records