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Track Listings
| 1. The Condition of Nothing |
| 2. Movement |
| 3. No Other Way |
| 4. Paradise |
| 5. Upon Arrival |
| 6. A Need to Know |
| 7. Hand In Hand |
| 8. Monument |
| 9. H-p1 |
Product Description
Review
But what if the protest music of the 21st century is takes form not with swathes of political rhetoric, but through a pure blast of sound? What if, instead of clunky doggerel, there's mind-altering loops of psychedelic rock? Step forward White Hills, the New York band whose second album for Thrill Jockey, H-p1, takes umbrage with a US government that they feel is co-opted and controlled by corporations. Or, as the band's wonderfully named Ego Sensation said of the record's themes: "H-p1 is symbolic of the simplification of complex ideas to keep the masses from questioning the system."
Such lofty posturing could have easily ended up sounding like the ill-informed scribblings of a sixth-form politics student, but H-p1 is more about mood, feel and texture than lyrical conceit. On opening track The Condition of Nothing, for example, it's not just vocalist Dave W's forlorn cry of "This thought tonight leaves you tangled empty" that conveys anger and despair; it's the furious wall of noise that's summoned behind it, as shrapnel of sound splinters off in different directions. Likewise, there's something heavily oppressive about the repetitive, droning synths of No Other Way and the tribal-tinged drums of Monument that evokes a sense of dread without the need for words.
Even when the volume abates, the tension does not. Movement has the eerie feel of a sci-fi soundtrack with its clanging instrumentation, while the ethereal ambience of Hand In Hand is some of the spookiest space-noise you'll hear all year. On this evidence, protest music isn't dying, it's just mutating into something multi-stranded, multi-layered and altogether more insidious. If only the sound of revolution could always be so forceful and beguiling…
--Ben Hewitt
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Customer Reviews
This is a fantastic LP - ambitious, atmospheric and driven by the best drumming I've heard for years. The track 'Paradise' is a taut driving 12-minute cosmic rocker and is so good I find it difficult not to continually replay it over and over, I have only had this for a week and this track has made me late for work twice so far. 'Upon Arrival' is a sneering acid rocker with some stinging guitar soloing. But it really is all great, every second of it.
Hawkwind stand as an obvious comparison point for this music, but much as i love them, this is far more focused, far better produced and a far better targeted record than they ever consistently managed. A better, more contemporary point of reference would be Trans-Am 'Thing'; mix the two LP's together for a trip to the outer limits of sp... the cosmos!
The best new LP I've heard this year, easily.
It might be that the force of our Hawk Lords is strong in this one but there is so much more to H-P1 than another trotting out of the Acid Space Rock formula. White Hills deserve this elevated status through a palpable striving for something different. `Movement', for example, is the sound of a reverbed guitar being repeatedly smacked into submission and is a brave gesture for an album's second track. Then there's the ambience of `I Need to Know' that segues into the sinister deep space noises of `Hand in Hand', or the heavy tribal drums with crafted feedback of `Monument'. Elsewhere, White Hills add a sparkle of glam and sleaze to their space-rock - `Upon Arrival' being the main case point.
White Hills know when to knock out a few gargantuan riffs and layer the guitars for maximum force - `The Condition of Nothing' kicks things off in such a vain - and when to transform tension into pleasure through repetition. The most ear-grabbing tune is `Paradise' - twelve minutes of intergalactic travel punctuated by the hiss of narrowly avoided space debris as you float in artificial amniotic gunk in a state of suspended animation (Look I like getting carried away with my space themes, ok?)
This is an album that shimmers and shines with ideas and class from start to finish.
I really loved the self titled album and listened to it endlessly this year. I also think that live White Hills are a force to be reckoned with.
H-p1 starts off well and the track Paradise is an incredible bit of blissed out space rock, however there is so much filler on this record I find myself skipping most of it every time I hear it. It seems as if the band are very low on ideas this time round and have chosen to pad the album out to make it long enough to be classified as an album.
Maybe it will grow on me after a few more listens but it's hard to not see this as a bit pretentious and overblown. And lets face it, haven't Hawkwind done all this already? And yes,I know thats the idea but this really lacks the flair of thier previous work.
Its a shame as I was looking forward to this album.
Having said that I love the sound and vibe these guys create and I will definitely be buying the next. Fingers crossed theres just a bit more going on and it sounds less like quantity over quality.
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