reviews / 2012

WHITE HILLS - Frying On This Rock

Name: WHITE HILLS – Frying On This Rock
Item: Frying On This Rock
Rating: 5.5
Author: Francesco Nunziata

2012 (Thrill Jockey)

garage-psychedelia, space rock

by Francesco Nunziata

5.5

A bold, muscular impact, with guitars frying, drums pounded like something possessed, and vocals asserting their dominance with a certain "cosmic" detachment. "Pads Of Light" is the apotheosis of the White Hills sound: doses of Hawkwind, Jimi Hendrix, Chrome, early Oneida, proto-punk galore, and so on. A heavy, obsessive record, circling back again and again to restate the same two or three well-worn, overfamiliar ideas.

"Frying On This Rock" zeroes in on the New York duo's more feral, untamed side, while essentially matching the not-exactly-stellar quality of their previous work. The band keeps working repetition as a vehicle for a possible, cathartic hypnosis (the nearly twelve stretched-out minutes of "Robot Stomp"), hunting in wah-wahs and synth drool for the source of psychedelic revelation ("You Dream You See"), and giving in to questioning lulls beyond the adrenaline jolts of "Song Of Everything". Those lulls resurface, tinged with unease from outer space, in the closing track, once again excessively drawn out: "I Write A Thousands Letters (Pulp On Bone)".

In short, the duo made up of Dave W. (vocals and guitar) and blonde Ego Sensation (bass), aided by drummer Nick Name and Antronhy's electronics, has found the easiest way to get people talking: playing thoroughly rehashed material without much personality.

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18/03/2012

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Francesco Nunziata, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition