Thrill Jockey may actually be the best record label on the planet at the moment with a roster of artists who are intent on pushing the boundaries of independent music. With this new White Hills release they may very well have reached their zenith as So You Are...So You'll Be makes a stake for one of the best albums of the year. A lot has been said about the new psych revival scene in recent times but to those in the know there are only a handful of bands who are really making something new out of the old. Perhaps the standard bearers could very well be White Hills when the fallout happens.
A bleepy beginning ushers us in as ‘InWords’ sets the picture for the stoner riff of ‘In Your Room’, our first “song” proper. It is also one of only two which offer vocals although the robotic symphony offered here is hardly going to trouble the makers of The Voice. This is music to settle into, lose your mind to, and hope you return. And it does get scary at times.
Unlike Gnod who take a more techno stance, White Hills are relatively old school when it comes to presenting their music. That said, the ambient sound of ‘Internal Monologue’ is bang up to date with its drifting unmelodic ooze. It does serve to make the impact of title track ‘So You Are’ all that more monolithic though as the motorik riff kicks off and builds and builds until it collapses into a wormhole of ambient psych. Like being taken on a journey into space and left adrift, it leaves you lost not only in mind but in body too.
Bringing us full circle is ‘OutWords’ which closes the first half of the album. It seems almost audacious and a little bit 70's prog but the real treats are still to come as ‘Forever In Space’ lifts us off again with what may be the year’s biggest riff reintroducing that lost in space feeling. Like a Hawkwind of the 21st Century, White Hills know how to make the ground shake and to take you out of the mundane realities of everyday life. This should be played loud.
‘Rare Upon the Earth’ takes this concept even further as things take an awry turn. Guitars squeal and ominous sounds drift in and out as we are catapulted into some strange land made even worse by ‘Circulating’. Just in time we are saved by the transcendent MIST (Winter) which has the surreal feeling of guiding us home to chorales of angels. Anyone who has seen the end of 2001 and its sequel will have some understanding of how this works.
There is a lot of identikit psych about at the moment which seems to focus on noisy guitars and not much else. White Hills are set apart from these as they are not afraid to introduce melody or industrial sounds into the mix as and when it's needed. They have a knack of knowing when too much is enough and letting go just as overkill is reached. So You Are...So You'll Be may not quite be the best album of the year but it certainly is the best psych album of the year.
