White Woods
Bellplay
7 Track, LP (2010, Sensory Projects)
Related: White Woods.
While it’s never been easier for bands to record themselves, anyone expecting a digital sheen from White Woods’ debut album is in for a shock. Captured on 2” tape in the Hobart transplants’ adopted Melbourne, Bellplay is one of the most distinctively recorded albums in recent memory. It’s soggy and cobwebby, stranding the band’s droning rock dirges in what feels like harsh wilderness. The bass and drums could be weighed down with anchors, the guitars are chunky and discordant, and the faltering singing is the most distant feature of all. And yet the divisive approach suits this flinty five-piece so well that one is hard-pressed to picture the songs in any other setting.
Thickened by a stoic rhythm section, ‘Ballet Tea’ introduces keyboardist Kelly Brown’s voice amid the sloshing, haphazard interplay of guitars. Brown and guitarist Pat Breen split the vocal duties – although “duties” is probably the wrong word, considering the spacious instrumental gaps – while the band as a whole digs into a sound that’s psychedelic largely by dint of its unearthliness. The songs creep along as if lost but not worried, averaging six minutes a piece and resembling a single serpentine jam.
‘Sea Sickened’ ambles to primitive drums and tambourine, while the bristling ‘February Kind’ features muffled singing from both Brown and Breen. There’s some Flying Nun jangle curdling within ‘Now Is Not A Time’, the most poppy song. Between the unstudied vocal naiveté and the grotty music, it and the following ‘Elbows And Kneebones’ approach a menacing version of twee. Its guitars betraying as much influence from The Clean as from Sonic Youth, ‘Groundswell’ is another heady slow burn. Not to be outdone, ‘Backyard Blues’ is an engulfing nine minutes punctuated by sick spirals of noise. The album then ends matter-of-factly instead of with any grand gesture.
Songs this tousled are rare even in light of today’s fashionable revisiting of lo-fi. White Woods have committed themselves to a specific brand of underground rock that doesn’t dare clean itself up. But this is a staggering listen, offering some of the mighty undertow of Beaches while most often ploughing its own erratic path. And wouldn’t you know it: Bellplay is the kind of 43-minute album that begs immediate repeating.
by Doug Wallen
Certainly made the most of the 'unpolished' nature of the recording here! To be honest, I've seen live shows that sounded slicker than the CD, but I wouldn't really call anything they play 'dirges', or any of the guitars 'haphazard', even though the reviewer seems to mean it in a complimentary way. For me, it's the really strong songs that make this band.
Still, nice review anyway - thankfully avoiding any repetition of the label's bizarre referencing of the 'seething intensity' of Wire and Gang Of Four. They seem to have improved the bio more recently with some Flying Nun references and added some emphasis on the poppy nature of the music, but is still heavy on the 'raw' this and 'atonal' that. Oh and 'angular guitars'. [bangs head on desk]
I don't mind the ''rock dirges'' description, but there are no ''chunky guitars'' - jangly guitars maybe.
chunky air guitars?
really can't wait to hear this. when is that launch? this w/e?
Next Friday (16th) w. Beaches & Angel Eyes @ Workers Club: http://messandnoise.com/discussions/3986791
thanks guy. will be there.
Chuck up a sample. I haven't seen this band live yet (and probably should've), but I'm afraid of not liking them...
Okay I just found their myspazz. Awesome! Echoes of The Terminals, and This Kind of Punishment.
Ordered a copy from Sensory Projects and just had a chance to listen to it.
Sounds like the 08/09 Hobart shows, i.e. amazing.
Kelly's organ outro to February Kind is still the best.
Will listen to it a few more times, then read the review and quibble over minor details.
Rose Quartz have some songs to hear:
Sea Sickened: http://rosequartz.blogspot.com/2010/06/psyche-patrol.html
Ballet Tea: http://rosequartz.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-states.html
Plus Groundswell on the myspace: http://www.myspace.com/whitewoods
I love Rose Quartz, they always tell it like it is:
Probably going to be up there.
the vocals are so, dare i say it, fitzroy!
BUT THEY'RE FROM TASMANIA ORIGINALLY DAMNIT
(At least most of them. I'm pretty sure anyway.)
same thing
thems fighting words jose
so drunk bogans picking fights at 3am or yuppies in cafes by day?
from my recollection, ''digital sheen'' was the opposite aim . we did use digital along side a crappy 1/4inch tape machine with old used tape and a mechanical spring reverb to intentionally negate the artifacts of digital recording. everything about this album is more or less intentional.
After the whole ''nu-post-punk'' debacle of the early 00s, any press release that references Gang of Four and Wire should be taken with a grain of salt. So what does it sound like, Liars or Franz Ferdinand?
neither thankfully
I highly recommend a listen of this album!
Launch is tomorrow night @ Workers Club w/ Beaches & Angel Eyes - 8:30pm / $10 - come along! The album will be available on the night.
So. Fucken. Good.
K. Mason love.
national_highway_31 said about 1 month ago:
Absolutely. White Woods list Dadamah as an influence. I can also hear a bit of Scorched Earth Policy in there. All of which is rather excellent. When people talk about Flying Nun in reference to this band, it should be made clear that it's the more noisy, messy end of the FN spectrum. Sure there are melodies and pop sensibilities in the mix too, but to me it's more about textures and rhythms. 'Groundswell' is a great example of that.
For a lover of that kind of stuff, White Woods provide a welcome fix. I hope they play again soon.
Oh, and the bass is heaps chunky.