Album Review: Whirr- Around EP



I first mentioned the band Whirr on the blog back at the start of the year, when their 2 X 7” with the now mostly defunct Portland-based band Anne, finally saw physical release. Continuing on with what you could say is a “victory lap” of sorts, Whirr have taken the momentum from their debut full length, last year’s Pipe Dreams, the aforementioned 7”, as well as the reissue of their debut (cassette) EP Distressor, and they’ve driven it all into a new 4 song EP, Around.

While Pipe Dreams saw the band dodging some of its self-indulgent characteristics, Around is a return to form of the two tracks they contributed on their aforementioned 7”—long, noisy, slow songs. None of those are bad things. I’m just saying that’s what you are in store for if you listen to this. The refreshing thing about Pipe Dreams as well as Distressor, was that there was time for Whirr to change it up a little as far as tempos, atmosphere, etc. The draw back to Around is that across the four songs, it all starts sounds a little samey. Three of the four songs for sure follow a very similar structure and have a feeling—only the second track, “Swoon,” picks things up a little in comparison to the other songs that plod along in a slow motion swan dive.

 

Now that’s not to say that this is a bad EP. It’s not. Whirr, when they want, can be quite gorgeous—even at its hardest and loudest moments, “Keep,” is full of beautiful, cascading, shoegaze glorly. The vocal interplay between Nick Bassett and Alexandra Morte, with their vocals buried deep within the mix, recalls the quintessential shoegaze vocal stylings of Belinda Butcher and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, but is never derivative.

Whirr have always had a “big” sound, even on their earliest material. With Around, the size of that sound continues to grow. Sure, it takes six people to make all this happen. But each song is just vast and open, filling any space it happens to be in. The reverb on the drums is just right, and I’m guessing at least three people here are playing the guitar—and for the most part you can distinguish that. These tones are set early on with the expansive opening track, “Drain,” and continue throughout each song on the EP.




It’s safe to say, I think, that the new generation shoegaze bands are an acquired taste. The cinematic scope that Whirr bring to the table is unique, and sets them apart from every other band of twenty-somethings that own a reverb pedal and a copy of Loveless.  Many new, young bands that are flying below the radar often put forth a lot of effort into one release, and then they fade away. Whirr has proven they have a rather prolific worth ethic with the amount of material they are generating. Around is another step forward for a band that is just starting to develop.

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