WHITE HILLS

The recent psychedelic rock revival has produced some great bands over the last few years, with the likes of San Francisco's Wooden Shjips, the Texas-based The Black Angels and Canada's Black Mountain leading the way with a spate of excellent - and truly cosmic - albums. Also hailing from the states, New York's White Hills have been buzzing around the new psych scene for few years now, though unlike the previously-mentioned trio, they have failed to generate as much excitement. One listen to this self-titled album and the reasons for White Hills failure to move out of the underground becomes abundantly clear; their sound is rough and raw, more akin to heavy metal than psychedelic rock, and they show almost complete dis-regard for the original psychedelic sounds of yesteryear. A thoroughly modern and un- commercial release, 'White Hills' ploughs crudely through a series of glutinous, guitar-bass-and-drums dominated tracks that are barely indistinguishable from one another, with a white noise backdrop that smothers every single decibel. The spoken, or sometimes screeched, vocals add little to the mix(apart from irritate), and the actual playing is pretty basic, with the group displaying precious little instrumental verve. Fans of blandly-constructed psych-tinged metal may prefer this to the more esoteric works of Wooden Shjips or The Black Angels, but in truth there is very little here for prog-rock fans to chew on. In a word: Dull. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010