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Album Review
by SashaS
17-6-2003
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| Whirlwind Heat and escaped rabbits |
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Whirlwind Heat: 'Do Rabbits Wonder?'
(XL Recordings)
Whirlwind Heat on annihilate stagnation course
When it is hot outside, at least it is as we start writing the review, the best way to fight the climate is with something sizzling. Whirlwind Heat’s ‘Do Rabbits Wonder?’ is a perfect companion for… well, actually, any coloured day. And, accordingly, each of the tracks is named after a colour.
‘Orange’ starts the parade of ‘baker’s dozen’ (that’s 13, for those educated in comprehensives) and it sets the mood for rockingly experimenting diet with its jerky rhythms, unusual sound of the songs and vocal that goes on about … ‘Good day for dying’. (Are they Klingon fans?) ‘Black’ offers a deconstructed blues that rolls between several other genres before settling on a crash-ending.
‘Purple’ is almost a straight song but it is the drummer Brad Holland’s work that keeps it really unsettling and chucking along like a demented White Stripes’ cut. Well, it was Jack White, who produced them, and they are signed to his Third Man label. The unusual sound of the trio comes from the line-up that only feature bassist, Steve Damastra, and vocal/Moog-ist, David Swanson. The band hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
‘Green’ is a totally off-the-wall sounding, it hovers between unwired Frank Zappa and a New Wave band of the late 1970s vintage, whilst ‘Blue’ is all noise and off-beat drumming that forces your emotions into capitulation. Swanson sounds even more unhinged on ‘Yellow’ that starts with a funky beat that is disturbed by ‘effects’ and ends in total (orchestrated) disarray. Bloody marvellous!
There is a sense of urgency on the album and we have no idea whether it was anything to do with studio work completed in four days (while The Stripes were playing a couple of home gigs). ‘Do Rabbits Wonder?’ is an innovative, gutsy, noisy and distinguished disc. Even the band’s name is an art-statement: they called themselves after Raymond Pettibon’s cover illustration on Sonic Youth’s ‘Goo’ album. The rebirth of the rock (original) outlaws!
Although ‘Rabbits’ will be a challenging listening for the kids who’ve been rock-reared on nu- and/or rap-metal, this is not for Primus fans, primarily. Anyone who has cultivated taste by consuming Kraut-rock, or vintage Mudhoney, The Melvins or Buckethead, will find liberation (from constraints of pop-song) as much as they wish. Less than 35 minutes of frenzied burning bridges after a point-of-no-return!
By the final composition, ‘Grey’, I was RED-hot!
8/10
SashaS
27-8-2004
Whirlwind Heat’s album ‘Do Rabbits Wonder?’ is released 16 June 2003 by Third Man/XL Recordings
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