White Hills - White Hills

Despite what its detractors might say, stoner rock is a diverse and intriguing genre. Given its propensity for mind-altering substances and ongoing mission to mess with your head, man, it's only to be expected that the results should be so wide-ranging. New York's White Hills are no Fu Manchu, though. They slip between lazy grooves, driving guitarism and intergalactic sonic nonsense like a wasted hippy at a festival drifts in and out of consciousness. At their most alert they have some pretty intriguing observations to make about music. Dead and Three Quarters see them at their lucid, rocking best. We Will Rise on the other hand is esoteric and self-indulgent enough to make Dave Gilmour blush and Glacial is, well, a bit like watching spaceships approaching slowly on an Arctic horizon. Despite moments of real accessibility, as an album White Hills is probably best appreciated by genre stalwarts. [Austin Tasseltine]