White Hills

White Hills channel the cosmic drive of space rock trailblazers such as Hawkwind while delivering an expansive, synth-laden brand of 1970s rock & roll laced with psychedelic textures. The group coalesced in New York City around singer-guitarist Dave W., who assembled a core lineup that also included bassist Ego Sensation and drummer Lee Hinshaw. Their initial opportunity arrived when Julian Cope issued the album They’ve Got Blood Like We’ve Got Blood on his own imprint in 2005. That release inaugurated a steady flow of recordings, beginning with the 2007 Drug Space outing Abstractions & Mutations and the independently issued Glitter Glamour Atrocity, later reissued by Thrill Jockey in 2014.

The pace continued unabated as the band self-released Little Bliss Forever in 2009 and placed both Dead and Heads on Fire with Thrill Jockey that same year. In 2010 they joined forces with Manchester’s psychedelic drone outfit Gnod for the joint effort Gnod Drop Out with White Hills II. The self-titled White Hills album followed, spotlighting fellow New Yorker Kid Million—also the drummer for Oneida—behind the kit. Maintaining ties to Oneida, the trio reconvened at Ocropolis studio with Shahin Motia to shape 2011’s H-P1. Later that year they returned to the studio with synth player Antronhy, who also drums for Julian Cope, and touring drummer Nick Name, yielding the more streamlined, atmospheric Frying on This Rock, which appeared in 2012.

Extensive road work and a series of limited live and split releases occupied the remainder of 2012, setting the stage for the crushing 2013 full-length So You Are…So You’ll Be. A pronounced shift occurred with 2015’s Walks for Motorists, which traded guitar-dominated eruptions for bass-driven grooves and repetitive, motorik synthesizer patterns that sometimes dispensed with guitars entirely. After a handful of additional split singles and a brief hiatus devoted to individual pursuits, the band resurfaced in 2017 with the politically charged Stop Mute Defeat. The following year brought Desire, a collaboration with Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand.