Whirr - Drain by Graveface Records

GRAVE092 ::: Whirr 'Around'

Click here to order directly: www.graveface.com/graveface-catalog.html

With their two albums to date, Bay Area six-piece Whirr have developed a reputation for dirgeful shoegaze, buttressed with textured layers or guitar and weighty, driving compositions. Spacious and moody, their 2012 LP Pipe Dream drew comparisons to heavyweights of the genre My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Slowdive.

Now, Whirr returns with Around, a mini-LP that finds the group restrained, but no less dark. Here, they explore longer songs, with their shortest clocking in at just under six minutes. Catchy melodies, traditionally a part of the band’s wheelhouse, give way here to a droning ambience, shifting Whirr slightly from their shoegaze core toward a dour post-rock sound. Vocalists Kristina Esfandiari and Loren Rivera keep their contributions misty and abstract, serving here as additional instruments more than messengers. But the thunderous drums and lavish guitar work remain — albeit in a colder, glassier form — making Around both a departure and a logical step forward from Whirr’s previous work.

LP: Record Club members receive black inside milky clear color in color vinyl. All RC copies hand-numbered. First retail pressing is heavy black splatter on milky clear vinyl (limited to 1350). Mail-order only variant is 180gram black vinyl (limited to 350 copies). LP jacket has swirl die cut. Full color thick inner sleeve.
CD: The CD is packaged in an uncoated recycled sleeve.
Cassette: The cassette comes with a full color j-card. 500 copies.