The dismal realities, political or otherwise, that are part of our modern world naturallyinfluence our creative voices. It is in this context that White Hills re-evaluated theirapproach to creating a new album. Having continually refined their sound, pushing theboundaries of psychedelic music, White Hills flipped the script on Stop Mute Defeat.Dave W. and Ego Sensation have brazenly produced an industrially-charged record thatpulsates unlike anything they've released before.Hard-line, gritty, and intellectually engaged, Stop Mute Defeat is a New York recordthrough and through. With this in mind, White Hills drafted Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, BrianEno, Afrika Bambaataa) to mix. White Hills recorded with Bisi on two of their previousreleases, Frying On This Rock in 2012 and its follow-up So You Are...So You ll Be, howeverStop Mute Defeat is the first time they worked with Martin The Beast Bisi in control ofthe mixing board. A native New Yorker who made his name in the citys early hip-hop andno-wave scenes, Bisi was attracted to White Hills new material for its distinct early-80sMudd Club feel. A dance hall, drug den, and bar, the Mudd Club was one of New York slegendary haunts in the late 1970 s. As a center of an distinct art scene the club served asa major influence for White Hills and Stop Mute Defeat s sound.Following similar techniques to those propagated by William S. Burroughs (a regular atMudd Club), Stop Mute Defeat sees White Hills break free from the guitar-driven structureof their earlier releases. Reassigning William Burroughs word cut-up technique to music,Dave W. and Ego Sensation deconstruct sound clips to create minimalist but rhythmicallycomplex phrases. Title track Stop Mute Defeat layers turbocharged bass loops withsqualling guitar samples, to create a sound that calls to mind Xtrmntr-era Primal Scream. If... 1... 2 goes even further down the rabbit hole, oscillating into the experimentalelectro-sound of early 80s Sheffield, UK band Cabaret Voltaire. Meanwhile the taut brawnygrind of Attack Mode industrially hardens White Hills rock boundaries to tribal densities.Appalled by the rampant consumerism and the proliferation of post-truth mythology,White Hills defiant lyricism is at their most philosophically scathing. Condemningdoublespeak as Subliminal seduction...a serenade with a grenade, the song Overlord laments political and economic opportunism, where In travesty, [there s always] anotherdollar to be made. On Attack Mode meanwhile, a clenched-jawed Dave W. channelsthe perverse cynicism of Throbbing Gristle, throwing scorn on societies where misogynyleads and the objectification of young girls runs free. Exposing Western vulgarity inbright light, Stop Mute Defeat is a fearless and necessary denunciation of the political andeconomic powers that be.Writing in his seminal postmodern oeuvre Naked Lunch, Burroughs states: Desperationis the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything theyhave ever believed in can hope to escape. Rethinking their musical norms, personally andmusically diving into uncertain waters, White Hills at once embrace and demonstrate theraw power of such abandon.
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