Dillon👾💥😎

Guitarist Ryan Nicholls and drummer Brad Morrison have recently released their first self-titled album under the moniker WHIMS. These two have played together for a bit with other acts, before getting together to make some post-rock magic. This album has some seriously deep and entrancing grooves on it. Nicholls’ lick-work on the early parts of the track “Sequoia”, for example, is really mesmerizing bringing the listener into a trance before paying off with a triumphantly loud and beautifully textured crescendo. As a whole the album is paced brilliantly, getting quiet at the right times, building volume with proper urgency, and then exploding off the back of Morrison’s pounding drums. The production work is super-super clean without feeling sterile. Something, I appreciate greatly as these two are clearly working hard to develop a specific and rich texture to their sound which could’ve been, but thankfully wasn’t, wiped away with overproduction, good looks here, y’all. A bit on who I think would enjoy this. If you are a post-rock fan this will satisfy, if not exceed your expectations. If you’re someone who’s never really clicked with the wordless, super groovy, crescendo-fest that is post-rock this is an approachable entry point that takes some cues from psych and prog-rock to build a really groovy album.      

Greg

Back in 2013 I saw Russian Circles open up for Coheed and Cambria at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. I was absolutely entranced by the 3 person powerhouse, fully instrumental, absolutely shredding for 20 minutes straight. I was under that same hypnosis with WHIMS. Thematically shifting not just from track to track by within tracks themselves. During “Sonder”, WHIMS finds multiple distinct moods to play in, and somehow pulls it off without feeling chaotic during its 5 minute runtime. Fully instrumental progressive rock can quickly become monotonous without enough color and flavor–luckily WHIMS is quite the opposite. Genuine shredding is felt throughout the full 10 minute project, particularly on “Churn” and “Weave”, played back to back, just like the nodding of your head and/or hair as you sift through the rest of the album. I’ll go on a whim here and say I loved WHIMS/WHIMS. 

Sean 🐪🐫 

When talking about “WHIMS” self titled release I am at odds with myself. WHIMS is a two piece rock band consisting of drums and guitar. With a more stripped back set up It would be idea to hear some raw and innovative sounds. Unfortunately for WHIMS moments of innovation, and intrigue are spread too far and few between some very polished but average sounding tunes. The biggest gripe I have with this release is that it needed to be edited down significantly. I was drawn in entirely by the first track, it blended eerie chords, and riffs into a delightful melody. After being built up so much I felt let down in the following tracks where things were not as magical. It makes sense that a band might try a lot of things when starting out. I just don’t think they all need to make it on to the album.