Albums

White Denim - Workout Holiday

Zal Jones 20/12/2009

Rating: 4/5

White Denim's first album Workout Holiday flails uncontrollably, disturbing onlookers with its high energy and divine musicianship. It's music at its most melodic, thrashed and beaten to form songs with the exterior of punk, which is misleading in a way as there is an effortless flow to these tracks that reflects a jazz sensibility, the raw soul of blues also has a very apparent presence. yet it is clear the tracks are forward thinking in every respect.

The bass rattles through the speakers flying up and down octaves, as Steve Terebeckion on drums provides a relentless attack of percussion that ricochets left and right synchronizing with the bass occasionally only to divert off into rhythms that just about nail the time down winding between the low bass tones and the oddest guitar riffs and phases you've ever heard courtesy of James Petralli, luckily somehow the songs don't alienate and hold down a real sense of feel.

Live, the band move as one through their repertoire reacting to the crowd and the moment; playing however they feel, a true example of music at its purest. Often they are found playing the tracks at twice the speed with no less dynamics. This creates an electric atmosphere and whips the crowd into a frenzy unlike anything I have experienced with a band for a long time.