Whales release Open Ice Hits

From Bangor noise merchant, Dave McCann, comes this absolutely fantastic debut album on Bad Egg Records (click pic).
Check out this brilliant review by Libby from Punktastic, which sums up EXACTLY what Whales is about…
I don’t want to seem dramatic, but this album is possibly one of the the worst I’ve heard in my 25 years and to be honest I barely made it through the 8 tracks.
Falling vaguely into the ‘Noise’ genre there appears to be no structure to the songs, with screaming mixed behind distorted, almost mechanical noise, which I can only assume started life as some kind of notes played on a guitar. Going beyond Noise, Whales produce repetitive songs which are erratic and feature feedback, looped manipulated tracks and distortion and add a dose of heavy. Thinking I wasn’t being fair, I asked two friends to have a listen – one likened ‘Adventures in Dentistry’ to ‘rats fighting on some decks’ and the other promptly left the room complaining of a migraine. The band describe their music as grind, but personally I can barely see how it can be classed as music at all. I’m not sure if Whales are trying to push artistic boundaries or are just messing around with a synth and a guitar, so if you are a fan of the Noise scene, and like your music heavy give this a listen, if not I’d stay well away.
Listen here on Last FM