377 1845
377 lp back 400

Glitter Glamour Atrocity

Thrill Jockey
Thrill 377 - 2014

Glitter Glamour Atrocity is WHITE HILLS’ second album, originally self-released in January 2007 as a limited edition CD and unavailable on any other format until now. The album has now been mastered by Heba Kadry at Timeless Mastering and is released on both CD & LP with brand new artwork.  WHITE HILLS perform album track "Under Skin Or By Name" in the Jim Jarmusch film Only Lovers Left Alive.

The LP version is pressed on virgin vinyl with a free download coupon.  CD version is packaged in a 4 panel mini-LP style gatefold package.

Glitter Glamour Atrocity is a snapshot of the band in the midst of an incredible burst of creativity, and was recorded during the same sessions that produced Heads On Fire and Abstractions & Mutations. Sonically, it is radically different from anything else coming out of the New York underground at the time, and it set the template for the singular concoction of heavy psychedelic music, krautrock, and a worship of pure sound they have explored in different variations ever since. Throughout the album the band explores themes of greed, misinformation, war, hypocrisy and their outcomes within the world’s political and economic systems, presenting these weighty topics with the same air of mystic understanding that underpins their music. Glitter Glamour Atrocity includes the song “Under Skin Or By Name,” the longest running staple in the band’s live set, which the band performed in the acclaimed film Only Lovers Left Alive at the request of director Jim Jarmusch. It is one of only two performances in the movie, which is enamored with the music making process and record collector culture. 


Following the mood-setting intro track and the meditative bombast of “Under Skin or By Name,” WHITE HILLS settle into the sparse groove of “Spirit of Exile,” an expression of a desire to live apart from a culture that one does not fit into. These songs glow with the burning vitality and passion of free thinkers trapped in the waning years of the Bush administration. Those sentiments are perhaps most compellingly expressed on “Love Serve Remember,” a warped, surreal vision of life after 9/11 seen through the eyes of someone who witnessed the event first-hand, interspersed with a brilliantly edited speech by Bush himself in which he admits “I was a threat to the United States.”

Glitter Glamour Atrocity was recorded with the first iteration of the trio line-up with Dave W. on vocals, guitar, synthesizers, and sound collage, Ego Sensation on bass and vocals, and Bob Bellomo on drums. It was recorded at Bellomo’s studio in Passaic, NJ, and produced by Dave W. This new edition is the first time the album has been pressed on vinyl, properly mastered and presented with brand new artwork.

“This is an honest-to-god-album, with peaks and valleys, crests and chill-out sections-- hell, 'Glitter Glamour Atrocity' alone has all that…it's a consistently engaging listen from end to end.” – Pitchfork

Tracklist

00:00:00

  • 1 Air Waves
  • 2 Under Skin or By Name
  • 3 Spirit of Exile
  • 4 Distance
  • 5 Somewhere Along the Way
  • 6 Long Serve Remember
  • 7 Passage
  • 8 Glitter Glamour Atrocity