White Denim - Performance - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

13, the thirteenth album of White Denim's career, is an incandescent, groove-heavyalchemy of rock, funk, dub, soul and down-dirty blues - and plenty more besides- it's imbued with the same questing spirit that's been the band's trademark sincefi rst starting in Austin, Texas, some 20 years ago. Petralli's wide-ranging musicalappetites have become more voracious over time. The sounds and textures of '13'are informed by everyone from Scritti Politti to The Gap Band, Terry Reid to KingTubby, Caetano Veloso to John Cale, Stevie Wonder to '80s-era Steve Winwood.Such diversity is refl ected in multi-faceted gems like Inch(God Created) Lock And KeyInch,InchOnly A FoolInch and InchThat's RapInch.

White Denim, one of the very best rock bands to emerge this millennium, have gone through rapid changes in the 2020s, and now open an exciting new chapter with the wondrous album, '12', which arrives rich in hot tunes and fresh invention. It's always been hard to keep pace with James Petralli's group, ever since they first exploded out of Austin, Texas in '08 with hyper-kinetic post-punk bangers like Shake Shake Shake and I Start To Run. There was delicious romance in the original trio's MO, as they hatched intrepid sounds together via lengthy jams in a 1940s Spartan trailer parked up in woodland outside the city. James duly raced on through shifting line-ups and kaleidoscopic shades of soul, jazz and Southern rock, always with a feel of in-the-moment authenticity. As for so many musicians, the pandemic forced Petralli into a radical rethink in both life and creative process. Going into White Denim's twelfth long-player, he relocated his family to Los Angeles, and, barred from the usual workouts Inchon the floorInch with his latest group members under COVID, he plunged deep into the science of assembling tracks digitally, with contributions from players he'd sometimes never even meet. The results on '12' are intricate, hi-tech and forward-facing, yet also somehow still of a piece with the questing ambition, rootsy swing and uplifting way with melody we've come to adore about Petralli's music.

Side Effects sees White Denim unmasking the darker side of themes from their previous album, Performance. The bands 9th studio album, Side Effects includes the first studio recordings by their current touring roster a formidable lineup that is selling out shows on both sides of the Atlantic. As always, the album is heavy on musicianship, but it also marks a return to the wilder, weirder side of White Denim.