Reviews

White Wine
Killer Brilliance

(Altin Village & Mine)

8/10

If you’re the kind of artist who converts chaos into inspiration then the last couple of years have been an all-you-can-eat buffet. Joe Haege, former member of Tu Fawning and touring player with Menomena, and now leader of Leipzig duo White Wine, is exactly that guy. Their third LP doesn’t “poetically reframe” the madness of our times; it simply pours the fear into a dark, simmering caldron of experimental ideas.

It’s thematically heavy, sure, (“we’re all killers in some way or another,” Haege outlines) but, musically, rarely foggy or distorted. In fact, the production on standout moments like ‘Broken Letter Hour’, ‘Hurry Home’ and ‘I’d Run’ is almost blindingly bright. It’s just the way the sounds (squawking bassoon, pummelling hi-hats, Transylvanian church organ) are meshed that is almost uncomfortably compelling. As a collection it feels like visiting a different room in a decaying House of Mirrors where each space contains a more unsettling reflection of humankind. Put it on at your next dinner party straight after The xx.