White Hinterland Icarus

The first time I heard White Hinterland, I distinctly remember sitting in front of my computer totally enveloped in the hypnotizing sounds; I was immediately hooked. Casey Dienel provides her listeners with a landscape of different inverted melodies and broken beats, allowing them to grow an off-kilter fondness for her artistry.

White Hinterland's second album, Kairos, dances in a realm of dense electronica with hints of trip-hop and R&B. Her craftiness with this album opens up an atmosphere of hyperesthesia and her sultry melodies capture a slow-motion perspective of what it must be like to be in a Sofia Coppola movie.

Casey Dienel and collaborator Shawn Creeden emerge themselves in this vivid fairytale of desires and wonderful imagery. Their breakout song, "Icarus," opens slowly with luminous echoes and then gently glimmers with a light pop melody that makes you ask: is this dubstep? Reggae perhaps? The thundering beats before the vocals kick in almost sound like waves crashing up against a pile of rocks and when the vocals finally begin, it's as if Casey is opening a door into a sun-drenched dimension.

"Bow and Arrow," the fifth song on Kairos, begins with a repetitive chiming and then welcomes  surprising tribal rhythms. The unexpectedness of Kairos is what drew me in and what continues to surprise me. I can go a couple of days without hearing a song, and when I finally do, it feels as though I hadn't heard it before.

Each track contains something brilliantly enticing that can't go unnoticed. Whether it's their spell-like chants or atmospheric electro-pop beats, I am a fan and I want more.