Unlike the capriciousness that their name suggests, WHIMM are tense and exacting. Since 2014, the band have been slowly, methodically developing the material that would end up on their debut album, A Stare Ajar, which you can listen to above.
When the three-piece’s music is not compellingly and overwhelmingly anxious (“Town Hall”), it’s alien and abstract (“Field of Vision”). It’s fitting then that singer/guitarist Mounir Chami says the lyrical material draws on his and his family’s experiences as a Palestinian living in Canada.
“I think about being part of a diaspora constantly,” says Chami in a press release. “Between the home where I’ve been raised and what that demands, and what society and my friendships demand, where do I fit in? How do I stop feeling strange in these environments? I exist in both of them but I don’t really understand how.”
Rather than offering resolution, A Stare Ajarsimply poses the questions, letting them hang in the air like the rushes of bracing dissonance WHIMM expertly conjure.
A Stare Ajar is out this Friday, 10/27 via Pleasence Records and you can pre-order it here.
WHIMM Tour Dates:
11/09 — Guelph, ON @ Dstrct
11/11 — Hamilton, ON @ HAVN
11/17 — Toronto, ON @ The Baby G (LP Release)
11/24 — Ottawa, ON @ Pressed
11/25 — Kingston, ON – Venue TBA
11/26 — Montreal @ PN
11/30 — New York @ Silent Barn
11/31 — New York @ Venue TBA
