Louisiana-based Whisper Party! fashion whirling soundscapes of aurally gleaming dream rock that will leave you both hopelessly enamored and transfixed. For the last few years, they’ve spent most of their time onstage, playing venues across their home state and drenching all within earshot with their luxuriously reverberating sound. If you find yourself anywhere near New Orleans in the next few months you couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to catch such sublime conjurers live.
Founded in NOLA in the spring of 2021 by Rex Marshall and Jean Preston, with drummer Chris Hayes and guitarist Michael Selser joining not long afterward, the musical background of the four-piece comprising Whisper Party! is a motley assortment of influences that range from punk and blues to opera. Before the band’s formation, each member had fostered careers as seasoned musicians, though this marks the first time an original project has garnered so much praise and adoration. Exploring their fledgling assemblage of singles and their recent debut LP it doesn’t take long to understand why.
Their first single arrived in 2022 as “Eyes Are Everything,” an invigoratingly punchy and scintillating track that introduced soon-to-be fans to the band’s bread and butter: jangly guitars and throbbing percussion that gives way to a ravishing shimmer of synths and ethereally beaming vocals. Naming three artists that encompass their sound Whisper Party! look to Blonde Redhead‘s sonic heft, the bejeweled melodics summoned by Cocteau Twins, and Men I Trust entrancing grooves as a guiding constellation.
Singles like “Smoking Gun,” a cork-screwing nose dive into sizzling riffs and off-kilter funk, and the breathtaking exhilaration of “Intricate Machine” heralded the mesmeric power their first album would possess. When it was finally unveiled Whisper Party! confirmed the band as an impressive amalgamation of those influences.
The grandeur of their self-titled record is established immediately via its two opening songs: “Sea of Blood” and “Broken Lighthouse.” The first is a stunning crescendo of mystical and hypnotic intensity fueled entirely by their ecstatic instrumentals. It hurls you into the thrilling world their music occupies — one of mythic proportions — where seaside towers and tumultuous seas become the distilled symbols of the soul.
Another emblematic track is “Coloured Image of the Sun,” a rapt ode to the splendor that surrounds us at any given moment. Yet it also illustrates the essential duality at the center of their music, pairing transcendent vocals with equally majestic and vibrant explosions of aural color. There’s a cinematic breadth and elusive emotional precision that coats everything they share, leaving you awestruck by its colossal beauty.
You can add the band’s latest single “Opus for the Hopeless” (feat. Mike Dillon) to their catalog of endlessly euphoric hits. Propelled by a rush of backing guitars that contort themselves around its buoying dreaminess, the song offers up its shimmering textures as a healing tonic for life’s growing pains. Transforming their tenuous melancholy into anthemically gleaming indie rock that ignites the heart.
Words: Steven Ward
Visit Whisper Party! on their website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Listen to “Opus for the Hopeless” (feat. Mike Dillon) the new single from Whisper Party! below!
Whisper Party! Tour
March 16th – Moonshadow Festival @ Abita Spring, LA
April 7th – Psychedelic Sunday @ Drifter Hotel – New Orleans, LA
May 5th – Psychedelic Sunday @ Drifter Hotel – New Orleans, LA
