AROUND | MUSIC CASSETTE

When Sway begins, you might at first press pause, reaching for your headphone wire or peeking behind your speaker cables to make sure nothing has come undone. The blister of distorted guitar that opens the album comes only from the right channel, howling and hanging there in irascible isolation until it seems that something must be wrong. But be patient: After a dozen seconds, the rest of Whirr-a five-piece of blanketing rock focus and comforting pop finesse-pours in from the left channel. They meet the guitar in the middle, together racing headlong into a short section that's heavy as metal but pliable enough to be the springboard for the galloping shoegaze beauty that soon arrives. For the next 36 minutes, you need not worry again about lost connections, split channels or anything else, really. More than any Whirr release to date, Sway creates a definitive sense of immersion, sculpting an environment that breathes you in instantly and breathes you out only when the record snaps into silence. That bifurcated start is an appropriate image for Whirr in 214. Last year, the band headlined a tour with the Philadelphia group and fellow admirers of heaviness and harmony, Nothing. Not only did the crews become fast friends, but their respective founders-Whirr's Nick Bassett and Nothing's Dominic Palermo-decided to start a group of their own, Death of Lovers. When the shared tour was finished, Bassett headed to Philadelphia for a month of writing and recording. He's never really left. He calls Philadelphia home now, so Whirr has become a bicoastal band.