Long before they carved out a legacy as one of the defining names in shoegaze, Chapterhouse were just four gigs in and brimming with raw psychedelic energy. White House Demos, recorded live in a single day in January 1989 at The White House studio in Weston-super-Mare, captures the band in their earliest and perhaps most primal form. These four tracks reveal not a group finding their sound, but one already wielding it with purpose — a heady fusion of garage psych, noise rock, and the first hints of that swirling shoegaze dreamscape they’d later master.
Opening with Ecstasy, the EP roars into life with a driving, scuffed-up blast of melodic noise. Less refined than the version fans may know from later compilations, this eight-minute version is full of punky swagger, winding psychedelia, and a warm, baggy looseness. It’s full of force — dual guitars erupt in unison, shaping a sonic whirlwind that’s as catchy as it is chaotic. The shoegaze textures are embryonic but unmistakable, buried in the churn.
Guilt follows in the same vein, but with added weight. The band plays with dynamic space here, crashing walls of distortion against sweetly sung melodies and then breaking it all down into a post-punk, almost cinematic interlude before rebuilding again. It’s a confident, gutsy recording that doesn’t whisper its intent — it grabs the listener and dares them to keep up.
See That Girl, previously unreleased until now, is perhaps the biggest revelation. Its Eastern-tinged riffs snake hypnotically through a haze of feedback and drone, revealing a more exploratory side of the band. It’s psychedelic in the true sense — disorienting, transportive, and utterly immersive. The vocal floats dreamily above the chaos, a tether amid the swirl. There’s a simplicity to the structure, but it’s charged with charm and wild potential.
Then comes Die Die Die, not the later 11-minute live monster, but a sharper six-minute version that shows Chapterhouse at their most jagged and confrontational. It’s angular, punkish, and muscular — the wiry guitar lines cut through a dense wall of sound while the vocals growl with real intent. There’s something almost proto-grunge about its energy, a feral edge that feels excitingly out of control.
White House Demos isn’t just an archival curiosity — it’s a vital, visceral look into a band already burning with purpose. While the full shoegaze shimmer was still to come, these recordings stand tall on their own terms: loud, loose, and loaded with personality. As Stephen Patman puts it, there’s “teen spirit” all over these tracks, and it’s that rawness, that abandon, that makes this EP feel essential. For longtime fans, it’s a nostalgic jolt; for newcomers, it’s a glorious invitation to hear the spark before the flame.
White House demos is out now on digital, vinyl and limited cassette via Sonic Cathedral.
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