Friday, June 8, 2007

White Noise - An Electric Storm [1969]

White Noise is an electronic music band formed in London, England in 1969 by American born David Vorhaus, a classical bass player with a background in both physics and electronic engineering. He was initially joined by BBC Radiophonic Workshop composers Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, both ex of electronic music project Unit Delta Plus.

An Electric Storm

In 1969 White Noise released the groundbreaking album An Electric Storm on Island Records. The album was created using a variety of tape manipulation techniques, and is notable for its early use of the first British synthesizer, the EMS Synthi VCS3. Amongst many oddities, the first track on the album Love Without Sound employed speeded up tape edits of Vorhaus playing the double bass to create violin and cello sounds.

'I use voices a lot too, but not as conventional vocals. I always use a lot of voices, and if somebody having an orgasm in the background is used as part of one of the waveforms, it makes the sound more interesting, without the listener actually knowing what they're hearing.' Interview with David Vorhaus

Although not initially commercially successful for Island, it has over the years proved to be a cult classic, going on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, namechecked by such contemporary artists as The Orb and Julian Cope, influencing such contemporary acts Broadcast and Add N to (X).

A brief extract from An Electric Storm can be heard in the Hammer Film Productions film Dracula AD 1972.

Lineup
* David Vorhaus - Production co-ordinator.
* Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson - Electronic sound realisation.
* Paul Lytton - Percussion.
* John Whitman, Annie Bird, Val Shaw - Vocals.

Discography
* The White Noise - An Electric Storm (1969)
* White Noise 2 - Concerto for Synthesizer (1974)
* White Noise 3 - Re-Entry (1988)
* White Noise 4 - Inferno (1990)
* White Noise 5 - Sound Mind (2000)
* White Noise 5.5 - White Label

Tracklist:

01. Love Without Sound [3:08]
02. My Game of Loving [4:11]
03. Here Comes The Fleas [2:16]
04. Firebird [3:05]
05. Your Hidden Dreams [4:59]
06. The Visitations [11:15]
07. The Black Mass- An Electric Storm in Hell [7:23]

Total time: 36:16

Here

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3 comments:

Sir Lord Doom said...

Great record, still have it on vinyl. The melodies remind me of old Floyd with this electronical background music...excellent, thanks alot

maria45 said...

I'd really love to see this re-uped.

maria

turgut said...

If you hear us brother,
please re-up it..