White Noise - An Electric Storm

[zombywoof]

Anyone know this album? Played it today. It's early (late 60s) electronic / musique concrete - way ahead of its time. The first side is songs with some extremely haunting melodies. Very beautiful. The arrangements are really cool though - lots of weird sounds, depth and strangeness.

Side 2 is where it goes very avant garde - almost Chrome Plated Megaphone type stuff with lots of heavy piano reverb. Last track is just terrifying - like straight out of a nightmare. UZ Heresie level tension.

I've just discovered that a couple people who made this worked in the BBC Radiophonics Workshop which produced the Dr Who theme song and audio effects such as the Dalek voices and TARDIS noise. I geeked out pretty hard over that. :-) And they did it for FUN which I think is pretty cool!!

[chalkpie]

OH man - I have loved this since about 2004 or so. Totally amazing - such a head trip, yet some gorgeous moments. Dynamics galore as well. I still can't believe this album is from the 60's! For fans of Faust.

[zombywoof]

^ yeah!!

[NogbadTheBad]

Need to check it out, never heard of it.

[zombywoof]

Need to check it out, never heard of it.

$9 on wayside. A steal!!

[chalkpie]

Need to check it out, never heard of it.

Do you dig Faust, Faust Tapes, Ummagumma, Krautrock (in general), US of A, etc etc? If so, you might dig it. It's a must-hear just to realize it even exists and was released in 1969.

[NogbadTheBad]

Never heard of US of A either

[Udi Koomran]

One of my alltime favorite albums !
Besides the Ground breaking studio work I find the actual songwriting amazing too

[zombywoof]

Do you dig Faust, Faust Tapes, Ummagumma, Krautrock (in general), US of A, etc etc? If so, you might dig it. It's a must-hear just to realize it even exists and was released in 1969.

Sort of reminds me of the Residents too, only much earlier! (And better?) Didn't get the Faust connection - going to go replay the debut. Thanks!

[Udi Koomran]

From the back of the "re-issue":
"Welcome to the world of the frequency shifter, signal generator and azimuth coordinator. A world that existed before the dawn of the synthesizer, when a 'sample' was a length of recording tape deliberately and skillfully spliced in place. The 1968 White Noise: An Electric Storm LP became the holy grail amongst collectors of 'Science Dimension' music, a staple ingredient for lovers of cosmic electronic space rock."
The caption above makes it sound more scientifically-minded than it actually is sound-wise, though one can only speculate on the processes involved ... honestly it's rather intimidating to contemplate. But the songs are amazingly good. Really REALLY catchy bubblegum psychedelia immersed in Perrey & Kingsley fluids. Since this is from back when people used to know how to write music, there is some really nice detail in the "inside" parts and voice leading that carries the music through the electronic maelstrom, so even those impatient with sound-collage type music will have no problem enjoying most of this one. And then the wowie-zowie vibe gives way to some freak sessions that literally conquer all such related Revolution #9/Pink Floyd ’60s explorations with horrific intensity. This is the friggin' greatest. Trey Spruance

[smcfee]

I've had this for years but haven't played it recently, will have to revisit.

[walt]

Picked this up at NearFest Epoxyclypse.Good stuff.

[Toothyspook]

Delia Derbyshire and friends worked at BBC workshop. They knocked White Noise out during 'unpaid overtime hours'. As the OP suggests, they also created the theme tune to Dr.Who from the same workshop

[Kavus Torabi]

One of my favourite albums of all time. Don't play it now like I used to but for a while I couldn't stop listening to it.

[Kavus Torabi]

If you like this album I cannot recommend the British band Broadcast highly enough, if you don't already know them.

They really have a great deal of this album's mystical and otherworldly properties throughout their entire oeuvre, married with exceptional, experimental pop songwriting.

Incredibly psychedelic and beautiful.

[JJ88]

Those long tracks on the second side are something else, really scary stuff! I've seen this compared to Pink Floyd's 'A Saucerful Of Secrets'...this is much more electronic and weird.

I still can't believe this album is from the 60's!

That's the thing with the music of that decade, in general.

[Udi Koomran]

If you like this album I cannot recommend the British band Broadcast highly enough, if you don't already know them.
They really have a great deal of this album's mystical and otherworldly properties throughout their entire oeuvre, married with exceptional, experimental pop songwriting.
Incredibly psychedelic and beautiful.

Broadcast are indeed fantastic and come highly recommended

[Trane]

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=38063

First review is mine



WN IV (from 89) is OK, bur I haven't heard the others

[mogrooves]

A "hipper-than-thou" album back in the daze, to be sure. Still dig it.

Props to Paul Lytton.

[daven]

A great album which stands the test of time. Very experimental but thankfully using great tunes as a starting point. Iirc they only had three quartets of the material ready when Island wanted the project completed, so they hastily jammed the final track, using Floyd's Saucerful of Secrets drum pattern as a base.

[whatwherewhywhen]

I dig this out occasionally, it is something of an acquired taste but I like it. The later albums without the radiophonic guys are more conventional and not as interesting.

Don't know what they sound like these days but White Noise will be playing near my neck of the woods this year at an event in Woodbridge in the UK.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Broadcast are indeed fantastic and come highly recommended

+1. Great and utterly esoteric music for the current trauma of cultural bliss.

Broadcast were probably informed by White Noise, but also by the United States of America, Silver Apples and Fifty Foot Hose, all of which influenced triphop bands and post-electronica artists throughout the late 90s/early 2000s. Hell, even famous folks like Portishead and Stereolab namechecked these groups.

[zombywoof]

There's some pretty deep grooves on "Love Without Sound" that sound at least 15 years ahead of their time.

[Mr.Krautman]

I consider An Electric Storm (aka White Noise 1) as one of the most groundbreaking innovative and original records of that era (late sixties), to be ranked among the top 5 classics of the genre like In The Court, Pet Sounds , Sergent Pepper,... An absolute must. A real shame it's almost unknow in the prog-sphere, it's quite an experimental record but still very accessible. Very few people knows that David Vorhaus (The mastermind behind the W.N project) was actually an electronic music pioneer developping his own instruments like the Maniac multi-sequencer and Kaleidophon string controller. (see video below, from 1979)

https://youtu.be/XH3aYVbILP4

[soundsweird]

I've had this album off and on since it first came out. "Here Come The Fleas" has always been my favorite track, and I probably wouldn't keep the album if not for that 2-minute masterpiece. I bought "White Noise II" when it came out, but found it to be pretty generic electronic music. I agree that it fits in well with The United States of America album as well as the excellent spin-off/followup "American Metaphysical Circus", credited to Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies.