white noise (delia derbyshire)

An Electric Storm (DIGITALLY REMASTERED WITH ENHANCED PACKAGING AND SLEEVENOTES)

REMASTERED EDITION WITH NEW PACKAGING AND EXTENSIVE LINER NOTES!* What do you mean you've never heard of White Noise? Okay fair enough, they're hardly as widely known as, say, Black Sabbath - but that doesn't mean you're allowed to get away with it, oh no matey. White Noise is the musical lovechild of producer David Vorhaus and a certain British electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire. Yes you heard me right, electronic music fans, this album is the long out-of-press full-length from BBC Radiophonic Workshop's Delia Derbyshire (with a little bit of help from her co-worker Brian Hodgson) and sees her unshackled by blasé visuals or random science fiction themes. In fact there's little to connect this to her more well-known work on Doctor Who for instance than a similar sense of fun - White Noise is at its core a psychedelic record, it's just psychedelic with a desire to create sounds that had never before been committed to wax. The Silver Apples or the United States of America (considered to the White Noise's US equivalent) would be good reference points, but what White Noise managed was even beyond their breaks-heavy innovations; just check the opening (which was the track that got them signed to Island!), all vocoded vocals, epic soundscapes, clattering percussion and the kind of loungey bass that Stereolab and Broadcast would end up making their own. You almost struggle to believe that this was made in 1969 (the same year as 'Abbey Road', and people thought the Beatles were experimenting) as you are launched through a collage of samples, noise, synthesis and tape effects. Honestly I want to try not to go on about this record too much but there are precious little albums that have so much significance in the development of experimental pop, every synthesizer part, every edit, every sound seems so perfectly placed and is the absolute showcase of Derbyshire's unique and virtuoso talents. It feels so hideously unfair to think that she never achieved the kind of credit she knew she deserved (and we know now) and there have been precious few other electronic artists with the skills to touch her. 'White Noise' is innovative, genre-bending, utterly insane and with a twisted sense of humour we would later see capitalised upon by Mr. Bungle and the whole Patton scene, but nothing on earth really sounds like this. Buy this and let yourself absorb one of the most original and futuristic albums ever written (oh and while you're at it pray for a vinyl re-issue). Totally essential purchase.