White Noise
An Electric Storm


Released 1969 on Island
Reviewed by briandroid, 26/02/2002ce


"Many sounds have never been heard-by humans:some sound waves you don't hear-but they reach you. "Storm Stereo" techniques combine singers, instrumentalists and complex electronic sound. The emotional intensity is at a maximum."
So read the bold sleevenotes on this unique one-off release on which David Vorhaus , an electronics graduate teamed up with two members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to produce a collage of tape loops; Floydesque echoing drums and haunting vocals. From the first opening munchkinised word (sound...sound...) the atmosphere takes hold as the music literally floats out of the speakers and wanders around your apartment like a prospective buyer, penetrating nooks and crannies that other recordings don't reach. If you suffered from synethstaesia you'd spend the whole album ducking. It's a heady mix of whimsical psychedelic innocence; sinister demon-summoning backmasking and Tom & Jerry saucepan fights, hell, "it's just like a cartoon by AAP." Despite stiff competition from some fine vocal performances and quirky original riffs the real star is the production, which belies it's conception date and truly sounds as if it was recorded the day after tommorow...by aliens...from the future. Perhaps the BBC really did have a TARDIS. If so it's evident what certain employees got up to afterhours


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