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AN ELECTRIC STORM

White Noise

Progressive Electronic


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White Noise An Electric Storm album cover
3.91 | 80 ratings | 7 reviews | 35% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1969

Songs / Tracks Listing

- Side A: Phase-In -
1. Love Without Sound (2:57)
2. My Game Of Loving (3:38)
3. Here Come The Fleas (2:31)
4. Firebird (2:43)
5. Your Hidden Dreams (4:25)
- Side B: Phase-Out -
6. The Visitation (11:45)
7. The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell (7:04)

Total time 35:03

Line-up / Musicians

- David Vorhaus / double bass (1), effects, production
- Brian Hodgson / electronics, voice (3)
- Delia Derbyshire / electronics

With:
- Annie Bird / vocals (2)
- John Whitman / vocals (1,4)
- Val Sharpe / vocals (5)
- Lisa Pollack / backing vocals (4)
- Paul Lytton / drums (7)

Releases information

Artwork: Island Art

LP Island Records ‎- ILPS-9099 (1969, UK)

CD Island Records ‎- 3D CID 1001 (1992, Europe)

Thanks to philippe for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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WHITE NOISE An Electric Storm ratings distribution


3.91
(80 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(35%)
35%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(34%)
34%
Good, but non-essential (20%)
20%
Collectors/fans only (8%)
8%
Poor. Only for completionists (4%)
4%

WHITE NOISE An Electric Storm reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog Folk
4 stars In the world of electronic music, I can hardly think of an album that was so groundbreaking and precocious than White Noise's Electric Storm. Indeed the project joined three incredibly inquisitive and inventive musicians such as German-born Davis Vorhaus, locals Brian Hodgson and Delia Derbyshire, who later were of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop fame. Also a part of the project, jazz drummer Paul Lytton and several vocalists, White Noise cut An Electric Storm in 1968, released on the groundbreaking Island records. Without any proper synthesizer per se, the album relied heavily on complex tape edits and eerie sound effects.

Well AES is not just about electronic loops and effects, but it also relies on a solid dose of goofy British pop weirdo-ism (one that Frank Zappa would've approved of) and a certain sense of minimalism, even if there is plenty of stuff going on simultaneously in the music. Beit pieces like Love Without Sound, My Game Of Loving (don't be fooled by the track names), the electronic loops and tapes are wallpapering the sonic spaces behind far-reaching vocals that can stretch out to sexual moans or nutcase wailings. The madness continues with Here Comes the Fleas and Firebird (nothing to do with Igor) and the quieter Hidden Dreams.

Over the early-Floydish flipside, renamed Phase Out (as opposed to the A-side's Phase In), the madness doesn't stop but changes somewhat from shorter goofy tunes to a more serious experimental sound over two lengthier tracks, opening with the aptly-titled 11-mins Visitation , which sounds like a cosmic storm visiting the confines of your brains. This is clearly the album's centrepiece with the vocals taking on a second role, but remaining poignant enough (there are weeping bouts) to keep you riveted to the edge of your seat. The closing 7-mins Black Mass Electric Storm In Hell could just come out of Floyd's Saucerful Of Ummagumma album, where Lytton's drumming evokes what Nick Mason would do in a few months in Secrets or Setting The Controls Of The Heart Of The Sun. But it's not just about the drumming, there are Waters-ian scream, Wright-ian knob-twiddlings and Barrett-ian lunacy involved.

Well this album should come down like An Electric Storm over the electronic-minded progheads, although the sheer wackiness of the album should please Zappa, Beefheart fans and Moondog or even Terry Riley followers. In either case, passing through AES session should not leave anyone unscathed and should send your sanity up the zaniness ladder all the way up to volume 11.

Review by LearsFool
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars In '68, three bands all coincidentally experimented with primitive, self constructed oscillators to create some of the same electronic sounds Stockhausen and friends had been working with since the '40's, and now to be done in the context of popular music. Because of this, only twenty years later we had the first techno. But, more pertinent to us here on PA, we had four great albums cut, and we got Tangerine Dream out of it two years later. And, the third, final, and British one of of the three bands, White Noise, had both the best of the four records of the first pop electronic groups, and perhaps the most influential. Not just EDM and prog electronic sprung from this, but industrial. Side One is Phase In, and features the more warm, gentle, psychedelic side of the band's sound. The music is fun and relaxing, with nice singing and voices of pleasure. The sound is also much smoother than that of the other two bands, Silver Apples and The United States of America. All this changes going to the other side, Phase Out. This is the first industrial, at least six years ahead of its time. The music turns dark, the vocalists start screaming and crying, terrifying sounds come out of nowhere. The two tracks on this side have their comparatively relieving sections, but they are still just off, and a creepy narrator haunts us. There are the chants of a black mass. A man's screams become the cries of a demonic machine. "The Visitation" and "Black Mass" still stand as two of the best pieces of industrial ever put to wax. "An Electric Storm" as a whole, then, is the spring of countless genres and more than a masterpiece in its own right. This makes for a heck of a listen.
Review by siLLy puPPy
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
4 stars WHITE NOISE was an interesting electronic band from London, UK that was started by the American David Vorhaus who was both classically trained as a bassist and had a connection to electronic engineering. After hooking up with a couple members of Unit Delta Plus which was one of the innovators of tape manipulations and experimental electronic music, they decided to create a couple tracks intended to be released only as a single but after Island Records caught wind of their goings-on, they were persuaded to release an entire album's worth of material. So meticulous were these guys that that request ended up taking them a full year to complete and only completed the last track in a day when Island insisted on releasing the album. Finally in the summer of 69, AN ELECTRIC STORM was released.

This is fun music and not nearly as freaky as i had anticipated. It is firmly placed in the 60s and will instantly bring The United States Of America to mind with its swingin' sexy bachelor pad type of loungy exotica. The music may not be freaky (all the time), but the electronic embellishments are fairly sophisticated for the day. The production is excellent considering the year and the inventiveness justifies the time allotted to its creation. The album is basically divided into Phase-In (tracks 1-5) and Phase-Out (tracks 6, 7). The first phase being basically an electronically doctored up version of a Herb Alpert or Tom Jones type of feel, while the second phase venturing into the extremities of psychedelic electronica that would totally feel at home next to Pink Floyd's "Saucerful Of Secrets" and the early Krautish psychedelia of Pärson Sound. However, even on phase two it doesn't always get to full-on freakout mode at least until the very end. There is usually a melodic insertion to remind you of the time period therefore this album does feel like a product of its time, but i hardly feel that it is a bad thing. Some music serves the purpose of bringing an era to mind and AN ELECTRIC STORM achieves that for sure.

Personally i'm not quite as taken by this as many others and i prefer the album by The United States Of America which was released the previous year for it had more memorable 60s melodies and offered a lot of the same kind of electronic explorations, but WHITE NOISE does up the ante in the psychedelic department on phase 2 with some truly innovative electronic wizardry that can take you to the moon like Apollo 11 and then back to the the more terrestrial swanky grooviliciousness of 60s pop culture. This is a brilliant album certainly and highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the continuation of early electronic pioneers of the 50s such as Stockhausen and also utilizing the algorithmic composition systems of Gottfried Michael Koenig but also as a proto-progresive electronic album that would eventually fuel the Berlin school sound. Definitely an innovative album for the time but unfortunately WHITE NOISE waited a full six years for a follow-up and in the fertile late 60s / early 70s they were quickly surpassed in their innovation. Still though, this one album keeps them relevant in the rich history that encompasses the progression of electronic music.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars White Noise's first album as a collaboration between producer and effects wizard David Vorhaus and the electronic wizards Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson of the famous BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Derbyshire is mostly famous for being the composer of the iconic Doctor Who theme music, and the Radiophonic Workshop's electronic hums and buzzes not only defined the sound of television science fiction in the UK for decades but, both through influencing young musicians and through side projects like this, made major contributions to the development of electronic music in general.

The album forms a strange bridge between the psychedelic pop of the era (particularly with the short-form pieces on side one) and the improvisational freakouts of the early Krautrock scene - just listen to Visitation and Black Mass and then tell me you can't hear the seeds of, say, Brainticket's Cottonwoodhill. Emerging in 1969. it's a startlingly ahead-of- its-time release that deserves a reappraisal in retrospect. Numerous electronic jam sessions from the likes of Tangerine Dream or Ash Ra Tempel or Cosmic Jokers would come on the heels of this release - but precious few would exceed the standard set here.

Review by Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Yes it's outrageous that I'm giving this 3 stars after looking at these glowing reviews here. Released in 1969 "An Electric Storm" was the debut album of WHITE NOISE from England. They are a trio with the main man the lone American playing some bass but mostly adding some really cool sounding effects. The other two work with electronics. We get several guests adding vocals and one drums. So while you'd think with all the electronics and effects that this would be a soundscape album you would be wrong. Yes we get that but it's surprising the amount of poppy music on here. Good poppy not lame.

Like the opener which is psychedelic with the spoken words that echo and percussion replaced by vocals and a spacey atmosphere. Contrasts continue and this is catchy. On the other hand listening to two people having sex is a complete turn off. Not in my music. That would be on the next song "My Game Of Loving". "Here Come The Fleas" has it's silliness and some theatrical female vocals. They again contrast two different sections on "Firebird" with that poppy sound with vocals and backing vocals before electronics and vocal melodies take over.

"Your Hidden Dreams" contrasts the female vocals with electronics against those noisy outbursts. Now the next song "The Visitation" at almost 12 minutes has it's moments and plenty of soundscape stuff but it's the whimpering and sobbing that occurs a couple of times on here that turns me off. Risky like the sex sounds from earlier in my opinion. Sure your getting noticed for doing something completely different but it's not a good different in my opinion. "The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell" has quite bit of screaming on it and soundscape music.

Not big on some of the subject matter or the music at times and this isn't a 4 star album in my world, just everyone else's.

Latest members reviews

2 stars An Electric Storm is the debut album of the band White Noise which released in 1969. I find An Electric Storm by White Noise to just be very bizarre, and personally I did not enjoy it for the most part. But I can imagine this having enough interesting elements to push the genre forward permittin ... (read more)

Report this review (#2507895) | Posted by Lieutenant_Lan | Monday, February 22, 2021 | Review Permanlink

5 stars "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." - David Vorhaus, ... (read more)

Report this review (#1083324) | Posted by VOTOMS | Friday, November 29, 2013 | Review Permanlink

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