AN ELECTRIC STORM

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.