AN ELECTRIC STORM

"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, White Noise/The BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Another forgotten classic. In this mindblowing, amazing trip from the late 60s, you will open your eyes to the revolutionary electronic (without any synth) music by late members of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, including Delia Derbyshire, a pionneer and master of the tape manipulation techniques. Brian Hodgson, Delia Derbishire, and David Vorhaus management to create sound effects is superb. These works features Paul Lytton on drums. An Electric Storm has the unique capacity to bother your senses in a relaxing way. Most of the tracks are calm when they are singing. The vocal lines are pretty catchy. But listeners will please the unexpected with the dark atmoshperic unknown presence made by sound textures and emulation of soundbanks. Edited tapes of intruments playing to sound like violins. Noises. Random voices of people laughing, screaming, crying and having sex in the most innapropriate moments.

Side A: Phase-In - The album cames from a totally different root, but eventually fell into the avant-psychedelic territory. You will notice the psychedelia in the very few minutes: Love Without Sound. This first track is a musical mushroom paradise. The noisy intersections makes a contrast with the easy mood and desperate anger. The song is followed by the erotic My Game of Loving, and then, the psychedelic experimental rock Here Comes The Flea, featuring great female vocals, one of my favorite tracks, highly reccomended to Gong and similar artists fans. Firebird is a great track, as well. The A Side is closed with the four minutes proto-shoegaze of Your Hidden Dreams.

Side B: Phase-Out - Here we are, the lenghty track. The Visitation. Twelve minutes of insanity. The track follows a line to play the lyrical part, then distorts them with the brilliant magic of the tape edition method, causing strange vibes between the chorus. The last moments of the album (the lenghty track called The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell) is very similar to some Einstürzende Neubauten records: harsh yells and almost industrial noises. Well, in the case of White Noise, there are corrupted soundwaves seeming drills and jackhammers. This track features a jazzy drum solo and a thriller feeling.

An Electric Storm is a knockdown. This disturbing soft album was ahead of it's time using vintage recording effects by manipulation. Come on and take place in the White Noise obscure trip!