Thursday, February 10, 2005
My Mind Explored Her Labyrinth Eyes
White Noise "My Game of Loving"
White Noise "The Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell"
Recorded in the late ‘60’s by some folks affiliated with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, White Noise’s An Electric Storm is some prime early electro-psychedelic nonsense. Tape manipulation, primitive electronics, stereo panning, and delay and echo effects abound, while the singing and lyrics call to mind contemporaries like the United States of America and the National Gallery. Released by Island in 1969, An Electric Storm didn’t get a cd rerelease until 1996, which apparently went out of print almost immediately. Tom from WZBC told me that, in the UK, this record was required listening for early ‘70’s heads and longhairs.
With only seven songs, it’s over before you know it, which is for the best. If there was much more on here, it would start to approach unbearability. “My Game of Love” is a good example of White Noise’s zapped-mind confluence of sonic exploration, hippiefied free love, and semi-serious Satanic hedonism. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more unsettling song about (potentially group) sex. The album concludes with what the group claimed to be the soundtrack to an actual Black Mass. It sounds more like Acid Mothers Temple without a guitar, and with random “scary” screaming popping up every minute or so. Pretty rad (and ridiculous) stuff. This sort of dated, otherworldly, retro-futuristic Dark Ages crap just illustrates how so much “experimental” rock of today is actually quite tame and unoriginal.
Amazon has copies of An Electric Storm at a reliably high import price.
White Noise "My Game of Loving"
White Noise "The Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell"
Recorded in the late ‘60’s by some folks affiliated with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, White Noise’s An Electric Storm is some prime early electro-psychedelic nonsense. Tape manipulation, primitive electronics, stereo panning, and delay and echo effects abound, while the singing and lyrics call to mind contemporaries like the United States of America and the National Gallery. Released by Island in 1969, An Electric Storm didn’t get a cd rerelease until 1996, which apparently went out of print almost immediately. Tom from WZBC told me that, in the UK, this record was required listening for early ‘70’s heads and longhairs.
With only seven songs, it’s over before you know it, which is for the best. If there was much more on here, it would start to approach unbearability. “My Game of Love” is a good example of White Noise’s zapped-mind confluence of sonic exploration, hippiefied free love, and semi-serious Satanic hedonism. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more unsettling song about (potentially group) sex. The album concludes with what the group claimed to be the soundtrack to an actual Black Mass. It sounds more like Acid Mothers Temple without a guitar, and with random “scary” screaming popping up every minute or so. Pretty rad (and ridiculous) stuff. This sort of dated, otherworldly, retro-futuristic Dark Ages crap just illustrates how so much “experimental” rock of today is actually quite tame and unoriginal.
Amazon has copies of An Electric Storm at a reliably high import price.
