An Electric Storm Explained

An Electric Storm
Type:	studio
Artist:	White Noise
Cover:	whitenoise.jpg
Released:	June 1969
Recorded:	1968
Genre:	Electronic avant-pop^[1] psychedelic pop^[2] experimental pop^[3]
Label:	Island
Next Title:	White Noise 2 - Concerto for Synthesizer
Next Year:	1974

An Electric Storm is the debut album by electronic music group White Noise. The band recorded the first two tracks with the intention of producing a single only but were then persuaded by Chris Blackwell of Island Records to create an entire album. At this point the group had established the Kaleidophon Studio in a flat in Camden Town, London, and spent a year creating the next four tracks.^[4] The last track was put together in one day when Island demanded the completion of the album.^[5] Although not very successful on its initial release, the album is now considered an important and influential album in the development of electronic music.^[6] Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle has called it "the most groundbreaking yet completely underrated electronic record of the 20th century".^[7]

A brief extract from the track "Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell" can be heard in the Hammer Film Productions film Dracula AD 1972.

Track listing

Phase-In

Phase-Out

Personnel

The following people contributed to An Electric Storm:^[8]

• Kaleidophon – production
• David Vorhaus – production co-ordinator
• Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson – electronic sound realisation
• Paul Lytton – percussion
• John Whitman, Annie Bird, Val Shaw – vocals

Releases

• June 1969 - LP, Island Records, catalog number ILPS 9099
• 27 March 1995^[9] - CD, "3D Island" label, Island Records, 3DCID 1001; deleted 1996^[10]
• 9 July 2007^[11] - CD re-released, Island Remasters

External links

• Head Heritage Review by Julian Cope

Notes and References

1. McNamee. David. The Best of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop on One Side of a C90. The Quietus. 19 January 2009.
2. Web site: Morpurgo . Jason . The greatest electronic albums of the 1950s and 1960s . FACT . 29 May 2014 . 6 January 2020.
3. Web site: Simpson . Paul . Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society Review by Paul Simpson . AllMusic . 16 May 2022 . However, the DDAS moniker is somewhat misleading, as the pair's debut album isn't nearly as eerie or playful as Derbyshire's work, and definitely nowhere near as weird as An Electric Storm by White Noise, an absolutely brilliant experimental pop album from the late '60s that Derbyshire played a major part in creating..
4. News: Pattison. Louis. White Noise - An Electric Storm. 2007. BBC.
5. An Electric Storm, sleeve notes, 1995 CD version, 3DCID 1001, Island Records
6. Web site: The 50 Most Influential Dance Music Albums of All Time. mixmag.net. 9 January 2019.
7. Web site: Quietus . The . 2021-08-04 . I Hear New Worlds: Chris Carter's Favourite Albums Page 10 of 14 . 2024-06-08 . The Quietus . en-GB.
8. http://www.allmusic.com/album/an-electric-storm-r52534/credits An Electric Storm - Credits
9. https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Storm-White-Noise/dp/B00000761B An Electric Storm, amazon.com
10. http://www.groove.nl/cd/8/81474.html An Electric Storm, review at Groove Unlimited
11. http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/7447680/a/An+Electric+Storm.htm An Electric Storm, CD Universe product information