An Electric Storm was originally released on Island in 1969 by ex Unit Delta Plus members and BBC Radiophonic workshop supremos Tony Vorhaus, Delia Derbyshire (composer of Dr.Who theme tune) and Brian Hodgson. Island have finally got around to reissuing it on CD for the lazy crate-diggers (me). It's a lesson in the beginnings of electronic music - the commercial side; the TV soundtrack side - the other end of the spectrum from the minimalism of composers like Terry Riley.
The album is a gloriously off-kilter, a squiffy mixture of pulsing heartbeats, hollow tappings of triffids and exotica instrumentation: bamboo sticks, marimbas and bongos. Glittering synths and warped vocal echoes are dripping in reverb, yet it retains the hooks of melodies whilst the whole album swells with guttural groans and orgasmic moaning.
It's difficult to choose what to post, "Here Come The Fleas" has a sense of humour; "Firebird" is pure 60s pop with some clever tape tricks; "My Game Of Loving" has a full 2 minutes of orgasmic moaning; "The Visitations" is fantastically frightening but 11 minutes long. After around 15 minutes of deliberation, I've decided to fall on a middle ground. Anybody who wants to hear John Whitman, Annie Bird and Val Shaw climax properly can pay to perv and buy a copy. It's really quite unfortunate that I can't post the whole album.
White Noise - Love Without Sound
White Noise - Firebird
Geek Post: (for people who will have the oppurtunity to use such fascinating anecdotes)
- Final track "The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell" was used in Hammer horror Dracula AD 1972 (Thanks Hodgson)
- The BBC Radiophonic Workshop were among the first to implent a British synth called the EM Synthi VCS3, a portable analog synth (doesnt actually look that portable), which was also used by Eno in his Roxy Music days, King Crimson and...wait for it...Hawkwind.
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