White Noise – Here Come The Fleas

Here Come the Fleas
(McDonald/Vorhaus)
An obvious single choice, though never a single. Kenny Everett used the first percussive break, after verse one, as a jingle on his radio programme. Brian Hodgson plays the Caribbean gentleman asking for the music to be turned down as he can’t hear his own steel band. Very Island Records.
Co-Written with John Renn-Mc-Donald.

An Electric Storm (1968)

Island Records
3D CID1001 510 948-2 LC 0407 PY 899
(c) all titles: Island Music Ltd
A Keleidophon Production

B.A.S.E.
Bedini Audio Spacial Environment
The 3D SoundBASE sound process frees the musical image from the phase constraints of conventional stereo, opening up the sound dimensionally and imparting a real sense of depth to the mix.

THE WHITE NOISE – AN ELECTRIC STORM

Welcome to the world of the frequency shifter, signal generator and azimuth co-ordinator. A world that existed before the dawn of the synthesizer, when a ‘sample’ was a length of recording tape delicately and skillfully spliced in place. The 1968 White Noise — An Electric Storm LP became the holy grail amongst collectors of ‘Science Dimension’ music, a staple ingredient for lovers of cosmic electronic space-rock.

White Noise was really one David Vorhaus (b,sc,dip.elec) American born, son of a black-listed film director. He avoided the draft by coming to the UK. Later he became a post graduate doing an electronics degree at the Northern Poly whilst studying classical music playing the double bass. After having attended a lecture by the group Unit Delta Plus, Vorhaus was compelled to combine his love of music with his scientific background and start making his own music. At the time Unit Delta Plus were Brian Hodgson and Delia Derbyshire who were persuaded to collaborate with Vorhaus on his early recordings whilst they continued their day jobs at the BBC’s radiophonic workshop, itself a shrine to new electronic music and birthplace of the famous Dr. Who theme. After recording two tracks on a six-revox set up all synchronized by one remote control, (i.e. the mains on/off switch), Vorhaus found himself introduced by chance to Island Records’ Chris Blackwell. Chris was so captivated by the white noise experience that he shunned their appeal for a one-off singles deal and demanded that they do a whole album of material. An instant cheque for £3,000 quenched their fears about not earning a quick buck through a hit single and our band of merry pranksters set about building their own sonic laboratory in London’s Camden Town out of ‘borrowed’ gear, home made gizmos and equipment more ociated with a science lab than a recording studio. ‘Songs’ took ages to build, each note being a compilation of various tape edits painstakingly stuck together. After a year Island Records became nervous and demanded a conclusion in a matter of days which, luckily, White Noise managed to pull off. The album was released in a total vacuum. Vorhaus played no gigs and did no interviews. Word of mouth over many years caused this album to sell tens of thousands of records. Like stablemates Art and Nirvana, this album remained on catalog deep into the seventies and became the hit of many a bedroom
and sixth form common-room. Five years after its release Vorhaus made a second album on Virgin and a third in 1980 for the Pulse label. He continues to make music, a good deal for film and television work, and threatens a new album for the nineties. One album per decade is hardly a Prince-like output but when the quality is this high does it really matter?

Production co-ordinator –David Vorhaus
Electronic sound realization — Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson
Percussion — Paul Lytton
Vocals — John Whitman, Annie Bird, Val Shaw
Special Stereo Effects devised by David Vorhaus BSC.DIP.Elec
Sound base transfer co-ordinator: Trevor Wyatt

Original lightning sleeve was a screen print by an unknown art student. It was meant to be luminous when released but Island Records said ‘NO’ then. Island Records continue to say ‘NO’ unfortunately.

Original sleeve by Island Art
Re-issue package by Phil Smee at Waldo’s Design Dream Emporium.

Duration : 0:2:14

[youtube oFRacpYt5F0]