''An Electric Storm'' is the debut album by

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

group

White Noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used with this or similar meanings in many scientific and technical disciplines, i ...

Background

The band recorded the first two tracks with the intention of producing a single only but were then persuaded by

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall ...

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

to create an entire album. At this point the group had established the Kaleidophon Studio in a flat in

Camden Town Camden Town () is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London. Laid out as a residential distri ...

, London, and spent a year creating the next four tracks. The last track was put together in one day when Island demanded the completion of the album.

Legacy

Although not very successful on its initial release, the album is now considered an important and influential album in the development of electronic music. Chris Carter of

Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, later joined by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of in ...

has called it "the most groundbreaking yet completely underrated electronic record of the 20th century". A brief extract from the track "Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell" can be heard in the

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classi ...

film '' Dracula AD 1972''.

Track listing

;Phase-In ;Phase-Out

Personnel

The following people contributed to ''An Electric Storm:''An Electric Storm - Credits

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. Retrieved 27 June 2011 * Kaleidophon – production * David Vorhaus – production co-ordinator *

Delia Derbyshire Delia Ann Derbyshire (5 May 1937 – 3 July 2001) was an English musician and composer of electronic music. She carried out notable work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop during the 1960s, including her electronic arrangement of the theme ...

, Brian Hodgson – electronic sound realisation *

Paul Lytton Paul Lytton (born 8 March 1947, London) is an England, English free jazz and free improvisation, free improvising percussionist. Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from ...

– percussion * John Whitman, Annie Bird, Val Shaw – vocals

Releases

* June 1969 - LP, Island Records, catalog number ILPS 9099 * 27 March 1995 - CD, "3D Island" label, Island Records, 3DCID 1001; deleted 1996 * 9 July 2007''An Electric Storm'', CD Universe product information
/ref> - CD re-released, Island Remasters

References

External links

Head Heritage
Review by

Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...

1969 debut albums White Noise (band) albums Island Records albums Albums produced by David Vorhaus Avant-pop albums Electronic albums by English artists Psychedelic pop albums Experimental pop albums Works by Delia Derbyshire {{1960s-rock-album-stub