White Noise Sound: White Noise Sound
(Rocket Woman Data)
Obtain | CD
Louder Than Conflict’s Banjo speaks to White Noise Sound because the cult psyche rockers announce a slight return, with a remastered reissue of their debut album and additional releases to come back.
White Noise Sound is maybe a reputation that lots of people would instantly recognise. However all that could be about to alter.
Hailing from Swansea, White Noise Sound burst into my consciousness with the discharge of their eponymous debut album. Not often had I heard a primary report from a band that was so good; uncooked and brutal when the track suited it, languid and flowing when the other was true. They sounded to me like a band who had perfected their craft by means of years of onerous gigging and lysergic experimentation, although I settle for that that is in all probability not the case.
Nonetheless they acquired there although, White Noise Sound have been capable of seize their sound completely in a studio to create considered one of my favorite debut albums of all time, ably assisted by Spacemen 3’s Sonic Growth on manufacturing duties. Followers of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized will discover a lot to like right here and will hearken to this unbelievable journey of an album as quickly as they presumably can.
For some cause, White Noise Sound’s flame appeared to burn brilliant however briefly, with the band all however disappearing off the radar after the discharge of their 2nd album, Like A Pyramid Of Hearth.
However this summer time sees the beginning of a flurry of exercise from the White Noise Sound camp. The debut album shall be launched in remastered kind on 18th July, and this shall be adopted up by an album of remixes and, early in 2026, a brand new reside album.
The debut album, identified by the tag WNS1, is a should for all followers of recent psych. First observe Sundown units out the band’s stall, with a fierce repetitive guitar groove harking back to Spacemen 3’s Revolution, all suggestions and fuzzed-out guitars. In reality, there appears to be no finish to the variety of guitars on this observe, with every new twist and switch of the track including layer upon layer of additional assault. The impact is just like Loop’s chosen methodology of bludgeoning listeners into submission.
Even with such a ferocious assault, there may be extra occurring behind the scenes. There are hints of keyboards and hidden melody within the midst of the maelstrom, and it’s this reasonably than the wall of noise that factors the best way to the remainder of the album.
Subsequent observe It Is There For You instantly pivots away from attacking the ears and focuses on seducing the thoughts. A hypnotic strummed bass line and a solitary bass drum lure us in, and a laid-back vocal floats round heads, each driving and enjoyable concurrently, as keyboard swirls add psychedelic texture. The track grows and evolves as we hearken to it. Across the midway mark, all devices other than the keyboard drop out, making a spectral pause earlier than all different devices come speeding in ALL AT ONCE, revealing a track of just about dizzying highs and lows. Neither noise retailers nor ambient noodlers, White Noise Sound have each of those facets of their nature at their management and may launch them to devastating impact.
Fires In The Nonetheless Sea performs as much as their ambient facet, recalling the calmer moments of early Spiritualized gigs, with tremolo keyboards floating previous. Realizing what we already find out about White Noise Sound, it’s tempting to think about that that is however the calm earlier than the storm, however subsequent observe There Is No Tomorrow resists this urge and begins with gently picked bass chords and a easy guitar line. Barely there vocals croon excessive of this, and White Noise Sound reveal considered one of their best strengths, the flexibility to place collectively massively catchy songs from sparse instrumentation.
This time, the track slowly builds, because it someway grows with every flip across the verse and refrain. Midway by means of the track, it has modified from a sparse patchy sound to a lush epic after which, simply if you assume all is properly, a fanfare of brass devices kick in and the track merely soars away. This construct and fade is masterfully dealt with, and I needed to test that the working time of the track genuinely was underneath 5 and a half minutes. It feels prefer it has been taking part in for hours and will fairly fortunately proceed for hours extra. Very good, trippy stuff that, to my thoughts, has by no means been bettered on this style.
Blood sees the scuzzed up guitars make a return, together with some huge-sounding drums and once more would sound completely at dwelling in a Spiritualized gig. These should not mere pastiches, although. White Noise Sound have their very own identification working by means of these songs properly sufficient to differentiate them from their friends. On its end, Blood instantly segues into Blood (Reprise), the place results pedals rule and sound texture is all. The observe ebbs and flows, lyrics and conventional buildings are forged apart. That is the beating coronary heart of White Noise Sound, an off-kilter soundscape that they’ll use as a platform to launch off into different songs.
No Place To Cover is a darkish Pink Floyd acid journey that once more creates melody that works its approach underneath your pores and skin utilizing minimal instrumentation. Psychedelic reasonably than psyche, No Place To Cover exhibits White Noise Sound to be fearless in the case of the development of their songs. We’re forged off from normality with little to carry us down whereas the track unfolds round us.
Don’t Wait For Me is a drone-based track that places me in thoughts of movies I’ve seen of the ’60s acid scene, with oil wheel visuals, the scent of weed within the air and a sense of dropping out and tuning in. This fades within the album’s closing observe, (In Each) Goals And Ecstasies, with echoes of The Doorways and Velvet Underground creeping in. Such nostalgia is saved restricted, although, because the track once more evolves and progresses, with a contemporary sounding synth line including extra twists and turns.
The keyboards turn into extra prevalent, using excessive of backwards guitars and strummed chords. It’s a becoming climax to an album that has given us so many peaks and troughs, so many journeys and voyages. By the top, it’s simple to really feel exhausted, travelled out. Battered however liked.
It’s enormously excellent news that this album is being reactivated. I can consider no album this century that extra deserves to be reappraised and reappreciated. Hopefully this time it should discover the viewers it deserves.
Together with all this exercise, Louder Than Conflict spoke to White Noise Sound’s Adam Tovey to learn the way the band are capable of make such unbelievable music and what has occurred to them since.
LTW: I completely love White Noise Sound however, not like most bands I like, I do know subsequent to nothing about them. May you fill in just a few gaps about the way you all got here collectively and the way you got here to write down and report your songs?
“Thanks. We fashioned correctly in Swansea in 2006.
Swansea is a small place – in a number of methods – however it sits within the shadow of the Welsh mountains, searching into the expanse of the ocean. Trying again, the setting performed as a lot a component within the mentality and the sound of WNS as did the set.
It was inevitable that we have been drawn collectively. We have been outsiders in a small pond – united by a shared want to create one thing that we resonated with. Creating music for another objective was by no means a consideration.
From the outset, we have been as a lot about channelling atmospheres as we have been about writing songs. We write by immersion – the sounds we make are extra like transmissions.
Lengthy nights. Loops. Drones. Dream machines… till one thing uncommon sparkles into kind – then we comply with it.”
LTW: May you discuss me by means of your songwriting course of?
“We don’t write songs within the conventional sense. One among us may carry one thing to the desk – a lyric, a pulse, a sample – however the sounds have been in-built a ritualistic collective trance.
‘Sundown’, for example, began life as an acoustic strummer – earlier than it was distilled to 2 chords, underpinned with Pete Kember’s oscillating Synthi, slammed with an 808, brutalised with each distortion pedal we may lay our fingers on, and the vocal transmuted right into a chant to the setting solar… then the theremin acquired thrown across the room for good measure.”
LTW: One factor that strikes me about your two albums is how a lot they take from their producers. Do you assume that could be a truthful remark or did White Noise Sound select the producers to match their newest songs?
“It’s truthful within the sense that we don’t see mixing and manufacturing as separate from songwriting. Mixing and manufacturing are a part of the composition, for us.
We’ve been fortunate to work with those that we glance as much as. We learnt from Pete Kember, Cian Ciaran and Phil Kieran – they every introduced their very own dimensions to the sound, opened our minds, helped us kind new shapes.
Sonic alignments – however it was all the time collaborative. They didn’t embellish the sound of WNS – they helped unlock it.
We’ll be without end grateful.”
LTW: Who have been your influences on each albums?
“We’ve acquired a few Spotify playlists up on this. The reality is that you just’d get completely different solutions depending on who you ask. The melting pot of influences meant we didn’t really feel restricted in any approach. Fully unbounded.
I’d say Suicide, Spacemen 3, Neu!, Brian Eno – however our non-musical influences have been each bit as formative… Gysin’s dream machine, Burroughs’ fold-in and cut-up strategies, Nietzsche… the static between stations… the record goes on.
There have been additionally a number of nice bands with out huge profiles round on the time we have been making each albums. All of them pushed us to go additional, ultimately, whether or not they knew it or not.
The albums each doc ‘altered’ states. The primary album was about constructing our personal wall-of-sound monoliths that we may get misplaced in. The second album was about transcendence – taking that sound someplace new. We weren’t excited about making the identical album for a second time.”
LTW: I’ve been lending your albums out for years, and everybody who hears them loves them. Why do you assume White Noise Sound weren’t extra broadly identified?
“Thanks once more!
There was no hype. No slick PR machine. I suppose it is sensible that we exist on the margins, given we didn’t make the music for anybody apart from ourselves. It was a consciously chimeric wall-of-sound.
Perhaps that was by no means going to suit neatly wherever?
We’ve all the time felt that the music has discovered – and can discover – the individuals who have been meant to seek out it.
Entrance not for everyone. Like a shortwave sign, solely sure radios can tune into.”
LTW: What occurred to the band? why did you break up up?
“We didn’t break up up. Life simply pulled in several instructions.
Silence is a part of the circle, too.”
LTW: What’s the rationale for the sudden flurry of exercise?
“Rocket Woman acquired in contact about reissuing our first album. Different alternatives and energies then offered themselves – and it felt proper.
Our first album is being reissued July 18 – it’ll be accessible for the primary time throughout all main platforms. Streaming platforms have been solely of their infancy when WNS1 was initially launched.
The following WNS transmissions are incoming.
Time folds.
Keep tuned.”
White Noise Sound is accessible on pre-order right here
~
Phrases by Banjo, you will discover his Louder Than Conflict archive right here
A Plea From Louder Than Conflict
Louder Than Conflict is run by a small however devoted unbiased crew, and we depend on the small amount of cash we generate to maintain the location working easily. Any cash we do get isn’t lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to assume and write, or hungry shareholders. We all know instances are robust, and we need to proceed bringing you information on essentially the most attention-grabbing releases, the most recent gigs and the rest that tickles our fancy. We’re not pushed by revenue, simply pure enthusiasm for a scene that each considered one of us is enthusiastic about.
To us, music and tradition are eveything, with out them, our very souls shrivel and die. We don’t cost artists for the publicity we give them and to many, what we do is completely very important. Subscribing to considered one of our paid tiers takes only a minute, and every sign-up makes a big impact, serving to to maintain the flame of unbiased music burning! Please click on the button beneath to assist.
John Robb – Editor in Chief