| CD REVIEW Thomas White |
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Band : Thomas White Admittingly, I’d never heard of Thomas White, but a short search on the Internet info highway learned me that this Brighton based lad (turns 26 come April 30) is a multi-instrumentalist whom formmed his first band at age 13. He’s been singer/ guitarist for Fixed Ascent (self-released a cassette EP and CD album in 1997), drummer/ singer-drummer for The Feltro Media (self-released 2 CD albums and an EP before having an album out on Skye Records in 2000), and then started (as singer/ multi-indtrumentalist) The Electric Soft Parade with his brother (to date released 3 full-lengths and an EP, and won a number of awards – band still active). Brakes was formed next with Thomas singing and playing guitar (to date 2 albums throuh Rough Trade and 2 through Fat Cat). Restlesslist, in which he plays the keyboards and drums, is the last of his bands (released 2008 album). Still, the man has also appeared aas session player on other artists’ albums, including Peter Wolf (guitar on the 2009 & 2010 albums), British Sea Power, and Sparks roles unclear). Besides that, Thomas has also played and/ or recorded (between 2000 and 2004 at Brighton’s Mockin’ Bird Studio) with other projects. For more details on all of the above, check the man’s page at Wikipedia. Because what we’re focussing on here, is the man’s solo albums, part of the material of which was culled from recordings done for the Japanese Death Poems album, recorded in 2006 under the name Mo Pager (( solo project Thomas did a number of shows with betweeen 2001 and 2003). Albums, as in plural, because there was already the 2008 I Dream Of Black, considered a lo-fi thing by both fans and media (no wonder, it was only a 4-track recording, you know). Not having heard that album, I can only repeat what others have written in comparison with The Maximalist, namely that the album has a better hi-fi standard, and typified by a far more complex sound. Key words, when listening to this album, are : Late ‘60s, early ‘70s Space-influenced Psychedelics…occasionally wacky, vintage sounding oscillation synth sounds… and according to the same source as just now, “…White fuses elements of the Who, Chicago, My Bloody Valentine, Queens Of The Stone Age, Badalamenti and Badfinger…”, while my thoughts when first listening to the album wandered off to early David Bowie! As to the complexity, that comes through mostly in the etheric twin lead guitars. Vocals are kept rather serenely calm (without ever becoming sedate), and Thomas giving himself a multitude backings occasionally only augment the Psychedelic touch! Gréat harmonies, by the way!!! Other elements augmenting the turn-of-the-‘70s feel, are the occasionally used horns, and the random play of piano. You get a good example of that at myspace.com/thethomaswhite : listen to the track “The Last Blast” posted there! And while you’re there, feel free to check out the other songs too (there’s even a couple of unreleased things there). In my own opinion, it’s almost a pity that halfway through the album Thomas also starts using acoustic guitar. They give the songs a far too balladesque feel, and distract from the etheric electric guitars in the back, or the piano & keyboards up front. But after listening to the albums a couple of times, you tend to take thóse things along with the other wacky things on the album (like the freaky “pre-house” synth drum passage in “Moonlight And Snow”, for instance), and start loving the album as a whole! To me, this was one of those albums I’ve has trouble starting to review…simply because I felt like listening to it over and over again!!! 94/100 Tony. |