Thomas White
I Dream of Black (Drift)
Thomas White ventures out on his own for the first time whilst on a very rare break from Electric Soft Parade and Brakes commitments and the results are, in a word, brilliant. If you’re wondering what the point of this record is being that White pens most of the ESP songs and has more than a hand in the Brakes material then I suggest you just get a copy, sit back and soak it up. Turns out White is a wee psychedelic kid at heart, over the course of these ten fuzzy, lo-fi-reaching-for-the-sky numbers, White displays song writing maturity way beyond his years and some delightful chord changes to boot. ‘The Runaround’ is rightfully chosen as the lead single, it’s undeniably ripped straight from ‘Come Down’ era Dandy Warhols but who cares when it’s this damn good, a slacker-rock anthem and easily the most accessible track on here. The not so snappily titled, ‘Is It Wrong to Lose Faith in the Person You Used to Love?’ and ‘The Silence Stops Tonight’ are more intimate affairs but showcase Whites beautiful voice and twisting melodies wonderfully, the latter breaking into an epic wig-out. Elsewhere the quirky instrumental aptly named, ‘This is just a little interlude’ is a sheer delight, in a similar vein to ‘Coffee in the Pot’ by Supergrass you’re guaranteed to have the surf-guitar line in your head for days, it’s so infectious I ended up learning the guitar line myself, anything to impress a lady. The songs weave in and out charmingly with ambient-electro passages and some avant-garde numbers, not my usual cup of tea at all but they work a treat especially on ‘Starry Nite#3’ which plays like some sort of early Gershwin recording before breaking into spits and spats of drum machines and electro pulses. Apparently this was all recorded on a Tascam 4-track although I’m pretty dubious of that claim, it’s certainly a striking slab of old-school lo-fi indie, if you like early Domino or Drag City stuff then you’ll lap this up. It’s out on Drift Records who are fast becoming one of the best UK indie’s ever.
Alan Souter
