Tom White has had a couple of bits out now on Under the Spire and Smallfish and here's his first album proper called 'In Poor Visibility' on the excellent Hibernate label. It comes in a rather cool, unusual plastic case with a wee sticker inside...which is nice. I like stickers... you can put them on things and claim them as yours. Our fridge has a promotional peaches cock on it though that's magnetic so it's not massively relevant. I guess it does stick on to it.... I digress. Tom here has made an introverted sounding album consisting of 9 tracks of dictaphone tape collage, mic feedback, guitar and found sounds which together make some lush sounding fuzzy soundscapes. The layers of sound and noise build up, drop in and out to make a truly interesting record of bedroom experimentation. As ever it's one for the headphones as you'll get much more from the richness within. Excellent stuff that will appeal to fans of the Room 40 label and Fennesz.
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Sound clips for In Poor Visibility by Tom White: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Hibernate, HB08, £6.69.
Born in 1986, Tom White is a sound and visual artist currently based in London. So far in 2009 he has released two limited-edition EPs, Sight See on Smallfish and A Well-Known Phrase on Under the Spire. In Poor Visibility, Tom's first full-length album, consists of nine pieces recorded over a five-month period. Taking the cover artwork as a visual starting point, Tom began working on improvisations with dictaphone tape collage, mic feedback, fragments of guitar and found sounds. These various layers of sound were later edited into the tracks that make up the record, the improvised and layered approach to the music carefully linking to the found-image collages that provide the album's artwork.
