paul white – the strange dreams of paul white – one-handed music
1/06/2009
So the day has arrived (well sort of). After the much sought after 7” releases (two from Paul White and one from Bullion) and two 12” EPs (one each respectively from both Paul and Bullion), championed by a whole host of radio DJ’s and ‘tastemakers’, Alex Chase’s One-Handed Music deliver their first full length album on CD. From today, a whole week before it officially hits the shops, you can now purchase Paul White’s debut album direct from the label by hopping over to his Bandcamp site. And this morning that’s exactly what we did.
Now I’m not going to pretend I’m down with the ‘beat scene’ (or whatever the media are calling this week), but we like to think we support good music on this website and this is exactly what “The Strange Dreams of Paul White” is. One-Handed Music have since day one been one of the more consistent labels within the loosely termed genre (along with Dublin’s All City, the Dutch Rush Hour/Kindred Spirits connection and perhaps Scotland’s Lucky Me crew), always producing top quality sleeves to accompany the music (the CD version of this album actually comes with an elaborately embroidered pillow sleeve – you don’t get that from Limewire eh?) and this release rates just as highly as the previous five.
So what does it sound like? Well there lies a question –it’s never really easy to categorise any of this music. It has that instrumental beat-y feel about it but is so beyond someone sampling some simple bars on an MPC. It’s essentially in beat tape format, where within the 21 tracks listed, the moods and tempos shift dramatically to bring you an meld of sounds and influences. Samples are incorporated and layered, while a coherent mash of sound and music, disparate snatches of psychedelic rock, folk, forgotten soundtracks and obscure film dialogue are brought together to produce an album of abstract, cinematic, instrumental beats. But what really pushes it out ahead of most of its peers is that over the 37 minutes of music, it keeps its focus and drives through with it. I hate using the word journey to describe any form of music, but in this case, it kind of fits the bill. Whether you’re kicking back and listening to this at home, or you’re in a club and you manage to catch one of these tunes out on a big system (pretty sure some of the bass on this would rattle some stacks), there’s enough going on to keep things interesting and not end up just another 3 minute unquantizised, vocal-less instrumental jawn.
And if you want to hear it loud… Paul will be joining London’s Nonsense crew and the the rest of the One-Handed Music lot for an album launch at Plastic People (on one of the city’s, if not the city’s best soundsystem no less) on Saturday 20th June. In the meantime, click through to Paul’s Bandcamp website and check the track samples, then bring it home and turn the volume UP. You can even download the first track for free!
Still need more? Bodytonic dropped a little Paul White interview a wee while back. You can read about the man in his own words over at their website here.
Download and Streams
Stream the entire album and download the first track (“Cheese Special & A Draw”) by visiting here
Full Tracklist
Paul White – The Strange Dreams Of Paul White – One-Handed Music (HANDCD001)
01 Cheese Special & A Draw 1:45
02 Flying Across Tokyo 1:44
03 The Uprising Of The Insane 1:16
04 Time Wars 1:44
05 City Bright Lights 1:56
06 Alien Nature 2:48
07 One Eye Open 1:23
08 The Composers’ Comeback 1:35
09 Burnt By The Sun 2:16
10 Waiting For Time 3:19
11 Sugar Free Airlines 1:32
12 Floating Free 1:49
13 Looking Out To See 1:50
14 Surfing Off The Coast Of Mexico 2:05
15 The Magic Tunetop 0:54
16 Road Rage 1:28
17 Sea Life 1:20
18 The Punch Drummer 2:13
19 Sleep Clapping 2:14
20 Let Your Imagination Go 1:00
21 Can’t Sleep Make Music 1:39
