Dedicated To Peter Kurten Sadist And Mass Slayer / WHITEHOUSE
I will be introducing one piece of noise music per day.
My opinions are entirely subjective and there is nothing new to report.
Also, for the time being, I will only be introducing it in text.
I’m not sure how long I can keep this up, but I hope that only those who enjoy it will read on.
I was hesitant about which album to start with, but I decided on this album, an early masterpiece by White House.
I first encountered this album around 1987.
This work was released in 1981, so it has been about six years since then.
I found it in a second-hand record shop in Aomori. It was a rare green record at the time, and the jacket had the album and title written on a small piece of paper that looked like it had been pasted by hand.
At the time, I had only been listening to noise music for about two or three years, and I had never heard of White House.
It was only about 2,000 yen, but I didn’t know what it was about, so after much hesitation, I bought it.
When I got home, I listened to the record and was amazed by the sound, which I had never heard before.
I wondered, “What is this?"
This is the feeling that anyone hearing Whitehouse (or a similar genre) for the first time will undoubtedly get.
The first track begins with a newscast (reminiscent of the opening credits of ITV’s News at Ten in the 1990s), followed by a brief snippet of Whitehouse’s vocalist, William Bennett, and white noise at the end.
After that, white noise and William Bennett’s howling vocals (screams) continue endlessly, and apart from the sound of water only on tracks 4 and 9, Pissfun and Dom, it’s all white noise.
The rage and madness, evocative of the mental state of Peter Kurten, the mass murderer mentioned in the title, are expressed in the screams and noise.
After listening to Whitehouse’s other albums and going to several live shows, I felt that this album was where Whitehouse established his own style, and I still consider it one of his most representative works.
White House ended their activities in 2009, but I had the opportunity to see them live a few times in the 1990s.
Singer William Benett wore a black leather coat with black sunglasses, and Peter Sotos glared at the audience, creating a constant tense atmosphere.
Philip Best mainly operated the equipment, but from the start, all three of them kept drinking beer, hyping up the audience, and screaming loudly over the white noise. It was always exciting to see them.
Their label, Susan Lawly, has uploaded many live performances on YouTube.
You can get a sense of the tension they felt at the time, so if you’re interested, be sure to check them out.