Whitehouse (band)
Encyclopedia
Whitehouse are a pioneering English
power electronics
band formed in 1980, largely credited for the founding of the power electronics subgenre.
, and in reference to a British pornographic magazine of the same name.
The group's founding member and sole constant is William Bennett. He began as a guitarist for Essential Logic
. He wrote of those early years, "I often fantasised about creating a sound that could bludgeon an audience into submission." Bennett later recorded as Come
(featuring contributions from the likes of Daniel Miller and J. G. Thirlwell
) before forming Whitehouse in 1980. The group began performing live in 1982. In 2009, Bennett claimed that his pre-eminent inspiration was Yoko Ono
: "Yoko's amazing music was by far the biggest influence on me, and Whitehouse, in the formative years (despite what some would have you believe)."
Philip Best
joined the group in 1982 at the age of 14, after running away from home. He has been a member on and off ever since.
The group was inactive for the second half of the 1980s. A "special biographical note" on the Susan Lawly website states, "All members of Whitehouse went to live outside London for varying reasons and pursued separate lives. There was a feeling in the group that all that could be achieved had been realised."
Eventually, Whitehouse re-emerged with a series of album
s, produced by the American
record producer
, Steve Albini
, beginning with 1990s Thank Your Lucky Stars. Albini worked with the band until 1998, when Bennett took over all production duties.
Through the 1990s the most stable line-up was Bennett, Best, and the writer Peter Sotos
. Sotos left in 2002, leaving the band as a two-piece.
The band had numerous other members in the 1980s including Kevin Tomkins, Steven Stapleton
, Glenn Michael Wallis, John Murphy
, Stefan Jaworzyn, Jim Goodall, and Andrew McKenzie
, though many of these participated only at live performances, not on recordings.
Whitehouse emerged as earlier industrial
acts such as Throbbing Gristle
and SPK
were pulling back from noise and extreme sounds and embracing experimentation with other musical genres. In opposition to this trend, Whitehouse wanted to take these earlier groups' sounds and fascination with extreme subject matter even further; as referenced on the sleeve of their first LP, the group wished to "cut pure human states" and produce "the most extreme music ever recorded". In doing so, they drew inspiration from some earlier experimental musicians and artists such as Alvin Lucier
, Robert Ashley
, and Yoko Ono
as well as writers such as Marquis de Sade
.
The signature sonic elements on their early recordings are simple, pulverizing electronic bass tones twinned with needling high frequencies, sometimes combined with ferocious washes of white noise, with or without vocals (usually barked orders, sinister whispers, and high-pitched screams).
In the early 1990s the band phased out the analog equipment responsible for this sound, instead relying more heavily on computers. Since 2000 they began incorporating percussive rhythms, sometimes from African instruments such as the djembe
, both sampled and performed in-studio.
as a musical genre in Europe
, Japan
, the US
, and elsewhere. The early music of Whitehouse is often credited with pioneering the power electronics (a term Bennett himself coined on the blurb to the Psychopathia Sexualis
album) and noise genres.
The band's 2003 album Bird Seed was eventually given an 'honourable mention' in the digital musics category of Austria's annual Prix Ars Electronica
awards.
As Nick Cain of The Wire
put it,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
power electronics
Power electronics (music)
Power electronics was originally coined by William Bennett as part of the sleevenotes to the Whitehouse album Psychopathia Sexualis, and is related to the early industrial records scene but later became more identified with noise music...
band formed in 1980, largely credited for the founding of the power electronics subgenre.
History and personnel
The name Whitehouse was chosen both in mock tribute to the British morality campaigner Mary WhitehouseMary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, and in reference to a British pornographic magazine of the same name.
The group's founding member and sole constant is William Bennett. He began as a guitarist for Essential Logic
Essential Logic
Essential Logic was a UK post-punk band formed by saxophonist Lora Logic after leaving X-Ray Spex.The band initially consisted of Lora Logic on saxophone and vocals, Phil Legg on guitar and vocals, William Bennett on guitar, Mark Turner on bass guitar, Rich Tea on drums, and Dave Wright on saxophone...
. He wrote of those early years, "I often fantasised about creating a sound that could bludgeon an audience into submission." Bennett later recorded as Come
Come (UK band)
Come was a British noise project which was founded in 1979 by William Bennett. In the short time of its existence it had such prominent members as Daniel Miller and J. G. Thirlwell...
(featuring contributions from the likes of Daniel Miller and J. G. Thirlwell
J. G. Thirlwell
James George Thirlwell , aka Clint Ruin, aka Frank Want, aka Foetus, is an Australian vocalist, composer and record producer...
) before forming Whitehouse in 1980. The group began performing live in 1982. In 2009, Bennett claimed that his pre-eminent inspiration was Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
: "Yoko's amazing music was by far the biggest influence on me, and Whitehouse, in the formative years (despite what some would have you believe)."
Philip Best
Philip Best
Philip Best is a pioneer of power electronics who formed the band Consumer Electronics in 1982 at the age of 14. He joined the group Whitehouse, led by William Bennett, in 1983...
joined the group in 1982 at the age of 14, after running away from home. He has been a member on and off ever since.
The group was inactive for the second half of the 1980s. A "special biographical note" on the Susan Lawly website states, "All members of Whitehouse went to live outside London for varying reasons and pursued separate lives. There was a feeling in the group that all that could be achieved had been realised."
Eventually, Whitehouse re-emerged with a series of album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s, produced by the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
, beginning with 1990s Thank Your Lucky Stars. Albini worked with the band until 1998, when Bennett took over all production duties.
Through the 1990s the most stable line-up was Bennett, Best, and the writer Peter Sotos
Peter Sotos
Peter Sotos is a Chicago-born writer and musician. In his books, Sotos examines sadistic sexual criminals and sexually violent pornography, particularly involving children. His writings are interpreted by some as commenting on media hypocrisy around these issues...
. Sotos left in 2002, leaving the band as a two-piece.
The band had numerous other members in the 1980s including Kevin Tomkins, Steven Stapleton
Steven Stapleton
Steven Peter Stapleton is a British musician and the only constant member of experimental improv outfit Nurse with Wound...
, Glenn Michael Wallis, John Murphy
John Murphy (musician)
John Murphy , sometimes credited as "Jonh Murphy", is an Australian drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumental session musician who has played in numerous Australian and British post-punk, ambient and industrial music groups...
, Stefan Jaworzyn, Jim Goodall, and Andrew McKenzie
Hafler Trio
The Hafler Trio is a conceptual and sound art collaborative between Andrew M. McKenzie, the only permanent member, and guest musicians. The project has seen the release of numerous albums and CDs in experimental musical styles ranging from electronica, cut-up, ambient, environmental soundscape,...
, though many of these participated only at live performances, not on recordings.
Music
Whitehouse specialise in what they call "extreme electronic music". They are known for their controversial lyrics and imagery, which portray sadistic sex, misogyny, serial murder, eating disorders, child abuse, and other forms of violence and abjection.Whitehouse emerged as earlier industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
acts such as Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
and SPK
SPK (band)
SPK, formed in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, was a 1980s and early 1990s industrial music and noise music group. One member, Graeme Revell, would later go on to become a successful Hollywood movie composer.-History:...
were pulling back from noise and extreme sounds and embracing experimentation with other musical genres. In opposition to this trend, Whitehouse wanted to take these earlier groups' sounds and fascination with extreme subject matter even further; as referenced on the sleeve of their first LP, the group wished to "cut pure human states" and produce "the most extreme music ever recorded". In doing so, they drew inspiration from some earlier experimental musicians and artists such as Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and...
, Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
, and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
as well as writers such as Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
.
The signature sonic elements on their early recordings are simple, pulverizing electronic bass tones twinned with needling high frequencies, sometimes combined with ferocious washes of white noise, with or without vocals (usually barked orders, sinister whispers, and high-pitched screams).
In the early 1990s the band phased out the analog equipment responsible for this sound, instead relying more heavily on computers. Since 2000 they began incorporating percussive rhythms, sometimes from African instruments such as the djembe
Djembe
A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
, both sampled and performed in-studio.
Reception and influence
Whitehouse are a key influence in the development of noise musicNoise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
as a musical genre in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and elsewhere. The early music of Whitehouse is often credited with pioneering the power electronics (a term Bennett himself coined on the blurb to the Psychopathia Sexualis
Psychopathia Sexualis (album)
Psychopathia Sexualis is the seventh album by Whitehouse released in 1982 by Come Organisation.-Overview:Psychopathia Sexualis returns to the theme of serial killers, the subject of most of the songs. Every song title bearing the name of serial killer opens with a spoken introduction, detailing the...
album) and noise genres.
The band's 2003 album Bird Seed was eventually given an 'honourable mention' in the digital musics category of Austria's annual Prix Ars Electronica
Prix Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...
awards.
As Nick Cain of The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
put it,
Studio albums
- Birthdeath Experience (1980)
- Total Sex (1980)
- Erector (1981)
- Dedicated To Peter KürtenDedicated to Peter KürtenDedicated to Peter Kürten is the fourth album by Whitehouse released in 1981 by Come Organisation . The album is known as by its full title, Dedicated to Peter Kürten Sadist and Mass Slayer.-Overview:...
(1981) - BuchenwaldBuchenwald (album)Buchenwald is the fifth album by Whitehouse released in 1981 by Come Organisation .-Overview:Though very common in many early Whitehouse, Buchenwald has a high pitched sound of feedback throughout the entire album, except for a brief pause in the title track "Buchenwald". It also uses a distinct...
(1981) - New BritainNew Britain (album)New Britain is the sixth album by Whitehouse released in 1982 by Come Organisation.-Track listing:#"Movement 1982" – 3:46#"Roman Strength" – 3:53#"Will to Power" – 3:43#"New Britain" – 3:52#"Ravensbruck" – 3:56#"Kriegserklärung" – 3:56...
(1982) - Psychopathia SexualisPsychopathia Sexualis (album)Psychopathia Sexualis is the seventh album by Whitehouse released in 1982 by Come Organisation.-Overview:Psychopathia Sexualis returns to the theme of serial killers, the subject of most of the songs. Every song title bearing the name of serial killer opens with a spoken introduction, detailing the...
(1982) - Right To Kill (1983)
- Great White Death (1985)
- Thank Your Lucky Stars (1990)
- Twice Is Not Enough (1992)
- Never Forget Death (1992)
- Halogen (1994)
- Quality TimeQuality timeQuality time is an informal reference to time spent with loved ones which is in some way important, special, productive or profitable. It is time that is set aside for paying full and undivided attention to the person or matter at hand...
(1995) - Mummy And Daddy (1998)
- Cruise (2001)
- Bird Seed (2003)
- Asceticists 2006 (2006)
- Racket (2007)
Singles
- "Thank Your Lucky Stars" (1988)
- "Still Going Strong" (1991)
- "Just Like a Cunt" (1996)
- "Cruise (Force the Truth)" (2001)
- "Wriggle Like a Fucking Eel" (2002)
Live and other releases
- Cream Of The Second Coming (compilationCompilation albumA compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
) (1990) - Another Crack Of The White Whip (compilation) (1991)
- Tokyo Halogen (live albumLive albumA live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
) (1995)