Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 21/04/08
Label: Double Six/Domino

There are countless ways to swing the currently oh-so-cool electronic cat, from squelchy, Kitsune-styled digital funk on one side of the scale, to the explorative, psych-pop weirdness of Panda Bear on the other. In between, a panoply of mechanised bleeps, twittering, whooshes, shrieks and parping has been plundered by artists running the gamut from Animal Collective to White Denim. White Williams' position in the maze of electronic micro genres isn't hard to pinpoint, but that doesn't make his debut album an advert for the bleeding obvious.

The 24-year-old Cleveland native (né Joe Williams) began playing drums in local noise bands aged 15, later co-founding So Red with his pal, Gregg Gillis (better known as mash-up hipster, Girl Talk). Since then, he's plunged deep into electronica/synth-pop territory, working solo in bedrooms in Cincinnati, San Francisco and New York for two years, writing, recording and producing "Smoke".

The hookah on the cover suggests that this might be an album made for (and possibly by) stoners, but, the odd nod to early Beck aside, its fizzing, DIY energy puts paid to that idea. The aforementioned Girl Talk, Dan Deacon (Williams has toured with both) and John Maus are clearly kindred spirits, but retro synth-popster Laptop (RIP) is a touchtone, as are Animal Collective, T Rex, Eno/Fripp and proto-house maverick, Arthur Russell.

Guitar, analogue synths and drums - all played by Williams and run through a groovy '70s filter - do the work, ranging across a range of art-pop styles and emotional moods, striking the same note of disaffected cool in which his songs' lyrics are steeped. Compulsively linear opening track, "Headlines" suggests an affection for both Talking Heads and Kraftwerk, but the twisted, glam-rock stomp of "In The Club" sounds like T Rex playing at 16rpm.

Guitar-driven lead single, "New Violence" picks up the pace immediately, accelerating with increasing urgency while adding eight-bit noise, but the sun-splashed, sweetly syncopated "Going Down" flirts with African high-life. "Lice In The Rainbow" is as much an experimental upset of the perfect pop picture as its title suggests, but the cheerful, Hot Chip-like "Violator" calms things down, as does the warped, rubbery funk of the title track. Sadly, no cover of Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" (as appears on the US album), but fingers crossed for a possible future B-side.

"Smoke" pulls off the neat trick of seeming weightless and disassociated but never slight, playful, yet neither inconsequential nor silly. As an exercise in wonky electro-pop, it boasts a surprisingly tender heart. With such a debut under his belt - and remixes for both Born Ruffians and Muscles in the pipeline - White Williams is surely poised on the precipice of acclaim.

    by Sharon O'Connell