Whitehouse (band)
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| Whitehouse | |
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 Whitehouse live at Consumer Electronics Festival 2006 |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Years active | 1980 – Present |
| Genres | Power Electronics Noise Music |
| Members | William Bennett Philip Best |
Whitehouse is an English industrial noise band formed in 1980. They are known for their controversial lyrics and images (which are often interpreted as misogynistic, sexually deviant, and extremely violent). The band's members have been the subject of censorship in the past. Their name is in mock tribute to the British moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse; it is also a reference to a British pornographic magazine of the same name.
Whitehouse is often credited with pioneering the power electronics genre, whose signature sonic elements are simple, pulverizing electronic bass tones twinned with needling high frequencies bordering on ultrasonic. Recently the band has phased out the analog equipment responsible for this sound, relying instead on various pieces of computer hardware. The terse, 'slogan'-based vocal style of the band's formative years has also been replaced on recent albums with a more verbiose 'rant' style.
Whitehouse continues to have a polarizing effect in the avant-garde music community, most notable in a series of vitriolic exchanges between the band and the editorial / review staff of Wire magazine. In spite of all this, the band's 2003 album "Bird Seed" was given an 'honorable mention' in the digital musics category of Austria's annual Prix Ars Electronica awards.
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[edit] Personnel
The group's founding member and sole constant is William Bennett. Initially playing guitar in Essential Logic, Bennett later recorded as Come before forming Whitehouse. The band has had numerous other members, including Kevin Tomkins and Paul Reuter. In recent years the most stable line-up consisted of Bennett, Philip Best and Peter Sotos. Sotos left in 2002, however, leaving the band as a two-piece. In 1988, renowned American producer Steve Albini began working with the band.
Their releases Twice Is Not Enough, Halogen, Quality Time, Mummy and Daddy, and Another Crack of the White Whip feature album artwork by controversial artist Trevor Brown.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio releases
- Birthdeath Experience – (1980) (Reis. 1993)
- Total Sex – (1980) (Reis. 1983)
- Erector – (1981) (Reis. 1995)
- Dedicated to Peter Kürten – (1981) (Reis. 1996)
- Buchenwald – (1981) (Reis. 1996)
- New Britain – (1982) (Reis. 1996)
- Psychopathia Sexualis – (1982)
- Right to Kill – (1983)
- Great White Death – (1985) (Reis. 1991, 1997)
- Thank Your Lucky Stars – (1990) (Reis. 1997)
- Twice Is Not Enough – (1992) (Reis. 1999)
- Never Forget Death – (1992)
- Halogen – (1994)
- Quality Time. – (1995)
- Mummy and Daddy – (1998)
- Cruise – (2001)
- Bird Seed – (2003)
- Asceticists 2006 – (2006)
[edit] Live and other releases
- Cream of the Second Coming [Compilation] – (1990)
- Another Crack of the White Whip [Compilation] – (1991)
- Tokyo Halogen [Live] – (1995)
