Hold on a cotton picking moment! Has someone tried to inject soul, yes soul with a big capital S, into the inestimably fey world of ambient electronica? Well perhaps not a big capital S like Shaft but White – aka Cory Thomas Hanson – has at least made his music stand tall.
Don’t get me wrong. “III” is still an ethereal thing that drifts rather than swims towards you but nonetheless you can detect a sense of purpose that exceeds the side effects of simple sequencing. “Demos”, for example, drops straight out of analog synth mode into psychotic deconstruction (or perhaps just destruction) and the harmonious emptiness evoked by “Lost” is similarly miles away from the usual bedroom insularity so beloved of the genre.
Despite my general contempt for the weedy wimps of bedsit electronica, I have to admit a certain admiration for this album. There is a clear purpose and structure to this songs and Mr Hanson has to be commended therefore for his manly efforts.