The Whitest Boy Alive - 'Dreams' (Modular) Released 26/11/07

In the eyes of The Whitest Boy Alive – a collective of four musicians based in Berlin – the world is a simple place. “The Whitest Boy Alive started as an electronic dance music project in 2003,” reads the first sentence of their two sentence biography. “It has slowly developed into a band without any programmed elements.” See, simple. Already purveyors of a somewhat cult following on the European mainland, TWBA didn’t make their live debut in the UK until two months ago when they supported fellow Modular label mates New Young Pony Club. Now, however, two months and just one more UK show on, they give us ‘Dreams,’ their debut album.

Originally released in Germany in June 2006 – which goes some way to precluding any need to ask the question: “Why have we had to wait so long?” - ‘Dreams,’ is an album of unequivocal subtlety. An LP of ten tracks which show that aforementioned evolution from “electronic dance act” to “band” through a mixture of diverse drum beats, glistening guitar riffs and profound bass lines.

Like you always hope an album will, ‘Dreams’ starts as it means to go on with the fundamentally bass driven, ‘Burning.’ In it, we not only hear how TWBA create melodies from the blend of bass line riffs and occasional, ringing guitar strokes, but we’re also introduced to Erlend Øye – the band’s Norwegian frontman. If Øye’s ghostly, continental accent sounds familiar, it’s because he also fronts the similarly slight but more widely known two-piece, Kings Of Convenience. “Never time to have my mind made up / Caught in an emotion and I don’t want to stop,” he sings so redolently on, ‘Burning,’ with the kind of self-experienced warmth that could defrost the ice-age.

From here ‘Dreams’ simply blossoms.  Over a 4/4 drum beat, ‘Gold Age’s’ contorted ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ bass line again powers echoing jazz chords whilst Øye muses how “There’s sadness written on every corner.” ‘Fireworks,’ the band’s crowning moment – and it’s only three tracks in - follows, its funk punch complimented by the similarly hard hitting: “You keep your cards so close to your chest, You’re making me confused.”

By the time ‘Above You’ arrives – a song which juxtaposes experimental crumar (an Italian synthesizer) with jazz pauses – TWBA are clearly not an “electronic dance music project.” For a band of just four people, the music is richly diverse – with, ‘Figures,’ bordering on sparse, continental pop music and the album’s closer, ‘All Ears,’ almost naked of instrumentation.
As bands seek complexity to resonate their music into the ears of listeners, TWBA have gone the other way and created an album of tenderly evocative lyrics that are as subtle and concise as the music that supports them. Maybe we should all give their world a try.