Forty Five Minutes Of White Label's Voices

In 2011 a bootleg album called Stolen Voices appeared by a Scottish trio who called themselves White Label. The album featured vocals from unreleased, lost or demo recordings with entirely new tracks recorded around them. The voices belonged to Jean Terrell of The Supremes, John Lennon, Todd Rundgren, Billy MacKenzie, Jimmy Scott, Billie Holiday, Jean King, David Bowie, John Martyn and Dennis Wilson. Stolen Voices was cheeky, unofficial, illegal and audacious and highly acclaimed. Eventually White Label were advised to stop selling the album via their website although by that point the horse had bolted. I first heard about it via Drew's Across The Kitchen Table blog. The stolen voices were given full new backing tracks, a sumptuous blend of soul, psychedelia, synth pop and house. 

By 2017 various musicians and artists had shown enough interest that the band could make a second album- Borrowed Voices- using officially sanctioned vocals or producing remixes. Borrowed Voices featured the voices of Paul Weller, Mark Eitzel, Aphty Khea, Billy MacKenzie (again), Hannah Peel and Emma Pollock among others and then in 2023 White Label put out Other Voices, an album with Weller (again), one of the last recordings Bim Sherman made, Linda Lewis, Jill O'Sullivan and Syann among the line up. Other Voices is a remix album that sounds like an early 70s psychedelic experiment where a crack orchestra, Laurel Canyon Americana, 60s soul and 90s ambient house had a baby. Lauren Laverne, Don Letts, Jarvis Cocker

This is a just under forty five minute selection of eleven tracks from the three albums, the kaleidoscopic and psychedelic sounds of White Label and a load of singers in one mix. It's very much a Sunday morning, staring into your coffee and ruminating selection of songs. 

Forty Five Minutes Of White Label's Voices 

• Paul
• Jean 1
• Still Moving (feat. Linda Lewis)
• Billy 2
• Mark
• Do You Believe (feat. Bim Sherman)
• Syann
• Aphty Khan
• The Sea's Out At Night (feat. Paul Weller)
• Turn Down The Noise (feat. Syann and Billy MacKenzie)
• Emma

Paul is from Borrowed Voices, the Paul being Paul Weller who showed an interest in White Label back when the bootleg Stolen Voices came out. The post- 22 Dreams Weller is a maverick, open to experimentation and recording in a bewildering array of styles. Paul (the track) is sophisticated 70s soul, Weller sounding very at home. 

Jean 1 is from Stolen Voices, a Northern Soul reworking of a vocal from a 1972 Supremes song produced by Jimmy Webb. Jean Terrell's voice was taken from a scratchy 7" single, recorded onto a c60 cassette and then dropped into the new track.

Still Moving is from Other Voices, Linda a veteran singer who has sung with Bowie and Basement Jaxx. Slow motion, widescreen Balearic pop. 

Billy 2 is Billy MacKenzie, the much missed Associates singer who died in 1997. Billy's voice is from an unreleased song, Tallahatchie Pass (posthumously released in 2022), a homage to the cinematic 60s country of Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell. Billy 2 was on Borrowed Voices. 

Mark is Mark Eitzel, American singer songwriter from American Music Club. The song is We All Have To Find Our Own Way Out from Mark's 2012 album Don't Be A Stranger redone as orchestral soul/ folk. 

Bim Sherman's voice is on Do You Believe from the Other Voices album, a vocal from 2000, the year Bim died. On Do You Believe he is surrounded by subtle backing vocals and tripped out soulfulness. 

Syann and Aphty Khan are both from the Borrowed Voices album, Aphty's psychedelic- Greek funk and Syann's orchestral soul reworked/ remixed complementing each other very nicely. 

The Sea's Out At Night is the opening song on Other Voices, a Paul Weller song that is as far from The Jam as anything he's done- atmospheric and orchestral. The White Label pair Anth Brown and Tom Doyle wrote and produced a song on Weller's Fat Pop Volume 1 album (Glad Times). 

Turn Down The Noise is Dundee singer Syann, combined with the sampled vocals of Billy MacKenzie in dramatic 60s soul style. White Label's Steve Aungle first met Billy in 1979, when he was a drummer looking for a band. Steve's story is here in his own words. 

Emma is from Borrowed Voices, the Emma being Emma Pollock (solo artist and former Delgado). Her vocal is from her haunted torch song A Certain Compulsion, re- imagined here like the song from a Cold War spy thriller finale where a doomed pair of lovers have been trapped either side of the Berlin Wall.