This City Is On Fire presents: Paul White.

Outside of their annual Sounds From The Other City stage shares, the last time the Mind On Fire and This City Is Ours music promotion squads teamed up was just over three years ago, booking a little known ambient production duo back when you thought Mount Kimbie was an obscure summit in the Rockies and dubstep was barely grazing music’s collective consciousness, nevermind under consideration for a 'post-' tag.

Now Then was also around back then, in blog form, and here’s what we said.

The two have belatedly fused their musical minds and monikers once more and in a stroke of inordinately uncanny accident, the week of their follow-up show has coincided with the announcement of Mount Kimbie’s sophomore LP, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth.



Paul White is the next headliner they’re fast-tracking to further fortune. I won’t lie, at first his name sounded like the indifference provoking hybrid of a professional snooker player from the 1980s and a smart casual fashion label. But I’ve been told that my own name sounds somewhere between middle management bureaucrat and trainee accountant, and perhaps some other occupations associated with service sector drudgery, so who am I to talk? Maybe we could both do with boarding the good ship pseudonym until such assumptions burn out. Or we could both embrace our appellations; I'll find a steady and unremarkable 9 to 5, and he'll be stitching the latest line of snazzy waistcoats and bow ties in no time. There we'll both be, our roads never to cross, living out predetermined paths through to the epitaph. But I digress.

Do a little digging and his name pops up everywhere. His production credits go back more than five years and he’s recently supplied a rework of Seaming’s ‘Vertigo Billy’ for her Ronseal simplicity inspired remix album, entitled The Remix Album. Diplo (whose Mad Decent label is under fire from the plagiarism police for failing to credit Plastic Little’s “do the Harlem Shake” vocal origin on Baauer’s YouTube indebted hit) has declared that he is “his biggest fan,” placing himself at the front of a queue of music industry admirers that includes trend setting disc jockeys Mary Anne Hobbs and Gilles Peterson.



A fascination with obscure psychedelic records is evident in Paul White & The Purple Brain, an LP released via Stones Throw offshoot Now Again Records and dedicated entirely to samples of Swedish multi-instrumentalist and guitar FX pedal champion ST Mikael – whose own cosmic exploration has crossed sonic paths with Dungen’s Reine Fiske. More recently, White’s compositions have edged closer to hip hop, working with MCs such as Homeboy Sandman, Jehst and Danny Brown on Rapping With Paul White – an album with a diversity exemplified by the appearance of the North West harpist Nancy Elizabeth reciting a poem through stifled laughter.

It’s a strong CV for a Manchester first-timer, and on Friday he’ll be wearing yet another hat. This show introduces his new live trio alongside drummer Mo Kolours and saxophonist Tenderlonious, so expect all of the above (barring the snooker threads) with added jazzy dexterity.

Words: Ian Pennington.
Paul White poster art by Dead Pheasant.
Mount Kimbie poster art by Mike Newton, Herbal Sessions.

Paul White headlines Kraak Studio on Friday 29th March. Support comes from Manchester’s Ape Cult and Danny Drive Thru. Sounds From The Other City takes place on Sunday 5th May, with the This City Is On Fire stages across both floors in The Kings Arms.