| Off White | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1979 | |||
| Recorded | September–December 1978 | |||
| Genre | No wave, art punk, punk jazz, post-disco | |||
| Length | 42:06 | |||
| Label | ZE | |||
| Producer | James Chance | |||
| James White and the Blacks chronology | ||||
| ||||
Off White is a 1979 album by American no wave band James White and the Blacks.
In late 1978, ZE Records co-founder Michael Zilkha approached James Chance and offered Chance $10,000 to record a disco album. [1] Zilkha gave little direction and asked the band for its own take on the genre. [2] Anya Phillips, Chance's manager and girlfriend, came up with the idea to rename James Chance and the Contortions to James White and the Blacks for the album. [1] An alternate name, James White and His Blacks, was rejected by Zilkha. Phillips and the band put together outfits resembling 1960s soul singers. [3]
Chance said that he was interested in the monotonous sound of disco music because it "doesn't have beginnings and ends". [4] His persona is an homage to soul and funk musician James Brown. [5] Chance was also intrigued by the shock value of a punk group embracing disco. [6] He received disco records for free and passed time listening to a record for several seconds before throwing it out a window. [7] Chance wrote a piece for the first issue of East Village Eye, praising disco and denouncing "outdated, cornball 'new/no wave' drivel". [6] [8]
Off White includes contributions from Lydia Lunch, Robert Quine, and Vivienne Dick. [9] The band spent most of their budget recording the album's first side and used instrumentals for the second side. [10] The album often discusses racial issues, and most of its titles are references to race. [11] Some responded to the Off White with accusations of racism. [12] Chance later responded, "I was the one that brought black music onto the whole punk scene, and I took a lot of shit for it…I was just playing with my whole image of a white person doing black music." [13]
James White and the Blacks promoted the album with a February 1979 performance at Club 57 in the East Village, Manhattan. [12] ZE rented Irving Plaza for the album's launch party, where the band lip synced its songs. The band's live performances included two teenage dancers called the Disco Lolitas. [3]
The band released "Contort Yourself" as a 12" vinyl single. [9] The song originally appeared on Buy , and the group re-recorded it with a disco beat. Chance observed that the tempo was too fast to be played in discos, so ZE labelmate August Darnell created a remix of it. Darnell used a slower tempo and wrote a new guitar part. [14] James White and the Blacks' version of "Contort Yourself" was later included in ZE's 1981 Mutant Disco compilation, [15] its 2003 NY No Wave compilation, [16] Strut Records' 2008 Disco Not Disco 3 , [17] and ZE's 2009 compilation for its 30th anniversary. [18]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [19] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B− [20] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |  [21] |
Upon the album's release, Billboard magazine said that it "commands attention" and described the music as "savage, uncompromising, sometimes dissonant, but always interesting". [5] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau described it as "pretty good to dance to" but added that "like so much disco music it gets tedious over a whole side." [20] AllMusic characterized Off White as "an acquired taste" containing "some of the most challenging, intriguing music to emerge from the post-punk era." [19] The Guardian included Off White in its list of "1000 albums to hear before you die". [22]
All tracks are written by James White unless otherwise noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Contort Yourself" (produced by August Darnell) | 6:15 | |
| 2. | "Stained Sheets" | Chance, Lydia Lunch | 5:51 |
| 3. | "(Tropical) Heat Wave" | Irving Berlin | 3:55 |
| 4. | "Almost Black, pt. 1" | Chance, Kristian Hoffman | 3:17 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "White Savages" | Chance, Hoffman | 4:52 |
| 2. | "Off Black" | 6:29 | |
| 3. | "Almost Black, pt. 2" | Chance, Hoffman | 3:59 |
| 4. | "White Devil" | 4:36 | |
| 5. | "Bleached Black" | 2:52 |
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James Chance, also known as James White, is an American saxophonist, keyboard player, and singer.
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Cristina Monet Zilkha, known during her recording career simply as Cristina, was an American singer and writer, best known for her no wave recordings made for ZE Records in the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. She "was a pioneer in blending the artsiness and attitude of punk with the joyful energy of disco and pop.... [which] helped pave the way for the massive successes of her contemporaries, like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, and anticipated the rise of confrontational but danceable alt-pop acts..." in a mode that was at once "campy, self-aware, and infectious."
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Age of Chance were a British alternative rock-dance crossover band from Leeds, England, active from 1983 to 1991. They were perhaps most known for their mutant metallic cover of Prince's "Kiss" which topped the UK Indie Chart in 1986, and peaked at No. 50 in the UK Singles Chart in January the following year. Despite signing for major label Virgin, and being favourites with the UK music press, they never enjoyed a major hit in the UK, although "Don't Get Mad… Get Even" reached No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart.
Anya Phillips was a Taiwanese fashion designer and the co-founder of the New York nightclub the Mudd Club. Phillips influenced the fashion, sound, and look of the New York-based no wave scene of the late 1970s. She was also the manager and girlfriend of musician James Chance.
Sax Maniac is a 1982 album by the New York jazz-punk band James White and the Blacks. The album was released on Chris Stein's Animal Records label and dedicated to Anya Philips.
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George Scott III was a bass player for several New York City bands during the No Wave era. He was a founding member of 8-Eyed Spy and the Raybeats, and he worked with James Chance and the Contortions, James White and the Blacks, Human Switchboard, and John Cale, among others.
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Michel Antoine Gaston Esteban is a French record producer, record company executive, cultural center director and former magazine editor, who founded the Paris shop Harry Cover in 1973, was influential in the early development of punk rock, and, together with Michael Zilkha, established the New York–based record label ZE Records in 1978.
A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die is the second album from American punk rock band the Flesh Eaters. Released in 1981, it is perhaps their most acclaimed work. The band's roster on this album comprises Dave Alvin (guitar), John Doe (bass), Chris D., Steve Berlin, D. J. Bonebrake and Bill Bateman (drums).
ZE Records was a New York–based record label, started in 1978 by Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban, and closed in 1984.
Avant-funk is a music style in which artists combine funk or disco rhythms with an avant-garde or art rock mentality. Its most prominent era occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s among post-punk and no wave acts who embraced black dance music.
