Paul White

Paul White is a beatmaker from South London whose sample-heavy approach draws from unlikely sources, including progressive and psychedelic rock and post-punk. In association with the One-Handed Music label, he made his commercial recording debut in 2007 with the two-track single “The Dragon Fly.” Another two-track single, “For You and for Me” (2008), and a five-track EP, One Eye Open (2009), followed before White made his full-length album debut with The Strange Dreams of Paul White (2009). Later that same year, he released the Punch Drummer EP, the limited-edition single “Versus the BBC,” and the 19-track Sounds from the Skylight. In 2010, he released his second proper album, Paul White & the Purple Brain, which was constructed entirely from samples of obscure Swedish psychedelic rocker S.T. Mikael. Released jointly by One-Handed Music and Stones Throw’s Now-Again sublabel, Paul White & the Purple Brain was preceded by a couple singles, “My Guitar Whales” and “Ancient Treasure,” the latter featuring rapper Guilty Simpson. The following year, he released Rapping with Paul White, on which he was joined by Simpson, Danny Brown, Homeboy Sandman, and others. Contributions to recordings by Sandman, Brown, and Charli XCX reached the public, and then White signed to R&S for Shaker Notes, a 2014 album made without the use of a sampler. Instead, White used “proper” instruments and incorporated his own vocals. In 2016, he worked with left-field MC Open Mike Eagle on the collaborative album Hella Personal Film Festival, and produced the majority of Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition. A year later, White offered fans an instrumental single-track beat tape called Everything You’ve Forgotten via his Bandcamp site. A second R&S album, Rejuvenate, followed in 2018. ~ Jason Birchmeier