Jyoti Prakash Mishra, better known by his stage name White Town, is a British-Indian singer, musician, and producer. He is best known for his 1997 hit song "Your Woman".
real name: Jyoti Prakash Mishra
members: Jyoti Mishra, Rob Fleay, Sean Phillips, Sean Deegan, Nick Glyn-Davies
labels: Chrysalis Records, Parasol Records
genres: alternative rock, techno
plays: voice
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Jyoti Prakash Mishra was born in Rourkela, India, on 30 July 1966, and emigrated to England with his family at the age of three. He grew up in Derby.
White Town was originally the name of a band formed by Mishra in 1989, inspired by a Pixies concert he had attended. Initially, there were other members on guitar, bass, and drums; they played support gigs for various bands, most notably Primal Scream. In 1990, the project released its first self-financed record, White Town EP, on 7" vinyl. This featured Nick Glyn-Davies on drums and Sean Deegan on bass, with Mishra on guitar and vocals. Sean Phillips, who is credited as a guitarist on the EP, joined the band shortly before the release. In time, Deegan and Glyn-Davies left and were replaced live by a drum machine and Leon Wilson on guitar. The rest of the band drifted away in 1990, and Mishra continued with the project as a one-man band...
"Your Woman" is a song by British music producer White Town. It was released in 1996 on the US indie label Parasol Records as the lead track on the >Abort, Retry, Fail?_ EP, when it picked up play on BBC Radio One.
This resulted in a major label re-release of the EP in January 1997 by Chrysalis, Brilliant! and EMI Records. It served as the lead single from his second album, Women in Technology (1997), and features a muted trumpet sample performed by Nat Gonella in the 1932 recording of "My Woman" by Lew Stone and his Monseigneur Band.
Jyoti Prakash Mishra, White Town's sole member and the writer of "Your Woman", had garnered some notoriety within the United Kingdom's underground music scene in the years leading up to the song's mainstream release. In 1997, the song was heard by Mark Radcliffe (a BBC Radio 1 presenter at the time) who played it, helping Mishra gain much recognition in a short time.
J'na Jefferson of Billboard summarized the song's production as a juxtaposition of the sampled track's ("My Woman" by Lew Stone), "despondent sound with upbeat, enduring energy", which Mishra said was inspired by the 1970s BBC drama-comedy series Pennies From Heaven. He labeled it "alt-pop", adding that it combines the Bowlly sample with "George Clinton-style funk from the '70s, Depeche Mode-inspired '80s electro pop, and '90s boom-bap hip-hop."
Larry Flick from Billboard magazine wrote that "the lines dividing electronic dance music and hip-hop are blurred on this instantly infectious ditty, actually, the real creative inspiration here appears to come from 'Good Times' and other classic hits by Chic. It's evident in the jangly guitar licks and the bounce of the backbeat." He added that "those with no historical reference will probably find the distorted vocals and mind-numbing horn samples good fun." Stuart Millar from The Guardian described the song as "a blend of indie-pop, with an introduction from a trumpet piece taken from a 1920s record."
The accompanying music video for "Your Woman" was produced in the style of a black-and-white silent film. Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed in Derby. It was directed by Mark Adcock and filmed using a 16 mm Bolex camera.