Every Monday, Sam tirelessly brings you the lowdown on all of those bands you really should know by now. Click the links to hear more.
Pairing progressive rock with lo-fi sounds like the perfect recipe for broken strings and bargain bins. Thankfully, Electrelane, a band from Brighton on “indefinite hiatus” managed to blend these styles.
Starting out with Rock It To The Moon, the band started out mostly playing instrumental rock. Although having good voices (especially the one of multitalented Verity Susman), the band avoided singing as they thought the music spoke for itself. Sadly, this didn’t work and although getting some kudos from the media, the album flew under the radar.
Uniting with notorious recording engineer (and all around controversial pundit) Steve Albini was the defining moment for Electrelane, as songs started to get more vocals, with lyrics oblique enough to be poetic, often out of tune but mesmerising.
This change started out with the sophomore album The Power Out, which garnered some critical acclaim but still failed to find an audience for Electrelane’s penchant for improvising, jam and general noise tomfoolery (that be a summation of their sound, then).
Although inclined to be politically active outside their music life, all member of Electrelane refrained from using their music as a soapbox, instead going for literary references. The Power Out also used this approach, as songs were sung in foreign languages and went from poetry to the writings of Frederick Nietzsche.
Axes, their 2005 album, backed off in the lyrical department, instead playing like almost a conceptual album. The concept? Music. The band played the album several times in one go, making the album sound like a big piece of interconnected chunks, some of them better listened as part of an album instead of an individual track.
Besides a collection of b sides, their last album was No Shouts, No Calls, the most accessible of the lot and a perfect starting point. Although being the only one recorded with digital equipment (instead of the lo-fi cred of analog recording used previously), their raw sound is preserved.
Check out a playlist with some of the best (both calm and rocking) tunes by this lovely quartet:
Forge – Electrelane
Some suggested listening if you like Electrelane:
Kraftwerk
Sleater Kinney
Blonde Redhead
Deerhunter
Clinic
The Notwist
The Vivian Girls
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