Electrelane was a British alternative rock band, formed in Brighton, England in 1998 by Verity Susman and Emma Gaze. The band comprised Susman, Gaze, Mia Clarke, and Ros Murray. Their music draws from wide range of influences including Neu!, Stereolab, Sonic Youth, and The Velvet Underground. Although the band is an all-female group and has strong feminist and political views in their personal lives, they generally prefer to not communicate that directly to their fans or through their music [1]; one exception is their inclusion of the protest song "The Partisan," which they began playing while on tour in the United States during the months preceding the 2004 Presidential election. Electrelane disbanded in 2007.

History

Early years (1998–August 2000)

The band recorded their first single, "Film Music," and released it in January 2000 on the Skint Records off-shoot label In Denial. They released another single ("Le Song") with Fierce Panda before creating their own label, Let's Rock, with distribution by 3MV. The first two singles they released were "Gabriel" and "Blue Straggler" and in fall of 2000 they began work on their debut album. During this period, they had a number of personnel changes. The original bassist was Tracy Houdek, who left the band due to a pregnancy. She was briefly replaced by Rupert Noble until Rachel Dalley signed on. Original guitarist Debbie Ball was replaced by Mia Clarke.

Rock It to the Moon (September 2000–March 2003)

Their debut album, Rock It To The Moon, was released in April 2001. Although Electrelane started off as a traditional band with vocals, this album was mostly instrumental. Verity Susman explained, "Way way back, when we first started, we always had a lot of singing. But it never worked that well. When we did instrumental it was always more interesting. More completely we felt like we were doing something good, while the songs with the singing ended up quite bog-standard, boring, not very interesting." [2]

The Power Out (April 2003–November 2004)

Electrelane brought in renowned producer Steve Albini to record their second album, The Power Out, while production was still handled by the band. [3] The result was an album that added more vocals and structure to the songs, giving them almost pop-like vibes. It was released on Too Pure in February 2004. The album was widely recognized and praised as critics appreciated the added complexity and vocals on their new work.

Electrelane had not only added vocals to the work, but had transcended conventional expectations by employing a number of techniques. Of the nine songs with vocals, three of them were done in different languages. The album opener "Gone Under Sea" is sung completely in French. The third song, "The Valleys," featuring the vocals of the ensemble Chicago a cappella, had in part sections from Siegfried Sassoon's "A Letter Home." On "Oh Sombra!" the Spanish lyrics are a sonnet by 16th century Catalan poet Juan Boscán Almogáver. On "This Deed" the lyrics are a single line, in German, from Friedrich Nietzsche's Die fröhliche Wissenschaft followed by the inclamation "Hände hoch!" (or "Hands up!"). These touches, as one review put it, "managed to be unique without being a radical departure."[4]

Midway through 2004, Rachel Dalley left the group and was replaced by Ros Murray, an old friend of the group [5].

Axes (December 2004–May 2006)

For their follow up, the mostly instrumental Axes, Electrelane once again returned to Steve Albini's studio in Chicago. This third album was released on 9 May 2005. Although it did not receive the attention and acclaim that its predecessor had, it again employed an interesting execution, this time in how it was recorded. Emma Gaze explained the album was recorded "the way we rehearse and practise: we all stand in a circle and it is very relaxed. Our previous recording experiences have been with the bass in one room, the drums in a different room, the two guitarists in a different room and then the vocals are done afterwards. Obviously it works like that because that is how most bands do it. But we just wanted it to sound more live; there is a different kind of energy that comes from playing in the same room." [6] The album is perhaps the closest one can get to experiencing their live show.

As with The Power Out, Electrelane supported Axes with a global tour. By now they had toured in the UK, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Japan and Australia. They both headlined their own tours and supported tours for The Ex and Le Tigre among others; they had also appeared at festivals such as South by Southwest and the ATP Festival.

No Shouts, No Calls (June 2006–2007)

Electrelane began writing material for their fourth album in Berlin's Planet Roc studios in the summer of 2006, at the height of the World Cup. During that period, the band became fans of the sport, going so far as to rearrange their recording schedules around the event and including a sample of a match between Hertha BSC Berlin and FC Moskva in the song "Five" of their new album.

In September and October, they were in Benton Harbor recording and mixing their album. In November, the band announced on their official website that they had finished recording and had titled their album No Shouts, No Calls. The album was released in on 23 April 2007 in Japan, 3 May 2007 in the USA and 30 April 2007 elsewhere. The first single, titled "To the East," was released on 12 March 2007. The album received generally positive reviews, with Heather Phares of All Music Guide calling some songs "among the band's finest work"[7]; detractors includedLeonie Cooper of The Guardian, who mentioned the band had a "penchant for turning every tune [8] a proggy wig-out."[9] James Reed of the Boston Globe picked the album as one of the best of 2007. [10]

In May and June of 2007 the band toured the United States with Tender Forever and opened for Arcade Fire on several of their shows. For the rest of the summer, they played the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan as well as various festivals in Europe, including La Route du Rock, Summercase, Montreux Jazz Festival and Festival Paredes de Coura. They plan to continue touring Europe in the fall.

Indefinite Hiatus (November 2007)

In early November 2007, Electrelane posted a message on their website, explaining that they would be on an indefinite hiatus.

"We have decided that the upcoming gigs will be our last for the foreseeable future. After ten years of much fun and hard work, we have realised that we all need a break and time to do other things. This was a tough decision for us to make, but ultimately a positive one. A big thank you to everyone who has come to our shows, put on our shows, and bought our records over the years. It means a lot to us. We're really grateful to have had the opportunity to play gigs all over the world and to meet so many lovely people. This last year has been especially enjoyable and we feel happy about moving on with all these good memories to look back on. At the moment we haven?t made any band plans for the future, but we?re going to have a break and see what happens.


Love, Electrelane"

Their "last" show "for the foreseeable future" was on December 1 in Brighton, England. On December 14, the band organized a benefit for the Anti-Trafficking Alliance at the Barfly in London. They did not perform, choosing to DJ instead.[11]

Current lineup

• Verity Susman: Keyboards, Farfisa, lead vocals, guitar, saxophone, clarinet.
• Emma Gaze: Drums. (Also does most of the artwork for the albums.)
• Mia Clarke: Guitar, backing vocals.
• Ros Murray: Bass guitar.

Past members

• Tracey Houdek (1998–1999): Bass guitar.
• Rupert Noble (1999): Bass guitar.
• Debbie Ball (1998–2000): Guitar, vocals.
• Rachel Dalley (1999–2004): Bass guitar.

Discography

• Rock It to the Moon (2001)
• The Power Out (2 February 2004)
• I Want to Be President EP (10 February 2004)
• Axes (9 May 2005)
• Singles, B-Sides & Live (21 August 2006)
• No Shouts, No Calls (3 May 2007)

External links

• Official web site
• Too Pure: Electrelane
• Beggars Group web site
• All Music Guide entry
• Electrelane collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Interview with Mia Clarke and Emma Gaze (March 2007)
• Interview with Verity Susman and Ros Murray (August 2004)

2000s music groupsAll-women bandsBands with female lead singersBritish indie rock groupsEnglish musical groupsMusic from Brighton, EnglandMusical groups established in 1998Musical groups disestablished in 2007Post-rock groupsRock quartetsTaper-friendly musical groups

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