Saturday 18 April 2020

Electrelane - Escape from the Lighthouse


Bio:
Electrelane, from Brighton, England, were formed in 1998 by Verity Susman (aka Vera November also making music under her own name Verity Susman) (keyboards, farfisa organ, lead vocals, guitar, saxophone, clarinet) and Emma Gaze (drums). In its last incarnation, the band was composed of these two plus Mia Clarke (guitar, backing vocals) and Ros Murray (bass) (aka Ray Rumours).

Sharing an equal amount of fondness for Krautrock, vintage equipment like the Farfisa organ, and modern production techniques, the band made their recorded debut in January 2000 with the "Film Music" single on Indenial. Following another single for Fierce Panda, the group set up the Sony-supported Let's Rock! label, issuing a pair of singles ("Gabriel" and "Blue Straggler") prior to the April 2001 release of the mostly instrumental "Rock It to the Moon", the band's first full-length.  A second album, "The Power Out", which was recorded by Steve Albini, added more vocals and structure to the songs. It was released on Too Pure in February 2004. A third album, "Axes", which was also recorded by Steve Albini, was released on 9 May 2005. The band's final album, "No Shout, No Calls", was written in Berlin during the 2006 World Cup, recorded in Benton Harbor, Michigan in late 2006, and released in May 2007 worldwide.
 

Of all the anthologies I've compiled so far, I found this the toughest yet, despite the relatively few album releases. I just wasn't happy with the finished result the first couple of times, but now I'm satisfied I've done this excellent band justice with the songs picked.  What inspired me to have one final go was a bizarre dream I had the other night where I was trapped on a lighthouse, along with the 4 members of Electrelane. Maybe their song "The Lighthouse" was at the back of my mind as I fell into this dream, where I helped the band escape from the lighthouse, thus giving the title for this collection!

It seems most fans of the band find the 2nd album "The Power Out" their favourite, but for me it's their 3rd release "Axes" which I most often come back to, followed by their debut album. The excellent cover artwork was once more found by Manerg, who again I sought for advice/feedback on this anthology. So many thanks to him for his help with this particularly difficult to compile collection. Info containing track origin & year of release is tagged in the music files and in the download file. As always, keep safe everybody, and thanks again for all the kind comments. I hope you enjoy!
 

  1. Gone Darker (6:02)
  2. To the East (4:52)
  3. Only One Thing Is Needed (4:32)
  4. Film Music (3:56)
  5. Come On (4:49)
  6. Those Pockets are People / The Partisan (7:35)
  7. I Want to Be the President (4:45)
  8. The Lighthouse (4:19)
  9. Oh Bergina (1:09)
10. Long Dark (Albini version) (4:12)
11. The Valleys (5:18)
12. Eight Steps (4:51)
13. I'm on Fire (2:14)
14. The Invisible Dog (4:19)
15. Saturday (3:54)
16. John Wayne (2:37)
17. Oh Sombra! (2:58)
18. Spartakiade (1:40)
19. Two for Joy (5:49) 



1 comment:

zipper said...

Didn't know this band...I do now. Cheers SB.