Electrelane — Axes
Surprisingly, the new album Axes does not continue the trend towards more compact vocal-basedsongs that was started on the previous album. Rather, the band returns to the longer format instrumentaltracks of their debut album Rock It To The Moon, only they do it better this time around.The band have clearly grown in many ways. For one, they have become better at their instruments,although they still manage to maintain a very fresh, almost punkrock-like sound (thanks in part to Steve Albini's wonderfully transparent production, which fits this band like a glove). Electrelane are alsoexperimenting with allowing different influences into their songs. The most radical track in this respect is Business or Otherwise, which is a 6-minute concatenation of improvised false starts andnon sequiturs bringing the sound dangerously close to "serious" avant-garde music. The whole album further betrays the influence of Dutch anarcho-punk legends The Ex, with which Electrelane have toured extensively last year. This is not to say that Axes sounds like The Ex, but the spirit andunrelenting desire for open musical communication has certainly left its marks on the four damsels. Thereis also no sign of the geographical separation of the band members (with guitarist Mia Clarke now living in Prague, keyboardist/vocalist Verity Susman in Berlin, drummer Emma Gaze in Los Angeles, and newcomer bassistRos Muray the only one still living in their hometown Brighton) having any negative influence on themusical proceedings.
With all its experimentation as well as consolidation of terrain visited before, Axes sounds like a very fresh wind in an otherwise stagnant indie rock scene. This album demonstrates that clarity of visionand development of a group sound are more important than trying to hook up to current trends. With a soundthat simultaneously looks back at influences as disparate as Krautrock (the motorik beat of Those Pockets Are People must have been written after a collective Neu! listening session) and 80salternative rock, Electrelane have delivered their strongest work to date. This is exemplified in the9+ minute closing track, Suitcase, which blends all the influences that went into the making of this album into a single track of epic proportions, which can be seen as Electrelane's statement of intent.Where I felt it necessary in my review of The Power Out to withhold one star, my final judgmenthere can be nothing other than assigning this album the highest possible score.