England's Electrelane released their Albini-recorded second album, The Power Out, last year on Too Pure. How fitting that the label which brought us some of Stereolab's earliest releases now offers this all-girl four piece. Something about Electrelane reminds me of some of those early Stereolab singles collected on the first Switched On. ["Doubt," I'm looking at you.] Maybe it's in singer Verity Susman's lower register, multilingual vocals. She sings alternately in English, French, Spanish, and German. Or maybe it's the fairly dry, driving motorik-type drums, the presence of organs and synths. I'm not sure, but it's there. On the other hand, the similarities are far from overwhelming—Electrelane are more guitar-heavy, among other things—and are certainly not a Stereolab clone.
The Power Out took quite a while to sink in. I knew I liked it after a few listens, but it's taken time to really grow on me. With the exception of “The Valleys,” which, with its choir and organ-centered sounds, interrupts the pace of the energetic first two tracks, I'd say it's a pretty damn good album all around. And if the progression made from their instrumental debut, Rock It To the Moon, to the stronger follow-up is anything to go by, I'm really looking forward to their next album, Axes, which is due out on Too Pure in May.
Listen to “Oh Sombra!”
Magneta Lane, whose six song debut EP The Constant Lover was released in 2004 on Paper Bag Records (and whose name I keep reading as Magenta), are a female trio from Canada who sound like they're ready to fight. Heavy, distorted guitars, biting bass sounds, sultry/sassy vocals and aggressive drumming are make these cranked-up pop songs. Let's just hope they get a little more adventurous on their full-length, eh?By the way, Paper Bag seems to be building a pretty decent catalog. They first brought us Broken Social Scene's awesome You Forgot It In People, then came one of my favs from last year, Uncut's Those Who Were Hung Hang Here.
Listen to "The Constant Lover"
