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!"). 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. The album opener "Gone Under Sea" is sung completely in French. Of the nine songs with vocals, three of them were done in different languages. The album was widely recognized and praised as critics appreciated the added complexity and vocals on their new work.Įlectrelane had not only added vocals to the work, but had transcended conventional expectations by employing a number of techniques. It was released on Too Pure in February 2004. The result was an album that added more vocals and structure to the songs, giving them almost pop-like vibes. "The Power Out" (April 2003–November 2004)Įlectrelane brought in renowned producer Steve Albini to record their second album, " The Power Out", while production was still handled by the band. utterly focused stripped of all extraneous flab." 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." NME rated the album an 8 out of 10, saying "Rock It to the Moon" was "just the way a debut album should be. When we did instrumental it was always more interesting. Verity Susman explained, "Way way back, when we first started, we always had a lot of singing. Although Electrelane started off as a traditional band with vocals, this album was mostly instrumental. Their debut album, " Rock It to the Moon", was released in April 2001. "Rock It to the Moon" (September 2000–March 2003) Original guitarist Debbie Ball was replaced by Mia Clarke. She was briefly replaced by Rupert Noble until Rachel Dalley signed on. The original bassist was Tracy Houdek, who left the band due to a pregnancy. During this period, they had a number of personnel changes. The first two singles they released were "Gabriel" and "Blue Straggler" and in fall of 2000 they began work on their debut album. They released another single ("Le Song") with Fierce Panda before creating their own label, Let's Rock!, with distribution by 3MV. The band recorded their first single, "Film Music," and released it in January 2000 on the Skint Records off-shoot label Indenial. Įlectrelane went on indefinite hiatus in 2007. The band, when playing live, had a reputation for a focused and thrilling show that minimized audience interaction and rarely included more than one encore. Although the band 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 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. Their music draws from wide range of influences including Neu!, Stereolab, Sonic Youth, and The Velvet Underground. The band comprised Susman, Gaze, Mia Clarke, and Ros Murray. Notable_instruments = Farfisa, clarinet, saxophoneĮlectrelane were a British alternative rock band, formed in Brighton, England in 1998 by Verity Susman and Emma Gaze.