Electrelane

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English indie rock band

title: "Electrelane" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["english-all-female-bands", "english-indie-rock-groups", "alternative-rock-groups-from-brighton-and-hove", "musical-groups-established-in-1998", "musical-groups-disestablished-in-2007", "english-post-rock-groups", "underground-punk-scene-in-the-united-kingdom", "1998-establishments-in-england", "all-female-electronic-bands", "all-female-rock-bands", "all-female-pop-bands", "french-language-american-musical-groups", "spanish-language-american-musical-groups", "german-language-american-musical-groups"] description: "English indie rock band" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrelane" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English indie rock band ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist | "]

Field	Value
name	Electrelane
image	Electrelane.jpg
caption	Electrelane performing at the Pavilion Theatre in Brighton in December 2007
background	group_or_band
origin	Brighton, East Sussex, England
genre	Indie rock, post-rock, post-punk revival, indie pop, experimental rock
years_active	1998–2007, 2011–2012
(on hiatus)
label	Too Pure, Beggars Banquet
associated_acts	Follows
website	www.electrelane.com
::

Mia Clarke
Emma Gaze
Ros Murray
Verity Susman | past_members =
Tracy Houdek
Debbie Ball
Rupert Noble
Rachel Dalley

Electrelane is an English indie rock band, formed in Brighton in 1998 by Verity Susman and Emma Gaze. The band consists of Susman, Gaze, Mia Clarke, and Ros Murray. Their music draws from a wide range of influences including Neu!, Stereolab, Sonic Youth, and the Velvet Underground. When playing live, the band has a reputation for a focused show that minimizes 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," - a Leonard Cohen cover - which they began playing while on tour in the United States during the months preceding the 2004 Presidential election.

History

Early years (1998–2000)

The band recorded their first single, "Film Music," and released it in January 2000 on the Skint Records offshoot label Indenial. 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'' (2000–2003)

Their debut album, Rock It to the Moon, was released in April 2001 through Mr. Lady Records. 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." NME rated the album an 8 out of 10, saying Rock It to the Moon was "just the way a debut album should be... utterly focused [and] stripped of all extraneous flab."

''The Power Out'' (2003–2004)

Electrelane brought in Steve Albini to record their second album, The Power Out, while production was still handled by the band. 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 recognised 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 exclamation "Hände hoch!" (or "Hands up!"). These touches, as one review put it, "managed to be unique without being a radical departure."

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

''Axes'' (2004–2006)

For their follow up, the mostly instrumental Axes, Electrelane once again returned to Steve Albini's studio in Chicago. In the first recording session for Axes, the band played through the entire album in one take. This reflected the band's desire to have listeners of the album experience the band's live show. 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."{{cite web |title = Electrelane |publisher = Broken Spring Review |url = http://www.brokenspringreview.com/features/electrelane.htm |access-date = 6 April 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070303060550/http://www.brokenspringreview.com/features/electrelane.htm |archive-date = 3 March 2007 |df = dmy

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, the Netherlands, 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'' and indefinite hiatus (2006–2007)

No Shouts, No Calls is Electrelane's fourth studio album, and their first which was entirely digitally recorded and mixed. The group began writing material in Berlin's Planet Roc Studio 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 and FC Moskva in the song "Five" on their new album.

In August, Electrelane released Singles, B-Sides & Live, a rarities collection that included a number of live performances as well as original versions of tracks from their debut 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 US 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 AllMusic calling some songs "among the band's finest work"; detractors included Leonie Cooper of the Guardian, who mentioned the band had a "penchant for turning every tune [into] a proggy wig-out." James Reed of the Boston Globe picked the album as one of the best of 2007. In May and June 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.

In early November 2007, Electrelane posted a message on their website, explaining that they would be on an indefinite hiatus. Their "last" show "for the foreseeable future" was on 1 December 2007 in Brighton, England. On 14 December, the band organised a benefit for the Anti-Trafficking Alliance at the Barfly in London. They did not perform, choosing to DJ instead.

Brief reformation (2011–2012)

In February 2011, Electrelane announced they would play several festivals, including Field Day in London. During the spring, the band announced they would play The Big Chill festival held on the grounds of Eastnor Castle. They toured Australia in early 2012 as well. At the time, they announced no plans for new material or further tours.

New music announcement (2021)

The band announced in November 2021 that they are working together on their first new music since No Shouts, No Calls in 2007 and that "playing together again feels really, really good."

Verity Susman has released two film scores and a proper album as Memorials, a new project with Wire's Matthew Simms, since 2022.

Lineup

;Current members

Verity Susman – lead vocals, keyboards, guitar, organ, saxophone, clarinet (1998-present)
Emma Gaze – drums, artwork (1998-present)
Mia Clarke – guitar, backing vocals (2000-present)
Ros Murray – bass guitar, backing vocals (2005-present)

;Past members

Tracey Houdek – bass guitar (1998-99)
Debbie Ball – guitar, vocals (1998-2000)
Rupert Noble – bass guitar (1999)
Rachel Dalley – bass guitar (1999-2004)

Discography

;Studio albums

2001: Rock It to the Moon
2004: The Power Out
2005: Axes
2007: No Shouts, No Calls

;Singles and EPs

2000: Film Music
2000: Le Song
2000: Gabriel
2001: Blue Straggler
2002: I Want to Be President EP
2003: On Parade
2004: This Deed
2005: Two For Joy
2007: To the East
2007: In Berlin

;Compilations

2006: Singles, B-Sides & Live

References

Sanneh, Kelefah. (3 April 2004). "Singing in Four Languages, Revealing in None". [[The New York Times]].
Dodero, Camille. (4 December 2007). "Hugs and Kisses No. 22: Farewell to Electrelane". [[The Village Voice]].
Draper, Jimmy. (10 May 2007). "Top Live Show: Electrelane". [[Time Out (company).
Capper, Beth. "Never Mind The Bollocks...". [[Drowned in Sound]].
(16 February 2011). "Electrelane Archives".
Farouky, Jumana. (2003). "Electrelane". [[Under the Radar (magazine).
Pattison, Louis. (18 April 2001). "Electrelane: Rock it to the Moon". [[NME]].
Thomas, Sean. (23 June 2005). "Electrelane". tohellwith.
Phares, Heather. (2004). "The Power Out". [[Allmusic]].
J., Matthews. (28 September 2005). "Electrelane interview on Left of the Dial". [[PBS 106.7FM.
(2005). "Electrelane – Biography". [[Too Pure]].
Pollock, Jesse. (8 March 2007). "Electrelane Interview". FecalFace.com.
Phares, Heather. (2004). "No Shouts No Calls". [[AllMusic]].
Cooper, Leonie. (27 April 2007). "Electrelane, No Shouts No Calls". [[The Guardian]].
Reed, James. (16 December 2007). "The Best CDs of 2007". [[The Boston Globe]].
Thompson, Paul. (13 December 2007). "Electrelane Organize Anti-Trafficking Benefit". [[Pitchfork Media]].
(20 April 2011). "The Big Chill 2011 – Electrelane".
(21 March 2012). "Interview: Electrelane". [[Oyster (magazine).
Pearis, Bill. (November 13, 2021). "Electrelane are back, working on first new music in 15 years".
Quietus, The. (2023-05-22). "Future Hauntology: An Interview With Memorials".
"MEMORIALS – FIRE RECORDS".

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