hecklergigs – Electrelane/The Early Years
ULU – October 26
Note to aspiring drummers – if you suffer from a lack of self-confidence, you may find it within your interests to avoid watching The Early Years in concert. Because if you’re in any doubt about your abilities, the manic stick-pounding of young Mr. Phil Raines will only result in fits of despair and seething jealousy. Make no mistake – the boy is good.
Which is quite fitting, because the rest of the band aren’t too shabby either.
Initially conceived in 2004 when frontman David Malkinson "decided to do a solo gig armed with a guitar, an amp and a large number of effects pedals, creating a wash of psychedelic guitar noise for 20 minutes in front of about 20 people," the Early Years are a stomping soundwave hybrid of feedback-screaming melody and balls-out post-rock thrashing – which, in case you weren’t aware, is a very good thing.
Fusing together sleeve-worn influences into a fantastically cohesive whole – Spiritualized, Doves, The Velvets, Godspeed You Black Emperor - the accomplished nature of these guys becomes all the more impressive when you realise that they haven’t even released a single yet.
Something which will be about to change in January of next year – it’ll be here before you know it, kids – when wonderful debut record All Ones And Zeros will be winding its way into music stores nationwide.
If, like hecklerspray, you find yourself yearning for something more than the Jam-tribute tediousness of Kwik-Save-Sid-Vicious Pete Doherty, then you may want to plonk this little baby on your ‘to buy’ list. In the meantime, check out their website and the lovely free downloads therein. And prepare yourself to be impressed.
All that musing on the nature of post-rock brings us nicely to our next band – the almost sickeningly talented Electrelane. Formed in 1998 in Brighton – honing their craft in drummer Emma Gaze’s bedroom – they’ve since released three albums and worked with seminal uber-producer Steve Albini.
To call Electrelane ‘eclectic’ is like referring to Graham Norton as ‘a bit camp.’ Between them, these four – Verity Susman, Emma Gaze, Mia Clarke (guitarist), and Ros Murray (bass) – have an expert command of the piano, organ, harmonium, saxophone, guitar, bass, banjo, cello and drums. And it’s fair to say they wield it well.
Whether powerhousing through an astonishing cover of Leonard Cohen’s The Partisan’- itself a French resistance folk song – or storming out opening track 1,2,3 Lots, watching the ‘Lane (as we pray they shall never be called) is a reminder of how truly passionate, challenging and breath-taking music can be. We’ll leave it to a message-board fan of theirs to comment: ‘I just love the point when you completely lose control during their gigs, when nothing else matter except the music. I don’t know how they can create that, it’s just amazing.
We urge you to catch them live. And check out their albums. They’ll make you want to kill the Kaiser Chiefs. Which – to be quite frank – is a result by anyone’s standards.
Read More:
Too Pure Electrelane Biography
[story by C J Davies]
