Electrelane

One of indie rock’s most adventurous bands of the 2000s, Electrelane melded their love of experimental rock’s exploratory spirit with post-punk’s jagged guitars. Drummer Emma Gaze and multi-instrumentalist Verity Sussman formed what would become Electrelane in Brighton in 1998. Electrelane’s first single, “Film Music”, came out in 2000; their debut album, the taut yet jam-intensive Rock It to the Moon, was released in 2001. Its 2004 follow-up, The Power Out, featured scruffy guitar-led rockers like “Take The Bit Between Your Teeth” as well as spare, tension-filled cuts like “Birds”; the album also included a cameo by the vocal ensemble Chicago a cappella. Axes then showcased the band members’ musical interplay on intricate jams that paired churning grooves with razor-wire riffs and the occasional flourish—take “If Not Now, When?”, which opens as a gentle jazz-rock shuffle and then spins into a fierce battle between growling guitars and a stabbed-at piano. No Shouts, No Calls followed in 2007, combining their already-proven instrumental chops with precision-grade song structure on cuts like the slow-burning chronicle of longing “To the East” and the chilly “In Berlin”. Electrelane went on hiatus a few months after Shouts’ release, reforming in 2011 for festivals and shows in Europe and Australia. In 2021, the band announced that a virtual reunion during the Covid pandemic had led to them working on new music.