Bachelorette - My Electric Family
I wasn't totally sold when first listening to My Electric Family. It felt too comfortable. I'm a huge fan, particularly of her debut The End Of Things, but Annabel Alpers' poetically robotic/celestial obsessed world has become too familiar, as enjoyable as it is (see the great new album from The Sproutts for a different approach to similar themes). I guess I was first put off by the "waka chicky" light disco workout of Mindwarp and hoping for the likes of a Love Is A Drug, On The Four or Subatomic Pop, I feel like a giddy princess just thinking about these songs. But I've just finished listening to this album for something like the sixth time and I've come to the realisation that this opinion is not entirely warranted, in fact it maybe crap. While first single, Mindwarp, still leaves me apathetic, I've now started caring abut the sum of the parts; and what attractive parts they are.
As usual Bachelorette concocts a deeply layered, thoughtful landscape of looping, pulsing rhythms. Her voice is again used industriously. It's a wondrous instrument. She builds beds of harmonies that echo and fold across the sonic canvas. Arpeggio's abound, synthesizers bounce and respond to her every touch. She weaves this machine with many colours. This is the work of a confident and assured artist.
The album opens with an acoustic strum, something that permeates the whole record. First standout track is The National Grid, sampled drums from the HDU song of the same name are the bedrock of a darkly repetitive little number. I love the constant drone of "one" as the churning synth pad menacingly stretches underneath the "organism" that is the city. Brilliant.
Her Rotating Head could've easily come off either Isolation Loops or The End Of Things, it's lyrical themes and pop charms are bread and butter for Bachelorette. Heck I'll run you a bath; some long delays, simple keyboard lines and cascading vocals - just right. In fact the entire production of this record is of the highest quality. Alpers is totally in control of her craft - albeit within her chosen confines - evidenced by her move to the US, signing with Drag City Records and touring with label mate Bonnie Prince Billy.
Getting back to the record; there's some beautifully subtle looping percussion and church like keys on Technology Boy. It's a beguiling, innovative piece of music. Anyone want their film scored? Dream Sequence has the frickin' brass band of the Royal NZ Air Force on it! We're back to those arpeggio keys for Donkey and Long Time Gone, with a great echoed guitar sound on the former. Where To Begin is almost country and all the more intimate for it. It's a gem and Bachelorette almost resists her signature vocal choir effect. The album closes with the warped chamber piece of Mercurial Man, an analogue waltz for goodness sake and Little Bird Tells Lies, which starts out with some Mr Sandman type vocals and pretty much drifts down stream from there. It's not an entirely satisfying finish to an album that could be viewed as the end of a brilliantly realised trilogy.
Even with a few bum notes though, My Electric Family is right up there with the best releases of the year. I can't wait to see where she goes next.
Mr President
