Electrelane

If British indie music was a person, would it be time to have an intervention? You’d want sit it down, ask it where it went wrong. You used to be so good, you’d tell it. You used to have so much to say. You used to want things, real things; to dream of the future. And now what? To be honest, you haven’t had much to say for a while now. Arguably the American indie scene has never been stronger, or more diverse. Meanwhile, British guitar bands are increasingly whittled down to a rump of bands that, whilst undoubtedly talented, are fundamentally uninspiring. The dying body of British guitar music looks like Colonel Kurtz, looking blankly ahead to the middle distance, whispering “The Horrors, The Horrors”.

For me, Electrelane were the last really intelligent guitar group to try to make a go of it. If they’d been around ten years earlier, when selling records and touring made bands real money, maybe we wouldn’t be talking about this as a reunion show – the last one on the group’s first tour since an ‘indefinite hiatus’ in 2007. Maybe not, it’s just a hunch. What made Electrelane so cool? They were ordinary people with extraordinary talents and interests – from their spectrum of influences, to Mia Clarke’s wild guitar licks and Verity Susman’s virtuoso piano-playing, to the band’s avowed feminism. But much more importantly, their music was fantastic, melding a pop groove with kraut jams, joyous piano lines and soaring vocals.

The group still have links to the music community they were bourn out of, as shown by the choice of groups to support them in London, Halo Halo at the Scala and Francois and The Atlas Mountains here tonight – both of whom have emerged out what remains of increasingly small UK DIY scene. Francois has changed almost beyond recognition over the last two years, moving from fey indie-pop in a Domino-signed, fully-fledged dance act. Dressed in a spangly hoody that makes him seem like a kind of French version of Prince, Francois’s group bounce through a set that’s part Animal Collective, part Arthur Russell – even ending with a Russell cover. Moving dextrously between French and English, Francois’s songs have added a groove to the gentle sensibility that has always marked his music. His forthcoming record E Volo Love should be fantastic.

Electrelane’s set leans towards their work with Steve Albini, who produced their second and third records (The Power Out and Axes). ‘Bells’ sounds ecstatic, Susman’s piano solo sprinkled wildly over the taut drumbeat and Mia Clark’s rip-roaring guitar-work, while ‘Birds’ showcases the group’s talent for blending heart-wrenching songwriting with a pop sensibility, suddenly bursting into frantic life at the end. The band’s rhythmic jamming is hypnotic and intense, peppered at one point by Susman’s rocking sax solo, of all things. ‘To The East’ is the highlight, a painfully melancholic tale of love lost. “You went so far away”, intones Susman, recalling Russell’s ‘Our Last Night Together’ (covered so beautifully by her here). Covers of Bronski Beat, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen perhaps highlight the fact that the band are yet to work on new material, although they promise the crowd they’ll do so soon. It’s not soon enough, for me. The Springsteen cover is especially exhilarating, 'I'm On Fire' turned by Susman into something soaring and tragic, rather than Boss’s tense, muscular tale of desire. Electrelane point the way for all British guitar bands – be smart, not dumb. Be honest. Be real.