Ladytron, what's the big Deal?

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So, succumbing to hype and curiosity, I finally picked up the new Ladytron this past week. I've listened to it thrice now, and, well, I don't get it. I mean, sure, the Human League was cute, but certainly not worth completely ripping off and being Genius about it.
I don't know. I kinda had something more exciting in mind from all the electroclash frothing I've been reading.

― Horace Mann, Monday, 30 December 2002 18:32 (10 years ago) Permalink

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Monday, 30 December 2002 18:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

Dang, I knew I shoulda checked with VF. I always get so hung up on the Dominick Dunne biz that I never make it to the juice!

― Horace Mann, Monday, 30 December 2002 18:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ladytron would be the first to deny they are electroclash, despising the term as they seem to do

i'm not sure 'Light & magic' is as good as its cracked up to be (TOO repetetive i guess) but '604' is a cast iron classic in my book, perfect synth-pop music - so if you dont like that style you wont like them its as simple as that

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 30 December 2002 19:07 (10 years ago) Permalink

if anything, I thought electroclash was at least a good word, despite its emo-esque you can't really be it unless you deny it nature.
All I wanna know, is where does the -clash come in? it seems more like electropurr, or electrogetalong

― Horace Mann, Monday, 30 December 2002 19:11 (10 years ago) Permalink

Is it possible you've confused Ladytron with Monotrona? I think Ladytron is one of those electonic hair groups.

― Paula G., Monday, 30 December 2002 19:13 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'm slightly disappointed in the new Ladytron album. I loved 604 but Light and Magic lacks that detachedness, and the new ideas

― jellybean (jellybean), Monday, 30 December 2002 19:38 (10 years ago) Permalink

well, they're not exactly the Vines.

― Horace Mann, Monday, 30 December 2002 19:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

precisely horace, its wrong to class Ladytron as electroclash so anyone who does is incorrect - its electropop...pedantic perhaps but fcukin what eh?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 30 December 2002 19:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

same goes for 'Rippin Kittin' really...not much of a 'clash' element...not much of an 'electro' element either but then that just proves even more than electroclash like all other homespun sub-genres is fundamentally inappropriate as a description for 90% of the music it is applied to

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 30 December 2002 19:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

Somebody once recommended Ladytron to me on the basis that they were, "like Stereolab, only better". I was so disapointed when I finally heard them. Utterly forgetable.

― Chris Davis (Chris Davis), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 09:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ladytron's too poppy to be labelled electroclash
the 1st album is way better than light & magic
larry tee is supposed to have found the word "electroclash" but most of the music is produces is superboring

― V. (V.), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 14:08 (10 years ago) Permalink

Don't get me wrong, they're sorta cute and all, but nothing to get hyperbolic about.

― Horace Mann, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 14:30 (10 years ago) Permalink

why not? why is it wrong to get excited about modernised well crafted electropop? as opposed to what else?

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 14:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

They're fun. I like fun.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

If the Human League just whispered all the time...it makes me miss Phil Oakey.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

(NB for all future: the "clash" bit evidently = "Electroclash" festival meant to bring together American axis via Larry Tee with European axis via DJ Gigolos ==> this fell apart and it was just the Americans ==> there's your name.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 17:56 (10 years ago) Permalink

(I.e. the "clash" is a geographic and not a sonic descriptor and anyway the "clashing" never took place.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 17:57 (10 years ago) Permalink

Virtuosity!

oops, wrong thread.

― Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 18:06 (10 years ago) Permalink

the 'clash' is supposed to represent the punk element as i understood it, or at least the recognition that the sub-genre was a combination of electro based dance or pop music and a sinister menacing edge either in the music, vocals, lyrics, attitude of artist or all those things

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 18:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

That's probably what this silly term has come to mean, Stevem, but its origin is as Nabisco says.

― Paula G., Tuesday, 31 December 2002 19:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

the only true Electro-Clash band will always be Big Audio Dynamite.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 19:28 (10 years ago) Permalink

arf

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 19:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

omg i hated BAD soooo much -

but I think Seventeen is kind cool. and compared to techno or IDM i'd say it is considerably punk (as a "genre that uses a lot of synths"). but pop-punk. kinda like the Green Day of the older electro crowd? but cooler.

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Friday, 3 January 2003 06:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

I've only listened to Light and Magic 2 or 3 times, but so far I'm a touch disappointed. I'd hoped that they could develop the Northern real-ness of the best tracks on 604 - That Way That I Found You, Ladybird, Playgirl. I thought that they just *might* have a classic like Torch, Sound of The Crowd or Sons of The Stage in them.

Maybe I was asking too much, but I'd say that they're leaning slightly too heavily on the staccato bleeps and deadpan alien vocals, especially on the first half of the album. 'Cracked LCD' and 'Fire' are examples. That's a shame since all this schtick is commonplace now, and the band seemed keen to distance themselves from Electroclash in interviews.

Yet - there is some fantastic electro-pop here - Blue Jeans, Turn it On and Cease2xist are excellent, Flicking Your Switch is a dark, doomed romance and Evil is the soundtrack to your best ever night out.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 3 January 2003 15:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

Dr.C is bang OTM

― Jeff W, Saturday, 4 January 2003 12:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

Happy New Year, Jeff!!!

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Sunday, 5 January 2003 12:47 (10 years ago) Permalink

"owe more to xena: warrior princess" used as put-down = this lexicographer is an idiot

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 5 January 2003 15:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

they wear matching pouts, makes them classic.

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 5 January 2003 15:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

Those three definitions upthread are the greatest things I've ever read.

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 6 January 2003 02:25 (10 years ago) Permalink

I don't see Ladytron's vocals as being detached and alien -- to me they're really misty and effervescent. They bring a kind of comforting coolness to a music that's generally perceived as unforgivingly cold.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 6 January 2003 02:38 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

What a funny old Horace Mann thread.

Anyway, I am not a huge fan, but they are DJing in SF next month and I am curious. Has anyone see them do a DJ set? Should I go? Should I also go to see Miss Kittin DJ even if I don't really like her music? Why won't Theo Parrish or Markus Nikolai or Michael Mayer or Villalobos come here? Messrs. Parrish, Nikolai, Mayer, and Villalobos, if you arereading...

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 01:27 (8 years ago) Permalink

I saw Reuben DJ People are Still Having Sex by La Tour, if that gives you any idea. Theo Parrish comes to NYC because people pay him a lot of money to! I'm sure he'd come to SF if someone would do the same.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 04:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Seventeen" was one of the 10 best songs of that year.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 09:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

The interesting Ladytron fact I learnt this week: Danny Hunt used to be in that Venini band with Russell Senior out of Pulp.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

AdamL - for a good idea of a Ladytron DJ set, check out the tracklist of their Softcore Jukebox compilation CD:
http://www.discogs.com/release/220194

also, yes do go see Kittin DJ

― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

i saw kittin dj at the fortress last december, she played vainquer ~ lyot (maurizo mix)! :)

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

The first Ladytron albumw as better than the second.

― ¥¤±²£¢Ð¼æ®ª«¶Þ÷³¹ß½Ø×©§¾¿¥¤±²£¢Ð¼æ®ª«¶Þ÷³¹ß½Ø×©§¾¿¥¤±²£¢Ð¼æ®ª«¶Þ÷³¹ß½Ø×©§¾¿ (ex , Wednesday, 30 June 2004 11:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

I used to go to a little club called the Mardi Gras in Livepool, way back in the day. Whilst the boorish masses beered off to the dogends of Britpop, we few beautiful people danced to Danny Hunt's utterly unfashionable mix of frenchpop, 80's cheese and glammy synthy wooblefarbness. When Ladytron hit it (kinda) big it was very, very cool.

I've heard people with proffesional jealousies call him a hack as a DJ (wonder why?) but I've heard far more people say they wouldn't miss him.

― Gribowitz (Lynskey), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 11:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

oh god, liquidation? circa 98?

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 11:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

Nope, Mardi Gras. Proper Skool of the Old. Frankly, we called him a sellout when he moved to Le Bateau (joking).

― Gribowitz (Lynskey), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 12:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

8 years pass...

i miss this whole thing

― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Saturday, 28 July 2012 22:10 (10 months ago) Permalink

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