Live shows prompted Ladytron to shift gears
By Chris Nixon
For the San Diego Union-Tribune
October 12, 2006
Chuck Berry's cascading early rock riffs; Jimi Hendrix's wah-wah psychedelic haze; Eddie Van Halen's buzz-saw, million-notes-per-second solos; Robert Fripp's delay-drenched, intricately interwoven guitar lines.
From the early days of rock 'n' roll, R&B and blues, the guitar remains the iconic instrument in popular music over the past 60-plus years. But since the 1980s, the keyboard has been creeping up on the guitar as the driving force behind pop and rock music. Wrapped in the synth-based sounds of electroclash, the guitar can emit myriad sounds, giving the music depth and a less-processed sound.
“There are guitars on this new album,” admits Reuben Wu, a founding member of the Liverpool-based quartet Ladytron, one of the earliest purveyors of electroclash. “But they're never really played in a way or recorded in a way that is traditional to the guitar. To us, the guitar is just a synthesizer with strings, it's just another form of oscillation.”
Driven by the crackle and buzz of electric analog keyboards, Ladytron's early music melded robotic electro-pop and cool female vocals. Taking their name from Bryan Ferry's song of the same name from Roxy Music's 1972 debut album, Wu and co-founder Daniel Hunt added vocalists Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo to complete Ladytron's lineup.
“We had a whole load of synthesizers when we first started out,” says Wu from his home in England. “At the time, they were very cheap, and we loved the way they were sounding. They were old and analog and they were a joy to play when you're not touring. They're fantastic studio instruments. When you take them on tour, they break down very easily and go out of tune. They're not very reliable.”
The transition from a purely keyboard driven band to adding more traditional instruments like guitars, bass and drums stemmed from Ladytron's touring experiences.
“When we first started, we were very much electronic: We only hoped to reproduce the sound of the record onstage,” remembers Wu. “After doing a few tours, it got a bit boring. Even though the music sounded as it was on the record, it never really blew people away. We really wanted to be an amazing live band rather than being just how we sound on the records. So, we decided to take on a live drummer and bass player and we became a six-piece.”
By adding bassist Jon Levi and drummer Keith York, Ladytron filled out its sound, changing the way the band played live and also the way it recorded. The new attitude spilled over to the band's 2006 studio release, “Witching Hour,” on Island/Rykodisc, a swirling mixture of old-school synthesizer sounds and angular guitar lines.
“We used our live setup to think about how we put together our current music,” says Wu, who will take the stage Wednesday at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. “It's been an evolution really. We wanted to be good live, and that's the inspiration behind 'Witching Hour.' And it's almost like 'Witching Hour' has provided a base to build upon. I think we're finally happy with the sound that we've achieved with this album.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
