With an NME single of the week and a major label deal under their
identiclad belts, a live performance that maintains detached
aloofness while pumping out Sunny Delight soaked Kraftwerkesque
electric pop AND a constant county/ country hopping work schedule
- you'd expect Ladytron to be starry, scary ice kings and queens.
'The best thing about being in a band for me is meeting people',
enthuses founder member of the keyboard dabbing combo, Danny.
He verifies this desire; 'I was talking to two girls, and this
guy came up. He looked really dodgy and went, 'Excuse me, can
I have a word?' I carried on talking, thinking, 'I'm gonna get
battered', but he said, 'Sit down', so I sat down and he said,
'I just want to say - Ladytron: nice one, mate!''.
The man on the
street is for Ladytron.
Mira, one of
their two commuters, confirms, 'we reach out to all. At the club
we run in Oxford someone played the single (He Took Her To A
Movie) - this guy came up and said, 'This is amazing. Who is
it?' He was a mixture of a football fan and a heavy metal fan.
That was quite good'.
It's not prejudice,
it's passion; the thrill of communicating beyond the consciously
culty, cliquey scene. Danny: 'I was flattered by the fact that
he recognised we were trying to break down the stereotypes'.
Those being the tired old chestnuts of Liverpool as the capital
of spliffed up Floyd worship, and any nonconformers keeping themselves
within deliberate obscurity.
Danny again, 'Yes, definitely. The type of sound we've got is happening this year...we're the only people who seem to be a pop group'. Reuben; 'It's weird how it's happening at once. It's like people start nostalgisising about the 80's or a certain time about ten years after'. This bout of genre reminiscence seems to have run for at least a decade though, topped by the re-emergence of Kraftwerk.
Who do they feel
an affinity with from the current zeitgeist? Danny: 'Chicks on
Speed'. Mira: 'Add n to (X)'. Reuben: 'Stereolab'. Helen: 'I
Like Lamb, I think they're great, very experimental'.
So the purveyors of rare, sugary soundscapes are alert to fellow
axis-shifters. They just want to be more accessible.
Would they take
money from the man to attain that? Danny smirks,'A lot of people
thought that (the name) sounded like a vibrator at first', 'Orgasmatron,
Ladytron', Mira laughs. He continues, 'I thought we could endorse
a range of sanitary products to pay for our flights'.
Reuben has a bigger vision; the band ARE the brand. 'It's a whole
package - it's not only music, it's a lifestyle! Clothes, attitudes,
products. Er, really nice tracksuits..'. Buy Ladytron.
Sara Whiteside