Electrocute - Legs Le Brock and Nicole Morier
I’ve waited over a week since I discovered Electrocute to write about them, just to make sure they’re as good as I thought on first listen. Since then I’ve bought both their albums, both their EPs and can say for sure that they’re one of the best kept secrets in music! Nicole Morier and Legs Le Brock come together as Electrocute to make dirty electro-rock they describe as “heavy metal bubblegum meets spaghetti western disco”, that’s about as accurate as you can get. The Gummi Zelle (or ‘Rubber Room’ for those of us who aren’t quite fluent in German) is Nicole’s L.A studio where the danceable drum-beats, edgy guitar riffs, shiny synth, other electro sounds and sassy playground-style vocals are all brought together, the result is Electrocute’s unique sound that I can’t help but love.
The band’s debut EP A Tribute To Your Taste was released way back in 2003 when Mia Dime was part of the duo (now replaced by Le Brock). It includes the risqué I Love My Daddy and their cover of Sexual Harassment’s I Need A Freak with one of the best beats I’ve heard in a while and synth used in the exact way it should be. Their first full-length album entitled Troublesome Bubblegum is much more guitar-led than their other releases, with highlights including opener Tales Of Ordinary Sadness, Blow It that has what are the most fun vocals on the entire album and Kleiner Dicker Junge (they must have a thing for German); and with tracks with names like Shag Ball and Fun Is A Floppy Bitch the album’s sure to be a hit if you like bold music, which I definitely do.
After a short break Legs Le Brock joined the duo and they started work on their second EP, On The Beat. All five tracks from the EP are featured on their follow-up album Double Diamond; I prefer the album by far to the first so it’s a shame it was exclusively released in Japan and is hard to get hold of, but if you do it’s worth it! The album is a lot more electro-pop than electro-rock, with less guitar and more of what they’d call ‘crazy sounds’, but the vocals and beats are as infectious as ever with no filler tracks at all. Singles taken from it include On The Beat which comes with a video featuring Nicole and Legs’ dream of disco heaven being interrupted by topless shrimp-women; as crazy as it sounds, it reflects their music well! Other stand-out tracks are the downright fun Bad Legs, the more downtempo On The Runway and Uh-Oh with what are the catchiest lyrics of all.
In just a week Electrocute have became one of my favourite bands and look to stay that way for a long time! If you like anything from New Young Pony Club‘s earlier work to Cansei De Ser Sexy you should give them a go and may even begin to love them as much as I do, be sure to click on the song name links to listen to them all!
Somehow I really like “On The Beat” the most but something seems off about them with the other two songs (ILMD and INAF). I’ll probably keep on a look out for them and see if they grow on me.
Yeah On The Beat definitely stands out from the rest. I guess it just depends what you like, most people I’ve showed them to just find their vocals a bit annoying haha. I hope so much they do another album, they haven’t split or anything but I think both of them (mainly Nicole) are busy with other projects at the moment. Plus nothing’s happened with their MySpace for a while :/ Anyway they’ve became my joint fave band quite quickly.