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MP3 The Electric Era - The Ground Below

Guitar-driven Indie-Pop-Rock with a sprinkling of synths - mashing Germanic angularity with the echoey charme of New Zealand and adding a liberal dose of British Post-Punk melancholy - with very tasty results...

10 MP3 Songs
POP: New Wave, ROCK: Goth



Details:
The Electric Era hails from Auckland in beautiful New Zealand. They offer song-oriented, alternative, Indie Pop Rock with melodies, and pair it with a certain ''Germanic angularity'', adding a dash of natural echoey New Zealand charme and a sprinkling of British Post-Punk/Goth melancholy.

The Electric Era claim to be under the influence of 80''s Dunedin guitar jangle pop a la The Chills and The Clean, blended with a few harder rock/new wave riffs and atmospheric synths. The noise component is restrained, so the emotional gut can stick out, allowing the beholder to focus in on the belly button. Something like that.

The lyrical message varies from sickening platitudes and greeting card antics to foul word plays and deep brooding, hard to pigeonhole, but not entirely absurd.

''The Ground Below'' was written, peformed, arranged, programmed, recorded and produced by New Zealand musician Karsten Schwardt. Aroha Harawira contributed backing vocals on six of the tracks. Matthias Postel played bass on two of the tracks.

Here are some artists The Electric Era have been compared to:
THE PIXIES - THE CURE - THE CHILLS - THE ARCADE FIRE - THE SMITHS - (early) ULTRAVOX - JOY DIVISION - THE STAIRS - DAVID BOWIE (Berlin-Era)


Track Descriptions

GUARDIAN
An uptempo opener with a short and sweet statement. Loads of fun to write and probably not to be taken too seriously. The bass guitar take was lifted off a four-track cassette recording I had done in 1990. My personal contribution to recycling. Lyrical sample: "would you please stop following me / would you mind your own fucking business / don’t talk about love my dear / when you mean helplessness"

RALF
This is a track the first incarnation of which I wrote in 1984 after my brother had chosen to end his life. I rewrote it around the twentieth anniversary of that day. The instrumentation changed from acoustic strumming to a more electric adaptation, but it was more the lyrics that received a major overhaul reflecting my thoughts about Ralf''s death from my current perspective. Some things will always be with me, they don''t go away, they just get a little easier.

SHAME
This one is in 6/8 time, a song about the strain put on a relationship by being a musician writing songs and practically disappearing for days on end following your other lover, the muse. This one is probably quite indicative of the Indie New Zealand sound of the album.

SMALL HORIZON
I really dig this one, but it is one of those "difficult" tracks. I must have re-recorded and re-programmed it a hundred times. The middle eight has a chord sequence that goes from C major to f# minor. I thought that was pretty clever.

WATERY EYES
This was initially inspired by Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead, but evolved into something quite different. It is about the most important ingredients of relationships: being vulnerable, open and trusting. Lyrical sample: "I stand here naked / and you can walk over me if you like / I''m swimming in your watery eyes"

BY A THIRD
Funnily enough, this was written for my partner''s birthday. I like the wacky greeting card character of the lyrics paired with the punk-type attitude of the music. Makes for a good counter-point. Credits to Aroha Harawira who offered some good ideas for the backing vocals and also sang them, of course.

MISBEGOTTEN CHILD
This piece evolved from a jam in 1988 with the band ''The Cruel Boys'' but was subsequently more or less completely reworked and rewritten. What remained were the lyrics, developed from the ad-libs of that jam session. I have no clue what they are about. If I ever get famous and shot, or shoot myself, people will be reading never-ending meanings into these. Cool...

SHE LAUGHS
Similar to Small Horizon, this one has gone through ten million incarnations. In fact, this was the first song I recorded for this album, but probably the last one I finished. Lyrical sample: "apologies go out to you / i had no time to read your poem / will you still catch me when i fall / will i still rate in your poll / will you be here tomorrow at all / and pick up the phone when i call"

GO WITH THE TIDE
Another 6/8 time about being stuck, freeing oneself, only to find oneself stuck in the next thing.

OF ALL THE GOOD THINGS 
This one is oh so positive with birds and all, a nice way to conclude the album. It also includes a hidden track (yeah I have one too) that was concocted by recording a vacuum cleaner, a Hitachi CV-145 to be exact, and then mangling the sounds using Apple Logic''s wonderful plug-ins. The proper name of this track is ''Saugkraft'' which is German for suction. Don''t worry I don''t think I will be doing another one of those.


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