BOWERY ELECTRIC
NEWS AND INFO
BIO  
  When Bowery Electric's second album Beat was released in the Spring of 1997, Melody Maker commented "this is rock really sounding like the future, hip hop freed from ego, opened up and lost to the environment - and it sounds absolutely fucking fantastic." Alternative Press gave the album a huge thumbs up and said, "So Beat evidences a (post-rock) band have actually set foot in dance clubs, admired the lulling poignancy of Enoıs Discreet Music and listened to Scornıs essential isolationist hip-hop albums Gyral and Logghi Barogghi. Bowery Electric add the most irradiated guitar tones since MBVıs Loveless. The Wire hailed Beat as "a benchmark album."

Nearly two years in the making, Bowery Electricıs new album, Lushlife, takes even greater strides forward. The end result is the meticulous product the bandıs new state-of-the-art, computer-based, electronic music studio in the heart of Brooklyn a studio which allows them to see visual representations of every waveform, and opens up new possibilities for songwriting and arranging sound.

As with Beat, the touchstone is hip-hop - through the Bowery Electric filter. The beats are lithe, crisp and deep, and lines are perpetually blurred between samples and live instruments. Urban American experience is here, digested, abstracted, as on Eric B and Rakim's Paid In Full album, say, or Nas' "New York State Of Mind."

Lushlife teems with atomized sounds, each one opening a portal in the mix, importing a haze of space and history, evoking the distant buzz of the city beyond the studio. Throughout, gilded strings build, sway and exhale, plugging the music into the sumptuous melancholy of Philly soul, the emotive Mancini-inspired arrangements of Gaye and Mayfield, and the edgy soundtrack scores of David Shire ("All The Presidents Men", "The Taking Of Pelham 123"). Yet, with all the experiment and variation, Lushlife is actually quite a deliberate and enticing affair for the ear and mind.

PERSONNEL  
  Martha Schwendener (bass, keyboards, vocals) and
Lawrence Chandler (guitar, keyboards, programming, vocals)

past members have included:
John Dale: drums on the first 2x7" single
Michael Johngren: Drums on the self titled LP
Wayne Magruder: drums on "Beat"
Laura Cromwell (ex-Cibo Mato): drums on the "Beat" tour
IMAGES  
  2000 - color 45k file
2000 - cool violet 40k file
2000 - black and white 18k file
1998 - black and white 37k file
1997 - black and white 9k file
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