Lushlife, the third outing from NYC soothesters Bowery Electric, is a morphine drip of an album, so clear and precise in its smokey, sexy grooves that it seems almost too easy to compare them to fellow late-night nodders Portishead. Vocalist Martha Schwendener certainly fits the bill, though, not so much singing as gently exhaling all over your libido. Opener "Floating World" sets the tone, a mournful dirge of programmed beats over which floats Schwendener's near-death-experience of a voice, haunting and haunted. "Freedom Fighter," a gloom-and-doom epic of sonic distress, emotional and otherwise, includes a nod to Seventies singer-songwriting suicide Nick Drake, while the closing "Passages" offers a glimpse of hope amongst the savages. With their subdued theatricality and lush strings, there's also a hint of Julee Cruise here as well, though like their name, Bowery Electric are a distinctly New York after-hours consortium, showing up on your doorstep at 2am looking like a sad, soggy kitten, hungry for milk and more. Yummy. - Mark Savlov, The Austin Chronicle

There are only a handful of bands that I really anticipate hearing what they'll do next and when I first heard Bowery Electric they were quickly added to that list. Over the course of three full length albums (including Lushlife), a few singles and a remix CD, they've experimented with their sound quite a bit - from the guitar driven spacescapes of their debut LP, to the drone'n'bass sounds of "Beat", and now with the trip-hop feeling "Lushlife". The beauty of Bowery Electric is that with each release they have been able to create an atmosphere that is very much their own even when some of the sounds they've employed aren't soley theirs. Having said that, I have encountered some Bowery Electric fans who have taken issue with the style change presented by "Lushlife"; claiming that it was too easy to incorporate a trip-hop vibe and make an album that could almost make a commercial impact. Ah, that's still not allowed, right? Well, I guess those people will just have to miss out on a really good album in order to maintain their myopic view of the music world. Now there's really no denying the similarity to Portishead on both the title track and "Floating World" - right down to the obligatory scratch at the intro - however, both tracks are done so well that it hardly matters that they aren't completely original sounding. A mellow, trip-hop vibe flows throughout almost the whole album, sounding much like a mix between "Beat" era Bowery Electric and Portishead. In fact, there is very little of the droney/spacey guitar sound here and instead strings, gentle synth tones and other electronic noises ride over Lawrence Chandler's programmed beats. Even the buried in the mix vocals are gone too and now Martha Schwendener's voice takes a central role in the songs. And Imust say, hearing her sing makes me want to light up a Dunhill and lie on the floor with my head between the speakers. Her vocals are somehow able to be somber without being depressing and they work perfectly with the mellow, beat driven music. Not all of the tracks are mellow though, as this album includes what must be their most upbeat/poppy track to date, "Freedom Fighter" (Ironic that folk legend Nick Drake gets credited on this track). Bowery Electric continue to experiment with their sound and I think they've delivered a great album once again. being able to clearly hear Martha Schwendener's voice might just be the real strong point of the album - and Im one who really like the buried in the mix, mumbling sound! I couldn't expect one to be blown away by this album; it's more of a swept away feeling. The perfect meditation music for those in need of respite from work and city-life. - Chris Jones, Penny Black Music

Lushlife, the third full-length release from this New York-based drone-rock bliss-out duo, finds them diving even deeper into a reservoir of electronic influences than they did on their last record, the highly acclaimed Beat. Bowery Electric still retains the radiant guitar noise of their previous records, establishing kinship with seminal noise pop groups like My Bloody Valentine and Lush, while simultaneously wandering further into Portishead and 12 Rounds territory by mixing up samples and live instrumentation and setting everything to sensuous dance beats. Vocalist/bassist Martha Schwendener's whispery voice will raise the hair on the back of your neck while onetime Lamonte Young protégé Lawrence Chandler's guitar swirls around it like celestial debris orbiting a bright, cold planet. Bowery Electric's sound will envelop you, and before long you'll be drunk with it. - Jesse Ashlock, Epitonic

On Lushlife, Bowery Electric's third official full-length (the duo released a remix album in 1997), Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener occupy themselves less with bending their guitars to their trip-hop wishes, focusing instead on the suggestive property of strings. One of the album's tracks is called "Psalms Of Survival," but it should have been the title of the record; each Lushlife song finds Chandler and Schwendener expertly weaving bright loops and washes of noise into a menacing low-end rumble, wedding sounds of hope to sounds of vague doom. With impossibly crisp beats and Schwendener's gauzy tease of a voice (think Georgia Hubley on Prozac), the two create the impression that they can see in the dark, and use their music to assure us that it's not so bad in the shadows. - Carlene Bauer, CMJ

By now, you pretty much know what to expect from Bowery Electric -- great head music filled with dashes of Mo' Wax-informed beats, breathy vocals, and atmospheric flourishes. Those three characteristics are a dime a dozen by now, but somehow BE manages to pull it off without sounding like the umpteenth Portishead knock-off. The duo breathes life into the dead and bloated goat of trip-hop by shedding their own tendency to space out in favor of concentrating more on the pulsing low end. Lawrence Chandler's beats, though highly clichéd at points, land harder than before, and Martha Schwendener's vocals are more prominent. It's their most song-based outing to date, and as a result, it's also their most accessible. At times ("Freedom Fighter,") they even sound assaultive! Yet another Bowery release that feels as comfortable as fresh sheets on the bed, Lushlife lends itself more to head-nodding than nodding off. If it seems too much like a tired, well-trodden road, just pretend the record came out in '95. - Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

Geez, all I can say is if you're depressed or in a bad mood, don't pop Bowery Electric's Lushlife into your boombox. A more appropriate title would have been "Darklife," as the tone herein is decidedly downcast and often forlorn. Sparse, almost lonely, arrangements underpin breathy, ethereal vocals and quiet scratching beats, especially on the title track. Thing is, this works well in certain settings...late at night...chilling out on a really cloudy day. Although, I wouldn't suggest riding down the 405 in L.A. on a sunny day with the top down with this blaring from your speakers. Still, it's interesting to say the least that Bowery Electric's virtually darkwave, nearly ambient, sounds use slowed-down hip-hop rhythms are their basis. In fact it's what saves the music. Lushlife on the surface, without paying close attention, can sound spacey and ambient, but the hip-hop textures subvert the ambient genre in a most satisfying manner, adding much-needed spice to a style that can be unflinchingly bland in lesser hands. In order to construct these sounds, the group decamped to a new entirely computer-based studio in Brooklyn. The effects of the studio show too, in the cocoon-like feel of the songs and the seeming obliviousness to the teeming chaos and noise of the hectic New York world just outside their doors. Lushlife is not so much gritty, multi-cultural Brooklyn, as it is midday in Reykjavik or Helsinki during those times of the year when the sun dares not show its face for months. - Sarah Zupko, PopMatters

Although Bowery Electric's earlier stuff was influenced by the likes of Slowdive and the whole shoegazer era, their previous release "Beat" saw them drawing on, of all things, hip-hop and vinyl culture. "Beat" was chockful of hip-hop inflections, slight scratches, and a smaller presence of billowing, ambient guitar textures. They were still there, but removed to being in the background. But when all was said and done, "Beat" always felt like somewhat undone to me, like an album of foundations for tracks that Bowery Electric were recording before they ran out of studio time, their hard drive crashed, or something. On the other hand, "Lushlife" is just that, a lush mixture of hip-hop beats, vinyl scratches, orchestral undercurrents, ominous basslines, and Martha Schwendener's lazily seductive vocals floating over it all. Imagine something akin to DJ Shadow if he'd spent more time listening to Seefeel instead of Grandmaster Flash. At times, the hip-hop influence gets a little out of hand; I was half-expecting some MC to start giving out props and shout-outs in the opening seconds of "Psalms Of Survival" or "Saved". However, once the rest of the elements began to filter in, especially the somber strings on "Saved", any such conceptions were quickly dismissed. Except for the distorted guitars on "Freedom Fighter" and the awkward jungle-ish finale of "Passages", nearly all of the songs on "Lushlife" follow the same basic musical pattern, a pattern Bowery Electric adamantly refuses to deviate from. A song opens up with eerily swirling notes ("Passages"), piano tinklings and seedy noir-ish atmospherica ("Lushlife"), and other odd noises before the beats kick in hardcore (which all sound like samples from old hiphop vinyl picked up at a used record store). Then a menacing bassline begins to wind its way, like a water moccasin, below the surface as murky string arrangements slowly spread their tendrils throughout the song. And then there's Schwendener's voice. Considering how lethargic and detached she sounds, her vocals still manage to pack a punch, especially with lyrics like "You will take your body like a saw to me/Living here, at the end of the world" ("Shook Ones") or "From the air, it's just a grid/Another square of parceled ground/Films of people living there don't have any sound" ("Psalms Of Survival"). I can understand complaints that the album is fairly one-dimensional, because the duo never changes the pattern their songs draw on. But when I hear that ominous surge of a bassline on "Shook Ones" pushing against Schwendener's drifting vocals, the shimmering mirage of guitars on "Psalms Of Survival", or the surging beauty of "Soul City", I find myself caring less about the duo's "lack of creativity" and more about just how good it all sounds to me. So you're probably wondering how all of this separates "Lushlife" from other groups that use the same elements in their music, namely Portishead, though I think that comparisons to labelmates Bows are a little more accurate. Well, the difference isn't so much in the elements used, but rather the mood those elements achieve. To me, Portishead's music always sounded like something best listened to while planning a mob hit, whereas "Lushlife" sounds like you're driving through a city locked in the depths of winter and pollution. There's a pointed, jagged menace that lies just beneath the surface of Portishead's music. There's a menacing quality to "Lushlife" as well, but it's detached and distant. Beth Gibbons voice was like a knife wrapped in velvet. Schwendener's vocals float about like clouds of smog. Both are deadly, but in different ways. - Jason Morehead, Opus

Bowery Electric's Lushlife is a piece of work that's sumptuous in its minimalism. As with their previous album, Beat, the collective elements cut a forlorn musical figure yet still produce melodies that are surprisingly bright in their lullaby tone. The first track, "Floating World," opens with rainfall and is slowly overtaken by a lithe hip-hop beat that continues unbroken, melting perfectly into the next song. Using soft, woeful samples and short, circling bass lines, the group builds an almost palpable sense of urban sadness, invoking the haunted, rainy Manhattan that surrounded them during the recording of this album. Martha Schwendener's vocals, although engaging, affect their power through hypnotic repetition. As the reversed tape loops and final scattered beats of the last track fade out, Lushlife proves an apt title for the album's musical cosmos. - Aaron Kirschnick