LADYTRON – GRAVITY THE SEDUCER
Ladytron: the future. Or rather, an ‘80s-kitsch and somehow folkloric version of the future. As the geometric, Asimov-inspired cover suggests, this Liverpudlian live electro quartet have their sound very much grounded in a fantasy world; not only in that of science fiction, but in the retro imaginings of a wild new genre at the height of its popularity. And they do it well, very well. After twelve years and five albums Ladytron have their thing down pat; the synthesisers, though constant, are never grating and the 1980s reverberated grandeur is capped in time to save the project from relegation to novelty status. There are moments of composed, cinematic instrumentalism (Transparent Days, Aces High) that balance and enhance the floating warmth of singer Helen Marnie’s dreamy words (White Elephant: “surrender with me/‘cause we’re walking in our sleep/and won’t come down.”). In the same manner that Goldfrapp achieved it on Seventh Tree, Ladytron have succeeded in creating a sonic ambiguity, a calm, yet enormous wall of sound that leaves us with nothing much to do but feel, breathe and live their retro-futuristic fantasy as it washes over us. In that sense, anyone looking for a hit single or a catchy hook on Gravity The Seducer will be disappointed; but then again, maybe there are no singles in the future…
****
