Here’s a band you probably haven’t bothered to think about for a while: Bowery Electric. In 1996, the East Village duo gave the world Beat, the definitive shoegaze-trip-hop hybrid (and recipient of the Most 1990s Album Concept award). On November 18, Kranky will reissue the cult record on vinyl for the very first time in the U.S. of A.
Bowery Electric were kicking it between 1993 and 2000; the group centered around the core songwriting team of Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener. Beat, their second studio album, did the rather unheard-of trick of taking a lush, distorted shoegaze sound into a territory populated by hip-hop beats and electronic drones. The reissue is set to arrive 20 years (to the day) after the original release of the album.
Listen to a track from side B, titled “Fear of Flying”:
Beat track listing:
Side A:
01. Beat
02. Empty Words
03. Without Stopping
Side B:
01. Under the Sun
02. Fear of Flying
03. Looped
04. Black Light
Side C:
01. Inside Out
02. Coming Down
03. Low Density (bonus track not on original CD)
Side D:
01. Postscript