Elektrons

Oh look, it’s another band from Manchester. What is it this time? A flash-in-the-pan Northern soul derivative? Perhaps it’s indie, tinged the Happy Mondays’ way? Or maybe, as their name suggests, Elektrons are a futuristic rendering of New Order’s electronica?

Not so simple, it would seem.

Proud of the myriad urban influences flowing through their upbeat debut album, Red Light, Don’t Stop, Elektrons’ heritage is wildly non-discriminative. Their eclectic compound fuses 90s acid, Euro house, Caribbean funk, East London grime and groove from both sides of the pond.

Originally known as the DJing partnership, The Unabombers, Luke Cowdrey and Justin Crawford’s leap into the production realm began in the basements and warehouses of the North’s most prolific city. ‘The word ‘underground’ is one that’s very abused’ Cowdrey told me. ‘It’s such a self-conscious word that it becomes a kind of self-parady, in a Spinal Tap kind of way’.

Moulded from the same counter-culture residue as Basement Jaxx and Bugz In The Attic, Elektrons philosophy, according to Cowdrey ‘is one which is rooted in the art side of things’. The term ‘outsider pop’ has been mooted several times in accordance with their music and especially with their latest summer-doused single, ‘Classic Cliché’. It’s an association that Cowdrey is all too happy to receive. ‘Outsider pop is a term that shows pop music isn’t always just about following the rules. Some pop music is mind-blowingly awesome - like The Beatles, Beyonce, Talking Heads, even fucking Justin Timberlake. It has depth. It’s populist. It’s accessible. It’s singalong but at the same time it’s fundamentally rooted in great black music’.

Being able to appropriate exactly the right sound was paramount to the track’s construction. Cowdrey explained that Mpho Skeef was chosen for the vocal because ‘She has that quirky, oddball, British sort of sound which doesn’t attempt to be American’.

That same avante-garde approach has provided the duo with a thirteen year clubbing residency at Electric Chair. In January 2008, though, that party is coming to end. ‘The moment an art form becomes comfortable is the moment to move on. We felt it had become velvet handcuffs. It’s a very positive thing, to be honest’.

In December, however, The Unabombers are coming to the capital. Cowdrey admits ‘London can be frighteningly average, but when it’s really good, it’s frighteningly good’. And for him, the Salmon and Compass, the venue for the set, falls within the latter grouping because it’s ‘a free-for-all, bass-bugging, disco pogo-ing, sort of affair’.

Classic Cliché comes out on 10th December
The Unabombers play the Salmon and Compass on December 1st