Q1. Who the hell are Electrafixion when they are at home?
Q2.?Why was I so happy to see the album ‘Burned’ released on vinyl for Record Store Day 24?
A1. Electrafixion was a project for Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant of Echo And The Bunnymen.
A2. ‘Burned’, their only release, was available for the first time on vinyl.
McCulloch and Sergeant, supported on the recording by Leon de Sylva on bass and Tony McGuigan on drums, released ‘Burned’ in 1995. Until RSD 24, it was unavailable on vinyl. It was my top pick when the list of releases was announced and was the main reason I got up early to queue outside 81 Renshaw Street a few weeks ago.
I picked the album up on CD upon its release after hearing ‘Lowdown’ on one of the late-night MTV indie shows (back when MTV was a music channel). I wasn’t prepared for the rest of the album; I thought it would be a slightly heavier version of ‘Echo…’ but this was borderline grunge!
It took a few spins to get my head around it, but once I did, it became one of my favourite records.
Maybe grunge isn’t the correct term; maybe rock is better. There is a lot of distortion and fuzz on this record; it sounds properly meaty as Sergeant dials things up to 11. Talking of how it sounds, the album sings on my system—props to whoever cut and pressed the record; it is glorious.
The songs have a whiff of groove-heavy indie pop here and there, but a thick layer of angry, pulsating rock smothers it.
McCulloch worked with Johnny Marr on a side project before Electrofixion that fizzled out. Still, a couple of the tracks from that endeavour, the previously mentioned ‘Lowdown’ and ‘Who’s Been Sleeping In My Head’, made it to this record and were reworked to suit the new, heavier sound.
Reviews were mixed at the time; the new, heavier sound jarred against the lighter BritPop music sweeping the charts before it, and it wasn’t an ‘Echo…’ record either. It is an exciting project, though, and well worth picking up. If you are quick, there are some available online for about £35.
Tracks To Try: ’Sister Pain’, ‘ Lowdown’, ‘Zephyr’, ‘Never’, ‘Too Far Gone’, ‘Who’s Been Sleeping In My Head’
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