The Penitent Ghost Of Electroclash Haunts Again
Hey, remember electroclash? That wonderful combination of electronic dance music with punk guitars and sensibility, that powerful weapon of mass distraction? Those international superstars with lasting power, like Fischerspooner and Peaches? Do you remember rocking out on the dance floor, with a Long Island in your hand, to “Emerge” and doing everything you could to forget that (a) 9/11 happened less than a year ago and (b) this particular aesthetic had been done before, back in the 80s, that decade that you were faking nostalgia for?
I don’t, particularly, as I was pretty drunk that entire summer. But for a while there, electroclash (or, y’know, dance-punk, which is what it was) was set up to be the next big thing from NYC. It eventually fizzled out, but not before leaving a bunch of great party albums like Fischerspooner’s #1 (and only), and two out of eight of the 2manyDJs mixes by the guys formerly known as Soulwax. And a couple of singles by James Murphy, aka LCD Soundsystem, aka half of the production group the DFA. Soundsystem caught people’s attention–especially the attention of the