Of all the artists who jumped onboard the new electronic-rock train that left the station sometime around 2001, only the Liverpool quartet Ladytron has endured and, more importantly, evolved. Mixing a retro-synth sound with swirling guitars can be a dangerous brew, but the band’s albums keep maturing wonderfully along with the vocals by lead singers Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo.
Now on tour to support their fourth album, the just-released Velocifero, we caught the band live at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles last week. “We’ve gotten to know each other’s strengths a lot better,” says Aroyo. “With previous records, the sound that we imagined wasn’t quite there.” Velocifero literally means “bringer of speed,” which describes how the band delivered song after song of their strongest material for the sold-out indie-rock fans who never stopped dancing for an hour and a half. The strongest reaction came for more familiar songs from the band’s previous favorite, Witching Hour, including “High Rise,” “International Dateline,” and the show-closing “Destroy Everything You Touch.” Velocifero’s “Runaway,” “Deep Blue” and “I’m Not Scared” are extensions of Witching Hour’s finest moments, featuring haunting vocals and layers of sound underscored by an infectious beat. Ladytron’s first two albums sound a little sparse today when compared to their more guitar-rich and warmer successors, but early favorites like “Playgirl,” “Seventeen,” and “Blue Jeans” sound richer and more complex when experienced live. “At no point have we ever responded to anything that’s been going on outside,” says Aroyo. “There are always going to be people who want you to remain in the same place forever, but that’s not the way you make music or anything else. It’s obvious that you have to be allowed the benefit of the doubt to do whatever you want, because ultimately when you started out, there was no one there to tell you what to do. You just did it.” We don’t doubt them—they just keep getting better—so if you’re a fan of innovative, genre-defining music, catch the foursome on tour when they visit a town near you.
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