When UK music weekly Melody Maker extolled Manhattan, New York, USA-based Bowery Electric's second album, Beat, as "rock really sounding like the future, hip-hop freed from ego, opened up and lost to the environment", it was only a partial exaggeration. Presumably inspired by the trailblazing experimentation of My Bloody Valentine and forging far beyond the slightly leaden space-rock of their self-titled debut (recorded as a trio), Beat juxtaposed gorgeous layers of treated guitars with a palpitating hip-hop pulse to create a benchmark album. The "beat" in the title is probably intended to refer both to Bowery Electric's discovery of hip-hop/electronica and the blissed-out sense of enervation that saturated the release. Martha Schwendener (b. 11 March 1970, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA; bass, keyboards, vocals) and Lawrence Chandler (b. 22 November 1967, Highpoint, North Carolina, USA; programming, guitar, keyboards, vocals) extended their experimentation with the Vertigo remix album, inviting future-funk luminaries such as Main's Robert Hampson, Third Eye Foundation's Matt Elliot and Witchman to reconstruct tracks from Beat. Comparisons invoked at the time were as curiously disparate as Saint Etienne and the Wu-Tang Clan. The duo took these "studio-as-instrument' explorations to a logical conclusion with 1997"s low-key single "Blow Up"/"Electrosleep", released on the Happy Go Lucky label, which combined their usual drones with Photek-like drum and bass experimentation. For the recording of the aptly-titled Lushlife, Chandler and Schwendener relocated to a state of the art, computer-based, electronic music studio. A pre-album single perfectly captures the Bowery Electric aesthetic: "Freedom Fighter" appropriated a portion of Nick Drake's "Introduction", combining the iconic folk-singer's gossamer-fine guitar work with busy beats, the screams of sirens and the muffled chants of street protest.

Listen to Bowery Electric at Finetune.

• (2000)  Lush Life

• Deep Blue
• Soul City
• Saved
• Freedom Fighter
• Floating World

• Portishead
• Sigur Ros
• Massive Attack
• Air
• Stars of the Lid
• Faithless
• Mono
• Radiohead
• Lamb
• Tortoise
• Cocteau Twins
• The Verve
• Tricky
• My Bloody Valentine
• Mogwai
• Labradford
• Sneaker Pimps
• Hooverphonic
• Telepopmusik
• Flying Saucer Attack

• djdream
• HelgaPataki
• talentines
• buzzcock
• psychoblue
• m4z23
• Novu
• ryutam
• zorax
• PetrSnobelt
• lucielle
• Lorispori
• jacobsz
• mindgater
• r0ach
• maganas07
• fiveherb
• jsawiuk
• DrOctashawn
• NonstickRon
• RevolutionaryDreamer
• magamath
• dgirondi
• kimreadbook
• schmkr
• whitecut
• rhymingwitch
• yuval_d
• valmer
• tacmachine
• Dartsum
• justinatmizzou
• e4groove
• VibrationDude
• ryukkam