Hector Zazou & Katiejane Garside • Corps Electriques // Queen Adreena • Ride A Cock Horse

Katiejane Garside is a busy woman. Not content with heading up eccentric indie rockers Queen Adreena, whispers concerning various side projects have been circulating for some time, including the mysterious Ruby Throat, a group comprising of herself and Chris Whittingham which recently spawned an album, and this collaboration with prolific French composer/producer Hector Zazou. Zazou has long played to the strengths of enigmatic female voices, working with everyone from Laurie Anderson and Lisa Germano to Suzanne Vega and the gravel-gargling Sandy Dillon.

On first listen, the nine songs that make up Corps Electriques could perhaps be dismissed as Queen Adreena given an electro makeover, but repeated listens reveal new intricacies – whispers, pulses, subverted melodies – that combine to create elaborate soundscapes that draw the audience further into Zazou’s sublime dreamworld. The dystopian ‘Apostrophe’ sees harsh guitars and brash rhythms replaced with sparse beats and brass, owing more to the beatnik delivery of Lydia Lunch or, given Garside’s often naïve vocal delivery, Björk’s trip-hop leanings, than any of her own past projects. The melodic harmonies and occasional samples found in the beautiful ‘Porte de Saint-Cloud’ definitely evoke the Icelandic artist circa Vespertine. Standout track ‘Butterfly Plaintif’ crunches along awkwardly at first, only to give way to a churning rock riff and ragged screams that Garside devotees will love. Ultimately, although Corps Electriques is a marked departure from the style usually associated with Garside, her identity is stamped all over it.

Such prolific output from anything other than her main band may signal that Queen Adreena have become stagnant of late; however, lest we should forget just how wonderful Garside’s successor to Daisy Chainsaw can be, Ride A Cock Horse is here to jog our collective memory. Independently released through the Queen Adreena website late last year and recently issued in Japan, the album comprises mostly unreleased material culled from the band’s infancy. Fans will recognise early versions of tracks from their debut Taxidermy and its follow-up Drink Me, including ‘I Adore You’, ‘Soda Dreamer’ and ‘Hotel Aftershow’.

The feral beats that introduce ‘Bridgit’ are Queen Adreena at their best – loud, brutal and uncompromising, whereas the playful ‘Spider Spider’ perfectly encapsulates the band’s signature sound – heavy guitar work coupled with Garside’s nursery-rhyme vocal delivery embodies the hard/soft contrasts found in much of Queen Adreena’s output. Early versions of ‘I Adore You’ and ‘Soda Dreamer’ stray little from the final album cuts, save for being a little ‘rough around the edges’ and are perhaps of interest to die-hard fans only. However, the rendition of ‘Hotel Aftershow Part 1′ found here is a rare example of the stark beginnings of a track before it’s given the scream-until-you’re-hoarse treatment, its hymn-like delivery exposing the underlying beauty of the song. Hidden track ‘Sleeping Pill’ gets a similarly radical treatment, becoming a barely-coherent, forty-second extract rather than anything closely resembling the ambient version found on Drink Me.

Most compelling are ‘Where Me & The Vultures Live’ with its incessant, grinding riffs, the grungy ‘Ride The Airwave’ and the ever-so-slightly glam ‘Gopee Snowpea’ – quite possibly the most straightforward rock songs this band have ever written. Had songs like these made the cut of the band’s first releases, the Queen Adreena story could have been a very different one.

[Phantom Sound & Vision; January 15, 2008/ Self-released; available on import only]

Tagged katiejane garside, queen adreena, ride a cock horse, ruby throat