Electricity In Our Homes - We Agree Completely

With one member down and one record contract under their belt, it’s with a somewhat different voice Electricity In Our Homes hit out from previous single ‘Gymnastics’. ‘Message of Joy’ is, for starters, a slab of confusion at first tucked between their wayward bass and some snappy cymbals. The repeat line of “would you like to try mine on?” leads to the crux of the situation, but giving a retort before the initial statement has been made. With their Gang of Four influenced cross-over vocals through the verse, there’s a twist of concentration for the listener, which always manages to feel exciting.

So far, so post-punk. Their clothes may represent a rather monotone palette, but it is the cross-rhythms that protrude from tracks like ‘Hooves’ that keep the energy and shades apparent. The use of Bonnie’s vocal – although by no means dazzling in the warbling stakes of these things – adds the subtle sheen of femininity to what is otherwise succinctly masculine and aggressive art-rock; the coiffure of volume to a tentatively limp cut if you will.

Now, to play devil’s advocate, what most bands touting this genre, and in fact people, generally fail to notice is the playful, occasionally funk, side to garage and psychedelic beat music. Thankfully a reminder can be found in instrumental ‘Goodbye’. It leads out slightly devoid of the off-kilter sentiments in the rest of ‘We Agree Completely’ – made up for in the x-amounts of dumb fun being had in the amusingly titled ‘Scenes From The Life of A Double Mattress’, which compacts the argy-bargy attempts at rhythms that many a chamber hath witnessed.

‘Don’t You Want To (Follow)?’ matches the opener in its bed of pre-empting answers, but has a waggling bass finger to keep it in line. The drumming also takes on its own dimensions of melody – machine gunning, slapping thighs and then sitting back behind the brushes. The lyrics get more upset in their tortured repetition of “don’t you want to?”, the threatening romp to Franz’s ‘Do You Wanna?’.

They’ve set themselves the mighty task of sounding like their heroes without sounding stale in this world of revivals and reminders of the ‘good old days’. EIOH are, however, far from scraping the barrels of the aforementioned Gang, Neu! of Factory Floor. They’re minimalists – challenging, repeat functions, pretentious – but full of layers that so dissolve the need for an occasion to play them. So while they’ve no doubt got one eye on Gill and co’s return, they are equally (and oddly) very much the hear and now.