Electrelane - Rock It To The Moon (2001)

Barking dogs, carnival rides, storming guitars, and organs -- lots of
organs -- ranging from ominous to pummeling figure in Electrelane's debut.
It's quite possible that most of the songs are the result of jamming.
That's what it sounds like, at least. Jam-based records are prone to much
noodling, which isn't a problem with Rock It to the Moon; actually, the
predominantly instrumental record sounds like a live show with lots of
ebbs, flows, freakouts, and chill-outs. It's a rare instance where the
maximum space allowed on a disc is used in a good way for a studio record.
Electrelane didn't just stuff it because they happened to have enough
songs. And the length doesn't smack of a massive collective ego; it smacks
more of a group too excited to be making music together to ever stop. There
are too many ideas floating throughout and there are too many extended
passages to warrant major pruning. If a disc held 100 minutes, this would
probably be 99 minutes long. Besides, who wants to put a stop to fun? "Long
Dark" crosses Stereolab with Duane Eddy; it even throws some "Peter Gunn"
into its nine minutes, along with some feverish keyboard licks that mimic
Hot Butter's "Popcorn." "Gabriel" is probably the best Cliff's Notes
summation of the record, beginning with a mournful lurch that explodes into
a frenzy of blasting, racing instruments and those wild keyboards featured
earlier. Imagine a funeral procession turning into a chase scene that
passes through a desert, only to end abruptly with a pileup. Those barking
dogs mentioned earlier remind one of Pink Floyd's "Dogs," but that's laid
to rest when a contorted voice intones "I wanna be your dog." Ahh, the dogs
are a Stooges reference -- of course.