Electroclash: ADULT.

Of all the words used to describe Electroclash, adult ain't usually one. And yet...

(Photo credit: John Vulpine - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

ADULT. – a married duo hailing from Detroit – never meant for their name to be literal or serious, so it’s perhaps ironic that their brand of Electroclash is a bit more, well, “grown-up.” I remember seeing them in Detroit in the early 2000s, a welcome foil to the garage rock Scene that was in capital “S” swing and a departure from the techno of the time. Nicola Kuperus was stern, strong and detached with a flair for the theatrical — a manifestation of the bad-ass chick I wished was habituated somewhere in my own psyche — and Adam Lee Miller channeled a particular brand of art-school cool that was intimidating and disarming all at once.

Full-on DIY, they started their own record label, self-producing their first two albums, which gave them total autonomy to really play with their minimal, dark and synth-wavey sound.

Although self-described in their early days as “dance punk,” (Adam Lee Miller at one point expressed that he hated the term Electroclash) we think songs like Hand to Phone (2001) or Glue Your Eyelids Together (2003) embrace the genre’s punk sensibilities and attempts to turn the status of the superficial on its ear.

Given the variety of their musical, cultural and artistic references, ADULT. has stood the test of time, including parlaying their later driving, industrial-laden sound sensibilities into collaborations with the members of Swans and Nitzer Ebb. Now with Dais Records (best known for acts such as Cold Cave and Iceage – whom I love), their eighth and latest album Perception is/as/of Deception was released earlier this year.

Today we are listening to their classics Resuscitation (2001) and Anxiety Always (2003).

Enjoy listening, and please consider sharing with others.