Ladytron - MTV Iggy, 2011

Format: MP4, 1280x720
Size: 296 MB
Source: HQ internet stream

Content:
1. Interview
2. White Gold
3. Destroy Everything You Touch

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"Tesla", a new Ladytron song from The Sims 3: Supernatural soundtrack

The soundtrack of the video game The Sims 3: Supernatural will also include a new Ladytron song, "Tesla". This expansion pack will be released on 4 September 2012.

The songs from The Sims 3: Supernatural soundtrack:
Austra - Spellwork
Bastille - Laura Palmer
Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
Khursor feat. Sarai Givaty - Can You Hear Me
Lacuna Coil - Kill the Light
Ladytron - Tesla
MS MR - Hurricane
Oberhofer - Yr Face
Sabi - Wild Heart
Vampire Twins - Lamia

Beatportal interview (2011)

Taste Test: Ladytron's Mira Aroyo

What was the first record you remember having as a child?
My parents had Beatles, Dylan, Bowie record, stuff like that. I used to have all these children's story records that had music on them too. Some songs and some quite trippy soundscape stuff.

What was the first record you bought with your own money?
Technotronic's "Pump up the Jam" on tape.

Which style or genre of music was your first great love?
My parents' music. The stuff I mentioned before. Then stuff like The Birthday Party, Suicide and krautrock bands.

What was the first concert that you ever attended?
Guns N' Roses, supported by Billy Idol.

What was the first musical instrument that you ever played?
Guitar.

How did you come to start DJing, and what were your first attempts like?
I was a student in Oxford and started a night with some friends playing quite eclectic material. It was a real mix of old '60s music to newer, electronic kind of stuff.

What was the last record (or MP3) you bought? How many tracks/records do you typically acquire every week?
I have more of a monthly shop. Around 20.

What format do you DJ with – vinyl, CD, Traktor/Serato, Ableton, etc...?
CD.

What's the last gig/party you attended where you weren't also performing?
The last gig was by my friend Vice Cooler.

Which track (by another musician) do you wish that you had made?
Most stuff by Vitalic, Brian Wilson or Leonard Cohen.

What's your favorite record from this year that isn't electronic dance music?
Bill Callahan: Apocalypse.

Current reading or last good book read?
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

Favorite piece of gear?
My Ricoh GR1v camera.

Favorite city/country/club to perform in?
North and South America.

Which actress would you want to play you in the biopic of your life?
Shelley Duvall in the '70s.

And if you were an actress, which musician would you want to play?
Sun Ra.

One misperception about Ladytron that you'd like to correct.
That we are cold and distant. There is a lot of emotion in our music.

Source

Ladytron live DVD soon

Ladytron announced on their Facebook page that they will release a live DVD soon: "We're editing our live DVD today. Will be available for pre-order exclusively through our site. More news soon. XXXX".

2015 edit: still not released.

Helen Marnie' solo album (1)

On 28 June 2012, Daniel Hunt twitted about the current status of Helen Marnie' solo album: "Making steady progress on Helen's album. In six weeks we relocate to Reykjavik for the final phase of recording".

Source

Runaway (8-bit cover)

The Stool Pigeon interview (2008)

Helen may still digging her heels in the sand, but the rest of Ladytron are now available in shades other than black.

"We should get our bikes out!" declares Reuben Wu, Ladytron's energetic keyboardist. Mere moments later, he and Bulgarian born singer Mira Aroyo are riding around the East Berlin music venue that will tonight host the latest show in their stamina-defying tour. Zooming frantically and pointlessly in circles, they charmingly resemble over energetic ET cast extras. They appear a fraction of their ages, reeking of nothing more rock'n'roll than good old fashioned healthy living. If they are on something, it's surely berocca.

Ladytron are in the German capital to promote their latest long player, Velocifero, and judging by the look of their swanky jumbo-sized tour bus, they are reaping the rewards of surviving nine years in music. Let us not forget, when Ladytron burst onto the scene via John Peel with their alluring lo-fi art house electro in 1999, they never seemed like a true mainstream concern. Rather, they politely offered the world carefully sculptured hair, jet black uniforms, pale faces and icy demeanours. In the world of pop, that's a foolproof way to project a sense of cool mystery to gullible people. Or get you confused with Suede.

"When we started, we just did it for fun", explains Mira, now perched on a backstage leather couch. "We all had day jobs and no grand plan. We weren't expecting to make a living from the band".

Ladytron's new record smoothly continues their unique portfolio of synth pop with tracks such as 'They Gave You a Heart, They Gave You a Name' and latest single 'Ghosts'. It also encompasses a number of eye opening interludes, such as when Mira begins to vocalise in her native Bulgarian tongue on the opening number 'Black Cat' and the intriguing 'Kletva'.

"We spent about two months in Paris recording and mixing", says Reuben. "We then went to LA to finish it with producer Michael Patterson, who has worked with Beck and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I think our last record, Witching Hour, was a milestone in terms of us finding a sound that we're happy with. Through a lot of touring, our live sound became very powerful – it had so much energy – and we wanted to translate that into our records, though we're still using the same instrumentation we've always used. We're never going into rock'n'roll or anything like that".

Ladytron have undoubtedly found their niche and are clearly ecstatic about their achievements on Velocifero. "I'd give it four billion trillion billion and 42 out of 10", Mira claims. "It's a harder and louder album than Witching Hour and it's also more diverse and experimental in terms of rhythms. People have in their heads what a typical Ladytron song sounds like, so we just pushed things a bit more. I think we've become more psychedelic in every way".

With Mira's severe crop now replaced with feminine curls, it would seem that Ladytron's once regimented vampiric look has loosened up as well. "Our hair is quite low maintenance", she adamantly insists.

"I think everyone likes to look nice", believes Reuben. "We've always tried to approach how we appear in a different way to normal bands. At the start we all wore black matching uniforms, so we didn't need to worry about what to wear onstage. At the time it really fitted. Now we're more individual".

Ladytron's strong interest in the visual side of things extends beyond the realms of sartorial elegance.

"We like to have control over our artwork, video and record sleeves", continues Reuben. "From the very beginning we used to do our own sleeves and album covers. These days we get other people to do it, but we're still very involved in the process".

"Lyrically, I think we also write in terms of images rather than themes", adds Mira.

Scottish-born Ladytron vocalist Helen Marnie isn't smiling today. Or speaking. She utters not one word until the moment we see a fox galloping past in a nearby field and the boisterous Reuben bizarrely begins to chase after it like it's stolen his Lucozade. Then Helen sharply drops a bombshell on her band mates: "I'm not getting my bike out".

Helen knows I'm miserable now indeed and, thankfully, she's only one forth of Ladytron. It's hard to work out whether she's ill, as her band members apologetically tell us, or just shrewdly carrying on the band's historical unsmiling-we-are-the-robots tradition that the others have abandoned for happiness and colour.

To back up this unexpected development, it is decided that one of Berlin's highly authentic-looking LA style 'beach bars' is the perfect place to photograph them for today's shoot. The band's latest video, directed by Joseph Khan, who has also shot promos for baldy bores Moby, U2 and Britney Spears, similarly goes against their dark electro stereotype and is set in a soft focus desert. "The same director did 'Thong Song'", explains Reuben enthusiastically. "It is probably the most sexy video we've ever done. It was filmed in the same place as Kill Bill 2".

Let's hope Ladytron didn't pay Mr Khan megabucks in advance, as the finalised version turned out to be more conventional than Delta Goodrem. Any shots of Ladytron writhing around in bikinis have been edited out, and what remains is about as kinky as a Pringles advert. On the upside, it features a really cute rabbit, but you don't have to crawl all the way to the desert to find one of those.

Who then, dead or alive would the band handpick to direct the full-length movie of Ladytron's life? "Werner Herzog or John Walters would be pretty good", says Mira, smiling.

And how and when will the Ladytron chronicles end? "I think we've outlasted most bands nowadays", she says defiantly. "We just take one day at a time".

"I try to be nice everyday", concludes Reuben sombrely. "I don't want to get reincarnated as a cockroach".

Ladytron - amTV (Mezzanine, SF, 2006)