Laika (band)

Laika
Origin	London, England
Genres	Downtempo Electronica Experimental Trip hop
Years active	since 1993
Labels	Too Pure
Website	http://www.laika.org/
Members
Margaret Fiedler Guy Fixsen Lou Ciccotelli
Past members
John Frenett Rob Ellis Louise Elliot

Laika is a British alternative rock band founded in 1993 by ex-Moonshake members Margaret Fiedler and John Frenett, and producer/engineer Guy Fixsen. The band was named after the first animal to orbit the earth, the Russian dog Laika.

Sound

Musically the band could be described as electronica with "dreamy" female vocals. However, they also rely on a more organic approach to their songwriting with live drums and percussion, together with guitars and samples, creating a complexly-layered and polyrhythmic blend of beats and diverse analogue sounds that defy simple categorization.

History

Born in Chicago, USA (and previously an early member of Ultra Vivid Scene and a collaborator with Moby) Margaret Fiedler had moved from New York City to London in 1989 in search of music which better suited her interests. The first significant band she joined was Moonshake (in which she was one of two lead vocalists, a songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist predominantly playing guitar, keyboards and samplers). Moonshake's songwriting duties were split between Fiedler and co-singer David Callahan, each of whom had very different styles: Callahan favoured an art-punk storytelling approach with a dub/funk undercurrent while Fiedler preferred a more enveloping and abstract approach drawing on rhythmic Krautrock-esque loops and murmured vocals. The early Moonshake records (released on the Too Pure label) were engineered by producer Guy Fixsen, who had also worked with bands including My Bloody Valentine and The Breeders.

The creative tensions in Moonshake ultimately became personal and the band splintered in half after a US tour in 1993. While Callahan kept the Moonshake name and continued the band (along with drummer Mig Morland and various guest musicians), Fiedler and bassist John Frenett both left. Fiedler promptly began working with Guy Fixsen as her writing and recording partner, as well as beginning a romantic relationship with him. The new partnership (with Frenett playing bass) chose the name of Laika and continued to develop the approach Fiedler had taken with her songs in Moonshake.

In their first incarnation, the band was augmented by flautist and saxophonist Louise Elliot and drummer Lou Ciccotelli (God, Eardrum). On recordings and in live shows, Fiedler and Fixsen shared guitar, keyboards, and sampling duties (with Fiedler handling the bulk of the vocals). The group's debut was the acclaimed Silver Apples of the Moon, released on Too Pure in 1994. Shortly afterwards, Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Spleen) joined as a sometimes second drummer and percussionist.

The band quickly became popular interviewees in the alternative and underground music press, with their music praised for mingling intricacy, polish and accessibility with experimentation and originality. In 1995, Fiedler admitted that her band's music was "just like trip-hop, but much much faster" and declared her distaste for the then-current Britpop, citing a preference for jazz and dub. She would later recall that "Guy and I were interested in rhythm but couldn't get excited about 4/4. So, influenced by bands like The Young Gods, we wanted to take rock rhythms and turn them upside down. 7 is great!"

In 1996, Laika contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Laika's second album, Sounds Of The Satellites was released in early 1997 and saw many of the previous album's more abrasive edges smoothed away in favour of a sleeker (though not much less experimental) dance tone. The group continued to gain a lot of press attention (in particular when they supported Radiohead on tour) and continued to be an underground favourite, despite not scoring a breakthrough hit. A third album, Good Looking Blues, followed in 2000, with a collection of singles, B-sides and rarities called Lost In Space being released in 2001.

Up until 2003, each Laika release had been a full band recording involving (at the very least) Elliot and Frenett as players. The situation changed with 2003's Wherever I Am I Am What Is Missing, which was recorded by Fiedler and Fixsen alone but with Lou Ciccotelli remaining as the percussionist. The band were dismayed by this album's poor commercial reception (apparently selling less than any of its predecessors). Fiedler has subsequently blamed online filesharing for Laika's sudden dip in sales, commenting "we (had) sold steadily more and more until the last one which didn't do so well. And that coincided time-wise with everyone getting broadband. People were still coming to see the live shows, so go figure."

At around this time, Fixsen and Fiedler ended their romantic relationship. Although they maintained their musical partnership, the band's working life began to become strained. In 2009, Fiedler commented that "we were a couple both personally and professionally for a long time - over ten years - and the personal side of that is over and sometimes it's difficult to work together", citing the recently-defunct Stereolab as a similar example of a band driven by a central romantic partnership which suffered professionally once that relationship had ended.

Guy Fixsen has also mentioned the strain put on latter-day Laika by their differing lifestyles as instrumentalist-for-hire (Fiedler) and studio-bound producer (Fixsen), which had also meant that Fixsen had written and created a much larger proportion of the music than he had on previous records. He has recalled that "a lot of the music was recorded at my place while Margaret was off gallivanting around the world with PJ Harvey and getting drunk, going around Australia and America and hanging around with Bono and shit, while I was stuck in my little room ... I sort of set myself a task to stop myself from going mad in my little room: 'Today I'm going to write a song from beginning to end and then I'm just going to forget about it,' whereas in the past I would've worked on it over a period of weeks. There is a lot of spontaneity for a record that took three and a half years to make."

In 2005 Fiedler opted to devote most of her time to law school, something which she has cited as ensuring that "the band stopped being a going concern." Fixsen also took time out in order to travel the world. There were no formal announcements of a Laika break-up - or even a hiatus - but the band has not released anything since Wherever I Am I Am What Is Missing. Laika is also no longer listed in the roster on the Too Pure homepage.

Post-Laika

Guy Fixsen continues to work as a sound engineer and producer, most recently with the strongly-tipped Lonelady. Margaret Fiedler (now known by her married name of Mags McGinnis) currently divides her time between music, working in copyright law for the BBC, a sideline in eco-friendly candlemaking (for which she runs workshops at The Make Lounge craft space in Barnsbury, North London) and possibly writing a cookbook. She has stated that "the decline of album sales due to illegal downloads made (my) recording and songwriting careers less financially viable."

Possible future activity

Fixsen has claimed that Laika is "taking a break" with about half an album already recorded, and that he and Fiedler will reconvene and complete the tracks at a future date. While Fiedler has not entirely discounted this suggestion (or stated that Laika have formally split up), she has cited the difficulties of working with a former romantic partner on any project, as well as the obstacle of her current work. She has, however, admitted that it would be "great to finish (the album)" as well as to play some shows and tour some of the places which Laika did not visit during the band's active lifetime.

Outside Band Activities

In 2000, Margaret Fiedler played in PJ Harvey's backing band on an extensive world tour promoting Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea album. On this tour, she had played guitar, cello, and other instruments.

For their 2008 tour of Europe and North America, Fiedler played rhythm guitar on tour with Wire, having replaced Bruce Gilbert.

Discography

Singles / EPs

• Antenna EP (single 1994, Too Pure)
• Almost Sleeping EP (single 1997, Too Pure)
• Breather EP (single 1997, Too Pure)
• Uneasy (single 2000, Too Pure)
• Black Cat Bone (vinyl only 12" single 2000, Too Pure)
• Badtimes (single 2000, Too Pure)

Albums

• Silver Apples of the Moon (album 1994, Too Pure)
• Sounds of the Satellites (album 1997, Too Pure)
• Good Looking Blues (album 2000, Too Pure)
• Lost in Space - Volume 1 [1993-2002] (compilation 2003, Too Pure)
• Wherever I Am I Am What Is Missing (album 2003, Too Pure)

Tracks on V/A compilations

• If You Miss (Laika Virgin mix) (from Macro Dub Infection, 1995)
• Lower Than Stars (V/A Volume 12, 1995)
• German Shepherds (from Whore - Various Artists Play Wire, 1996)
• Looking For The Jackalope (236 remix) (from Beat Experience, 1997)
• Black Cat Bone (Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Radio Sunnydale UK Version, 2003)

External links

• Official website
• Discography from official Too Pure website
• Biography from official Too Pure website
• Concert photos by Laurent Orseau (Black Session)