Eltro

Philadelphia's Eltro recorded their debut in 1997 with Brian McTear at his Miner Street Studio. Information Changer was released in 1998 by Miner Street's brief record label venture. The band and most of the copies of the CD didn't make it outside of Philadelphia, but a copy was given to Absolutely Kosher by Quentin Stoltzfus (then of the Azusa Plain and soon after his own band Mazarin). Since another label was already attached, Absolutely Kosher merely kept the disc in rotation for the next two or three years. Meanwhile, Eltro had attracted the attention of Simple Machines, the Arlington, VA label run by Tsunami's Kristin Thomson and Jenny Toomey. Simple Machines closed its doors in April 1998. Eltro then attracted the attention of Neil Young's Vapor Records. Vapor asked the band to tour for six months. Eltro declined. Finally, Dave Allen of Gang of Four, now working with the internet music site eMusic, becomes enamored with the band. This was the era of the internet bubble and eMusic was paying large advances for digital rights. Allen surmised that if so much money was being paid only for digital rights, eMusic might as well start their own label. At last, Eltro's long-awaited third album, Past and Present Futurists. The album is unbelievable, a warp ten progression from their first two albums, Information Changer and Velodrome. The album was beautifully recorded by Brian McTear (Bitter Bitter Weeks, Mazarin, Burning Brides) and is the first to feature second vocalist Jenny P. Eltro has evolved their command of a delicate groove to the realm of the uncanny, channeling irresistible hooks with a gentle yet unrelenting bounce. This is the zenith of the band?s journey to fuse the electronic with the organic, the ocean with the dancefloor.