Electric Company

The recordings of Electric Company are the end result of indie-rock figurehead Brad Laner's relentless experimentation within a range of post-punk styles, from avant-garde rock to thrash to alternative pop to electronica. His work as Electric Company is nominally based within electronica, though it's more of a studio hybrid embracing guitar-rawk, drum'n'bass and noise. A long-time fan of experimental/improv artists from Beefheart to Throbbing Gristle to the Residents, Laner founded his first band Debt of Nature at the age of 14. The group recorded several tracks for New Alliance in 1982 and opened for Sonic Youth and the Swans in 1986 before Laner founded another group, Steaming Coils, which released three albums of their own. He also played with seminal Los Angeles trance-rockers Savage Republic before forming his most famous group, Medicine, in 1991. The first American band signed to Britain's super-indie Creation Records, Medicine earned praise from alternative critics for their extreme interpretation of My Bloody Valentine's noise-pop revolution. The group's first album Shot Forth Self Living was issued on Creation scant months after their formation, and distributed in the States via Def American. Two albums followed before Medicine broke up in 1995, the year of Laner's solo debut as Electric Company, A Pert Cyclic Omen. Though Laner's other major post-Medicine project Amnesia recorded albums in 1997 and 1998, he returned with two more Electric Company records, Studio City for Island and Omakase for Vinyl Communications. In addition, Laner has collaborated with members of sympathetic groups Mercury Rev and the Vas Deferens Organization, and recorded as part of the neo-prog band Lusk.
— John Bush , All Music Guide