NEWS
Ladytron: Light&Magic20
25 August 2022
Ladytron are celebrating the 20th anniversary of what many consider their definitive album, 2002’s 'Light&Magic' (Nettwerk).
To accompany it, the group have assembled unseen archive material from the time, including a teaser reel, a short film of them recording the album in Los Angeles, and a posthumous music video for the title track, shot on slide film, which had lay incomplete for two decades. Further unseen and unheard material will follow until the anniversary of the album’s release on September 17.
"When we released Light&Magic it was expected that the title track would be a later single, and would therefore need a video clip of its own. But we were on tour and didn't know how it would be done. We had all this beautiful slide film shot and envisaged animating it in some way, like a 1970s science fiction title sequence - Sapphire and Steel or something like that. We disappeared on the road, plans changed, and ideas were forgotten. Twenty years later here it is."
Originally released in September 2002 on Emperor Norton records, 'Light&Magic' was a critical success. The BBC named the album among 16 albums that defined 2002, and it made Rolling Stone's top 50 for the year. Broadsheet the Telegraph called it “stunning”, New Musical Express declared the album “one step ahead of the rest”, while Uncut described Ladytron’s second record as “sublime, subtle, subversive stuff”.
To accompany it, the group have assembled unseen archive material from the time, including a teaser reel, a short film of them recording the album in Los Angeles, and a posthumous music video for the title track, shot on slide film, which had lay incomplete for two decades. Further unseen and unheard material will follow until the anniversary of the album’s release on September 17.
Originally released in September 2002 on Emperor Norton records, 'Light&Magic' was a critical success. The BBC named the album among 16 albums that defined 2002, and it made Rolling Stone's top 50 for the year. Broadsheet the Telegraph called it “stunning”, New Musical Express declared the album “one step ahead of the rest”, while Uncut described Ladytron’s second record as “sublime, subtle, subversive stuff”.
