Electric Company

Electric Company is the primary electronic alias of Brad Laner, a pivotal figure in the American underground music scene. Best known for leading the seminal shoegaze band Medicine and his earlier work with Savage Republic, Laner used Electric Company to explore the burgeoning IDM and glitch movements of the late 1990s.

The project is characterized by a 'maximalist-minimalism,' where simple melodic motifs are subjected to extreme digital manipulation, granular synthesis, and complex rhythmic sequencing. Laner's background in guitar-driven music informs the project's textural depth, often incorporating heavily processed guitar samples that function as synthetic pads. Throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, Electric Company was a fixture on influential labels like Tigerbeat6 and Planet Mu, positioning Laner alongside glitch pioneers like Kid606 and Jega. Critical consensus views the project as a successful translation of shoegaze's 'bliss-out' aesthetic into the digital domain, bridging the gap between post-rock experimentation and computer-based composition.