Bachelorette

The project of Christchurch, New Zealand's Annabel Alpers, Bachelorette mixes '60s psychedelia and girl group pop with folk and lots and lots of vintage electronics. Inspired by acts spanning the Beatles and Smiths to Aphex Twin and Kraftwerk, Alpers began playing in bands in the '90s. She started in a group called Mouse before singing and playing keyboard in the trippy surf rock band Hawaii 5-0, and the electronic noise bands Space Dust and the Hiss Explosion. When Hawaii 5-0 broke up, she lived in Shanghai for a time before returning to New Zealand, and enrolled in the University of Auckland's post-graduate music studies program. While studying computer composition, Alpers also focused on her own songs, recording at home and in her friends' studios as well as the University's facilities. Her first release as Bachelorette, the End of All Things EP, was released in 2005, and won acclaim for Alpers' unique, intimate take on electronic pop. For her debut album, 2007's Isolation Loops, she sequestered herself for three months in a cabin her great-grandfather built in a fishing village near the mouth of the Rakaia River; the album's more complicated arrangements and concept about the end of a relationship made it a significant advance in her music. She performed as a solo artist during the Isolation Loops tour, but for her next album My Electric Family, which was released in 2009, Alpers expanded Bachelorette into a full-fledged band, adding Andrea Holmes and Mick Elborado to the fold. The group took a gentler, more expansive approach on 2011's Bachelorette.