Current Elastica producer Marc Waterman is having a difficult time remembering the names of his predecessors. Let's see, there was Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails), Bruce Lampcov (the Pretenders) and Richard Norris (the Grid). "I think that's it," he says. "Is that enough?"

The new, still-untitled Elastica album is nearly completed, according to Waterman, who has produced four or five songs for the estimated seventeen-track album, due for release some time next spring. Waterman, who produced Elastica's last record, is the last of four producers who've had their fingerprints on the sound of the long-awaited follow-up to the group's nearly four-year-old self-titled debut. Along with guest keyboardist Dave Bush, former Elastica bassist Annie Holland, Linoleum guitarist Paul Jones and a cameo from Mark E. Smith of the Fall, the band has recorded, according to Waterman, a "slightly darker, introspective [album] with a bit less pop edge."

One song, called "Mad Dog," is a "very unusual ... really in-your-face, three-minute pop ditty," Waterman says. Another, which may or may not make the final track listing, is a "fucked up" cover version of Trio's "Da Da Da," better known as the jingle for the Volkswagen TV spot (which features an ambiguously gay male couple riding around in a Golf).

As far as the purported Elastica break-up reported by British music magazine NME, it's pure rubbish, according to Waterman. "That was a fantastic misunderstanding," he says. "[The writer] met [singer] Justine [Frischmann] and said, 'How's it going?' And she said, 'Oh, it's nearly finished,' meaning the album, and he thought she meant the group. And he went, 'Oh, that's sad.' And she went, 'Why?' And he said, 'Oh, it's horrible when things come to an end.'" So much for follow-up questions.

BLAIR R. FISCHER
(December 17, 1998)