It’s been almost 10 years since Liverpool quartet Ladytron began developing an electro-rock sound that’s as distinctive as it is accessible. Over the course of three albums, band members Daniel Hunt (guitar, keys), Reuben Wu (programming, keyboards), Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo (both vocals and keyboards) have grown as songwriters and managed to sidestep the dreaded electroclash tag that became the downfall of many of their peers in the early 2000s.
 “I’d like to think we have more than one dimension,” ventures Hunt, speaking to me from the Bronx Zoo where he and his bandmates are being photographed.

 “People hear one song, or watch the videos they can see on YouTube, and that’s their perception of the band. They think they’ve got Ladytron understood, and it’s not really true. Contrast is important, and we’re still looking for the best way to get that across.”

Even a casual Ladytron fan will know that contrast is key to the band’s presentation — whether it plays out in their heavy use of black and white costumes and imagery or the romance and warmth of vintage analog keyboards rubbing up against cold, metallic beats. Ladytron has harnessed this notion of contrast more than ever before to create Velocifero, the follow-up to their critically lauded 2005 full-length, Witching Hour.

From the moment Velocifero opens with the dark, sexy and guitar-drenched “Black Cat,” the album is sharp, strong and compelling.

 “We feel like this is much more of a definitive album than Witching Hour was even though we did take some sonic strides with that one,” says Hunt. “For us, the plan was to make something better. Even though I really like Witching Hour still, I think Velocifero is more consistent and, track for track, it’s better.”

Certainly the album proves that the foursome are committed to writing more complex songs and digging even deeper for new sonic possibilities. Velocifero also sees the independent-minded group step up to the production plate more extensively, producing the bulk of the album with some additional touches coming from heavyweights Allesandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails) and Vicarious Bliss (Ed Banger).

 “They’re both people who we could talk with about all kinds of music all day long so the connection was more about that than something like ‘OK, can you make this sound like an Ed Banger record?’ That’s not what we wanted,” says Hunt.

He tells me that the members of Ladytron were eager to take the songs of Velocifero on the road. This is a band who, after all, have seen their audiences grow before their very eyes as they and their stage full of analog synths have toured extensively over the past five years. I ask Hunt if he and the others talk much about their live show and performance.

“Over the space of tours, I think there have been many incremental improvements,” he says. “It’s only from stepping back after we’ve finished a tour that we can see it and say, ‘Actually, this is what we can do.’ This is the first time where we all feel like we’ve got almost every aspect nailed and we’re really happy with the production.

 “It’s the first time that we have our own light show, where it feels like it’s part of the band. It’s like having a very large, rectangular, illuminated member of the band in the back, like a robot drummer or something,” he laughs. “I think it’s night and day between the first time we played Toronto in 2003 and the way the show is now. It’s about 300 times better than it was then.”
I wonder aloud, having seen Ladytron perform stiffly in two different club settings, whether the band has loosened up on stage a little or if their composed, almost stoic presentation is cultivated.

 “It’s definitely not cultivated,” Hunt counters. “It really depends on the show from night to night. Also, normally Montreal and Toronto come early in the tour where this time they’re coming later — we started on the west coast — so that has a bit of a bearing on it because certain things become second nature. Obviously by a week or two in, things become more instinctive. If we look like we’re really serious and concentrating, it’s just because we are.”