Sweet Electra

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Sweet Electra is a Mexican indie-electronic band from Guadalajara, formed around 2000 by Nardiz Cooke and Giovanni Escalera. Their sound blends electronic music with rock and indie influences. Giovanni had been part of Guadalajara’s electronic scene since the 1990s and, after early projects, teamed with DJ Channel Dueñas to form Acid Chloe, which became Sweet Electra.

In 2002 they signed with Nopal Beat Records and released their debut album, Lying to be Sweet. It was produced by Giovanni Escalera and Guillermo Ramirez (Galapago) and featured Valentina Gonzáles on vocals, Paloma Cumplido and Abigail Vázquez on violins, with additional contributions from Chemin, Arturo Santillanes Plástiko, Troker, Morfeo Hernández on percussion, and Juan Carlos Lorenzana on transverse flute. The single "Firefly" had remixes by Calambrin, Shock Bukara, and Club Nova. The album was promoted by Nopal Beat Records under EMI distribution worldwide. It blends acid cabaret, deep house, trip-hop, jazz, and bossa nova, with lyrics in Portuguese, French, English and Spanish, and incorporates Mexican rhythms from the 1950s. It was nominated for an LBE Music Award for Best New Alternative Artist.

In 2006 their second album, CAMA (meaning “bed”), leaned more toward indie-rock. Its single "Shadow" was part of the soundtrack for the Mexican film Eros Una Vez María, directed by Jesús Magaña, and Escalera also scored the film with their electronic sound, featuring Cecilia Bastida, Sakiko Yocko, and Dangerous Rhythm.

That year they led Celebrate Mexico Now in New York City. In 2009 they released their third album, When We Abandoned Earth, written in New York. It features nostalgic orchestral electronic pop, with contributions from Carlo Nicolau (violin), Juan Sosa (drums), and Stephen Yonkin from Zigmat (bass). A 2011 remixed version, When We Remixed Earth, offered a more danceable version and appeared only digitally.

Sweet Electra’s fourth album revisits CAMA with a stronger electronic sound. The video for the first single, "Creias", was directed by photographer Erin Patrice O'Brien and filmed in Brooklyn as an animated piece using about 9,000 stills, with a Mexican touch reminiscent of Michel Gondry.