Biography
The L.E.D.s were a Christchurch electro-pop trio active from 2006 to 2011, one of the most distinctively modern-sounding acts to emerge from the city’s post-earthquake generation of artists. The band evolved directly from thomas:parkes, the electronic duo of Blair Parkes and Marcus Thomas. Parkes and Thomas had previously played together in the guitar band 103; when that group ended, they began exploring synthesisers and programmed beats — instruments neither of them had used before. As Parkes described the transition: “It felt like we were doing something really new, and it really was to us… playing on instruments we knew nothing about.”
Helen Greenfield joined from Barnard’s Star — the late-1990s Christchurch shoegaze act on the Beat Atlas label — adding cello, synth, and a third voice to the trio. As Parkes recalled: “It sounded really, really good having that extra voice, so we decided [to] ask Helen to join the group.” The newly formed L.E.D.s debuted in 2006, rebranding from their duo configuration and coining their own genre term: “pop-tronica.” Their sound combined programmed beats, icy synthesisers, cello, and layered vocals into what their Bandcamp bio describes as music that “fuse[s] synths, beats, and voice to find warmth in the cool, light in the dark.” Blair Parkes himself has deep roots in the Christchurch indie scene through his earliest band All Fall Down, who released a 12″ EP on Flying Nun in 1987 — giving The L.E.D.s an indirect Flying Nun lineage.
Their 2006 debut We Are the L.E.D.s was greeted with immediate enthusiasm. Vicki Anderson wrote in The Press: “It’s like standing too close to an electro-fuelled space shuttle blasting off for galaxies unknown and will have you walking in light for days.” Simon Grigg called it “the first perfectly formed pop album I’ve heard from New Zealand this decade.” The 2008 follow-up Still retained this intensity — Sarah Gooding in Real Groove wrote: “With brushes of Air’s sweeping orchestral approach and Bauhaus dry ice intensity, Billy Idol’s subtle glam edge, and plunky basslines The Fall might claim as their own, they melt like chocolate.” The band’s music was also placed across dozens of scenes in Outrageous Fortune (TV3) and Go Girls (TVNZ), building a profile well beyond Christchurch.
The band played frequently at Mighty Mighty in Wellington and The Dux in Christchurch, with live drummer Daniel Batkin-Smith joining them on stage between 2007 and 2009. Their third album Glass Comforts and companion EP Goodbye to the Light followed in 2010. The February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes halted their live performance plans, and the band wound down that year. The fourth album Dunes — recorded across New Brighton and Wellington between 2010 and 2012 — was released digitally in 2012 as a final document of the project. After the split, Parkes made noisier music as Saturations, then recorded as Range and later as Cardigan Bay. Helen Greenfield continued as Mela and later reunited with Barnard’s Star for a sold-out 25th anniversary show.
The LEDs, whose second album was a slightly edgier version of their first but just as addictive… had only three tracks over three minutes… bang, bang, bang perfection.
Simon Grigg, The Opinionated Diner, 2008
Members
- Daniel Batkin-Smith (drums, live 2007–2009)
- Helen Greenfield (vocals/cello/synth, Barnard’s Star, Mela)
- Blair Parkes (vocals/synth/guitar/bass, All Fall Down, 103, thomas:parkes, Saturations, Range, Cardigan Bay, Little Dead Things)
- Marcus Thomas (vocals/bass/synth/guitar, thomas:parkes)
Discography
- We Are the L.E.D.s LP (2006, Seaside Records)
- Still LP (2008, Seaside Records)
- Glass Comforts LP (2010, Seaside Records)
- Goodbye to the Light EP (2010, Seaside Records)
- Dunes LP (2012, Seaside Records)