Chicks on Speed

Munich-based electronic pop and multimedia outfit Chicks on Speed comprises three core members: Melissa Logan, who grew up in New York, Alex Murray-Leslie from Australia, and Kiki Moorse, born in Munich. In addition to producing fragmented, feminist-inflected synth pop, the collective operates the imprints Go Records, Stop Records, and Chicks on Speed Records, creates video, print, and installation artwork, and produces and markets experimental garments fashioned from paper and leather. Fitting their interdisciplinary approach, the three first crossed paths in 1997 inside a tavern adjacent to Munich’s Art Academy. Shortly afterward they issued limited-run singles that earned critical notice, among them Smash Metal, a track pitting them against Patrick Pulsinger, DMX Krew, and DJ Hell—the same DJ Hell whose Munich Machine album also featured their contributions—plus the tongue-in-cheek pseudo-house cut “Glamour Girl.” Their performances spanned an appearance at the 2000 Love Parade, shared bills with Console and Super Collider, and concerts staged inside former psychiatric facilities. Halfway through 2000 the group unveiled its first full-length effort, Will Save Us All!; before the year ended, K Records in the United States put out the rarities compilation The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases. While several tracks from the debut surfaced as singles throughout 2000, Chicks on Speed also issued the Chix 52 EP, a tribute to the B-52’s. Further singles followed, including a 2001 joint release with Kriedler and 2002’s Fashion Rules, coinciding with the trio’s inaugural extensive American tour on Larry Tee’s Electroclash package. The 2003 single We Don’t Play Guitars announced the album 99 Cents, issued across Europe that same year and, twelve months later, in the United States with additional remixes. Their subsequent full-length, Press the Spacebar, arrived in 2005 after a collaboration with the Spanish ensemble the No Heads. The next year Moorse departed to focus on solo work. Two later singles, Art Rules in 2007 and Super Surfer Girl in 2008, were gathered on the 2009 album Cutting the Edge. In 2014 Murray-Leslie and Logan resurfaced with Artstravaganza, an effort that included guest appearances from Yoko Ono and Julian Assange and showcased some of the project’s most expansive material to date.