In the 19 years leading up their 2009 year hiatus, Stereolab released a string of beguilingly extraterrestrial-sounding albums, bridging the gap between pop and experimental music. The London-based outfit could sound entirely different from one record to the nextâand sometimes even from one song to the next. Hailed as âthe ultimate record collection rockersâ by music critic Simon Reynolds, Stereolab used their eclectic taste to build a hybrid music, one that dabbled, variously, in avant-garde, noise, bossa nova, lounge and jazz, to obscure cinematic scores, musique concrĂšte, 1960s pop, Brazilica, and Krautrock.
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Formed in 1990 by analog gear and record enthusiast Tim Gane and his then partner, French singer LĂŠtitia Sadier, the band took its name from Vanguard Stereolab, a subsidiary of Vanguard Records that specialized in hi-fi effects. Their music was highly cerebral and studious, with lyrics that referenced surreal imagery, Situationist philosophy, and leftist politics, sung in both English and French. As an expression of his love for record collecting, Gane also co-founded a boutique label, Duophonic, with the bandâs manager, Martin Pike, which has released limited edition singles and EPs by Stereolab and like-minded peers.âI guess Stereolab was conceived as a âhigh conceptâ pop group, and I guess thatâs remained the case,â Gane told FACT in 2009. âI always liked the idea of a conceptual band, and of achieving certain resonances with the way the records look and sound, right down to the titles of the songsâyou know, Iâm always looking for the nth degree of effect.âAlbum titles such as Switched On, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and âThe Groop Played âSpace Age Bachelor Pad Musicâââ all referenced different sources of inspiration: Wendy Carlos, a short, experimental Japanese film, and a fascination with lounge and exotica, respectively. The song titles, which for fans were regularly a source of both bemusement and amusement, could be as obtuse as âPuncture In The Radax Permutationâ or âHow To Play Your Internal Organs Overnight,â but also as simple as directly honoring their heroes by name: âJohn Cage Bubblegum,â âThe Free Design,â âWe're Not Adult Orientated (Neu Wave Live),â âBrigitte.â
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The one constant with Stereolab was Sadierâs French accent and deep and impassive voice. Although she delivered her lyrics with a detached chillness, her consistency as a vocalist, especially one who could switch between languages so effortlessly, provided a focal point within the musical chaos that surrounded her. Until her untimely death in 2002, fellow vocalist Mary Hansen would act as the ying to Sadierâs yang, their breezy, two-part harmonies offsetting Sadierâs heavier, more stoic vocals with her sweet falsetto.Like many leftfield artists during the post-Nirvana alternative sweepstakes of the early 90s, Stereolab built a sizeable following. In 1993, they signed a deal stateside with Elektra, the major label they would call home for eight full-length albums before defecting to 4AD in 2008 for their final studio release. They only scarcely made contact with mainstream culture (i.e. soundtracking a VW Beetle commercial, being used as a pick up line in High Fidelity), but they were key players in helping establish the post-rock scene of the late 90s, alongside peers like Tortoise and Mouse On Mars, both of whom co-produced their 1997 album, Dots and Loops.You can hear obvious traces of Stereolabâs music in the work of later artists like Broadcast, Air, Laika, Electrelane, Atlas Sound and most recently, Le SuperHomard, and Vanishing Twin. And thanks to their unconventional rhythms and whimsical arrangements, theyâve been sampled by artists from all over the musical map, including veteran acts like Busta Rhymes, Madlib, and Brandy, and newer artists like Jamilia Woods, Pro Era, and the late Mac Miller.
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After calling a hiatus in 2009, Stereolab have returned to finally reissue their studio albums, beginning with 1993âs Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, and in May will embark on a tour in the Summer and Fall. For anyone that wasnât around for the bandâs original run, here is a primer on where to start with Stereolabâs innovative and unparalleled discography.One major misnomer about Stereolab was that they were part of the early 90s lounge revival. The confusion was partly their own doing. Naming their 1993 record The Groop Played âSpace Age Batchelor Pad Music was bound to fool fans of the popular Ultra-Lounge compilation series at the time. But while that release offered little for cocktail party guests (the âfoamyâ version of âSpace Age Bachelor Pad Musicâ was best described by Simon Reynolds as âa Muzak vent that's fallen into a swimming poolâ), Stereolab wasnât just spoofing exotica legends like Martin Denny and Juan Garcia Esquivel.In an interview with the L.A. Times, the band acknowledged their inclusion in the lounge revival. âWe have our own interpretations of exotica, though,â said LĂŠtitia Sadier. âLike we did an album called Space Age Batchelor Pad Music, which revolved around the smooth schmooze of the 50s, but it was our own mutation of it. It's actually Stereolab's sound.âSome of their music could be construed as easy listening. Their most Muzak-leaning album was the ambitious Dots and Loops. Opener âBrakhageâ moves at a brisk pace, but is unequivocally chilled out, with its jazzy drum fills, warm rinses of Moog, and dominant vibraphone loops. The album gets easier-going along the way, with the breezy âPrisoner of Marsâ; the swaying, orchestral bliss of âRainbo Conversationâ; and the lengthy âRefractions in the Plastic Pulse,â essentially a four-part suite where the band expresses a range of experimental urges.
So You Want To Get Into: Jazzy Exotica Stereolab?
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This was a vibe they would revisit throughout subsequent albums. Tracks like âVelvet Waterâ (from 1999âs Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night), âHallucinexâ (from 2001âs Sound Dust), âThe Man With 100 Cells (from 2004âs Margerine Eclipse), âDaisy Click Clackâ (from 2008âs Chemical Chords), and âLaserblastâ (from 2010âs Not Music), all run the gamut from lounge, to bossa nova, to exotica.Playlist: âBrakhageâ / âPlastic Mileâ / âNomus et Phusisâ / âPrisoner of Marsâ / âThe Man With 100 Cellsâ / âRainbo Conversationâ / âSpacemothâ / âHallucinexâ / âRefractions in the Plastic Pulseâ / âDaisy Click Clackâ / âLaserblastâ / âGus The Mynah Birdâ / âSpool of CollusionâListening to Stereolab's discography, it's easy to overlook the fact that their music contained some overtly political manifestos. The band didnât preach their anti-capitalist agenda with the same belligerence as Public Enemy or Rage Against the Machine. Instead, they embedded their radical views in Sadierâs poetic lyrics, which blended in with the musicâs persuasive melodies.Of course, Stereolabâs politics paled in comparison to Tim Ganeâs previous band, McCarthy, which was one of the most dogmatic groups of the C86 scene, the nickname for Britainâs indie pop boom in the mid-80s. Vocalist Malcolm Eden was an outspoken communist who used the bandâs jangly pop as a platform for his anti-Thatcher, anti-capitalist grievances. Sadier joined on vocals for the final album, 1990âs Banking, Violence And The Inner Life Today, before she and Gane moved on to form Stereolab.
So You Want To Get Into: Political Stereolab?
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Still, you can hear echoes of McCarthy in what came after.Their 1994 single, âPing Pong,â houses Stereolabâs most visibly political communiquĂ© within a bouncy pop song. Surrounded by vibrant horns, an infectious lead organ, and Mary Hansenâs backing âoohs,â Sadier attacks both capitalism and the military: âThere's only millions that lose their jobs/ And homes and sometimes accents / There's only millions that die / In their bloody wars, it's alright.âAs Tim Gane told The Washington Post in 1999, Stereolab never used politics in a sloganeering way. But, as Sadier explained in a 2012 interview with Westword, âMusic and politics go perfectly hand in hand.â She continued: âI'm just surprised there's not more politics in music these days. It just gives meaning to what I do, and I see that a lot of bands in post-punk were extremely politicized⊠It was a way of fighting. We're kind of in a system where you have to fight.âPlaylist: âPing Pongâ / âCrestâ / âBrakageâ / âMotoroller Scalatronâ / âEye of the Volcanoâ / âContronaturaâ / "The Man with 100 Cells"From the cosmic synth noodling to the recurring, four-four Motorik beat, Stereolabâs music is full of references to Krautrock. Often, this affinity for the German-bred experimental music would result in lengthy jams or abrupt tangents, but unlike any other band of their time, Stereolab could turn even the gnarliest sounds into hypnotic pop music. That was the plan from the very beginning.
So You Want To Get Into: Krautrockinâ Stereolab?
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âIn the early 80s I was a big fan of Krautrock musicâlike Faust, Neu! and Can,â Gane would tell Tape-Op in 2013. âI'd been in two bands, and I didn't want to do âjust another band.â I was looking for a way of combining the experimental with the commercial. The idea was a combination of naĂŻve pop melodies melded with very simple rock minimalism.âEarly Stereolab favored four-four rhythms and trance-inducing walls of noise, but on âMetronomic Underground,â the lead track from their seminal 1996 album, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, they took the inspiration to the next level, kicking off the most accessible and celebrated release in their catalog with a spellbinding, eight-minute marathon. Like Canâs âSpoonâ before it, it was an exercise in holding a steady, calming funk groove, while surrounding it with disorder. Despite its long duration, the song has become a fan favorite, thanks in part to its two-part vocal harmonies.Emperor Tomato Ketchup offers plenty more of that fine, German engineering. The title track is textbook Neu!, whose Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger deconstructed the rock music template in the post-war DĂŒsseldorf of the 70s and 80s. Gane is an admitted fan, and so it should come as no surprise that the trackâs sputtering rhythm and fluttering noise recall the timeless âHallogallo,â from the 1972 Neu! LP.Krautrock is more than just Neu! and Can, obviously, and Stereolab certainly flexed their understanding of that movementâs penchant for pushing boundaries. 1994 B-side âUlan Batorâ gurgles and hums like anything off avant-Krautrockers Clusterâs Sowiesoso, and the droning âWeâre Not Adult Orientedâ is the work of a band that spent countless hours in a bedroom studying the mind-expanding jams of Amon DĂŒĂŒl, who they later sampled on Dots and Loopsâ âDiagonals.â
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Playlist: âMetronomic Undergroundâ / âJenny Ondiolineâ / âOp Hop Detonationâ / âEmperor Tomato Ketchupâ / âThe Long Hair of Deathâ / âSilver Sands (Emperor Machine Remix)â / French Diskoâ / â Wow and Flutterâ / âLes Yper Soundâ / âUlan Batorâ / âWeâre Not Adult OrientedâBy the mid-90s, Stereolab shared little in common with the band that had been making ear-bleeding, drone rock just a few years prior. Gane began adding a new layer of complexity to Stereolabâs music. This seemed to bring out his love for the ornate pop music of the 1960s, including sunshine pop (i.e. Harpers Bizarre, Beach Boys), yĂ©-yĂ© (i.e. Françoise Hardy, Jane Birkin), and baroque pop (i.e. The Left Banke, The Zombies). He would tell FACT in 2009, âThere was kind of a change in the way I wrote from about 93 onâI got really tired of doing things the same old way. It was then that my interest in repetition, in repetition itself, and in revealing something through layering, took hold.âThanks to Sadierâs bilingual singing, Stereolab were already used to the âFrench popâ tag. But with the sweeping string arrangements and multi-part vocal harmonies of Emperor Tomato Ketchupâs âCybeleâs Reverie,â not to mention the good vibrations of tracks like âYou Used To Call Me Sadnessâ and âFluorescences,â Stereolab had transformed into an elegant, orchestral pop group.With Tortoise/The Sea & Cake percussionist John McEntire in the producerâs chair for most of Dots and Loops, Stereolab were pushing the bandâs jazz, bossa nova and electronic influences deeper into the musicâs core, but tracks like the waltzing âThe Flower Called Nowhereâ and the swinging âMiss Modularâ were clearly indebted to the romantic 60s sound mined by artists such as Burt Bacharach, Wendy & Bonnie, and the Association.
So You Want To Get Into: â60s Throwback Stereolab?
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This carried on through to Cobra and Phases. âThe Spiraclesâ resembled something from the Beach Boysâ Surfâs Up; âThe Emergency Kissesâwas Stereolabâs closest attempt at yĂ©-yĂ©; and âWith Friends Like Theseâ which would have had influential French composer Jean-Claude Vannier eating his heart out. Sound Dust followed that up with the breezy soft pop of âNought More Terrific Than Manâ and the effervescent âCaptain Easychord,â a blend of cosmic country and Tijuana Brass that flips the script halfway through to channel the weird pop experiments of Joe Meek & The Blue Men.In a 2008 interview with Wired, Gane explained his fascination with music from the 60s. âFor me, [it] is amongst the most complicated or complex music because it has so many resonances that strike you. The music itself is often simple, but the way that I interpret it, or the way I think itâs interpreted culturally, is very complex.â At the time, he was promoting the bandâs final studio album, 2008âs Chemical Chords, which is arguably the bandâs clearest homage to 60s pop, thanks in part to longtime collaborator Sean OâHaganâs string arrangements. The result is a cohesive set of songs that included the Bacharach-esque bounce of âSelf Portrait with âelectric brainââ and âSilver Sands,â and the baroque elegance of the title track and âThe Ecstatic Static.âPlaylist: âCybeleâs Reverieâ / âFluorescencesâ / âMiss Modularâ / âThe Spiraclesâ / âChemical Chordsâ / âNought More Terrific Than Manâ / âThe Flower Called Nowhereâ / âYou Used To Call Me Sadnessâ / âThe Emergency Kissesâ / âLong Life Loveâ / âAlluresâ / âCaptain Easychordâ / âWith Friends Like Theseâ / âThe Ecstatic Staticâ
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