Buy Now
Chemical Chords
(more) »rank: 8502by: Stereolab
:Album Description:Being released by the iconic legendary label 4AD, Chemical Chords is a collection of purposefully short, dense, fast pop songs, according to Gane, brimming with Motown-like drums, O'Hagan's finest baroque-pop brass and string arrangements and etched with some of Sadier's most eloquent, mellifluous vocal performances to date, it is, nonetheless, classic Stereolab; like all their best work, a perfect equipoise between an implausibly cool past and a shamelessly exotic future. The eleventh album in an illustrious career, Chemical Chords began life in early-2007 when Tim Gane started messing with a series of about seventy tiny drum loops on top of improvised chord ...
Buy Now
Emperor Tomato Ketchup
(more) »rank: 12570by: Stereolab
: essential recording:You want retro? Get a load of their equipment, from the vintage Farfisa and Vox organs to the ever-lovable Moog synthesizers. You want futurist? It's the sound of not-so-well-oiled machinery, churning and sputtering into space age bachelor pad heaven and postindustrial hell. You want pure pop? Dig how they mine mod sounds of the '60s, from Burt Bacharach to Françoise Hardy, and pull melodies straight out of a bubblegum wrapper. You want avant garde? Check the blatant liftings from '70s krautrockers Neu! and Can, plus their appropriations of Philip Glass's disjointed wordplay and Ornette Coleman's jagged alto sax. You want meaning? ...
Buy Now
Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements
(more) »rank: 77351by: Stereolab
: essential recording:On Stereolab's first proper American full-length, the group skillfully dissects past musical genres and recombines them in their own Dr. Moreau-like sonic laboratory-garage. The recording is among Stereolab's least labored, most groove-oriented efforts. There are experiments like the French-pop-flavored 'Pack Yr Romantic Mind,' but it's mostly a lovely, loud, decadent '90s rock record. The song titles reference obscure equipment, the sounds are made with arcane instruments, the repetitive guitar work is directly lifted from Michael Rother, and the cover image pledges devotion to vinyl (the musical obscurantist's medium of choice), but somehow the band never comes off as snobbish. Stereolab's music ...
Buy Now
Dots and Loops
(more) »rank: 12421by: Stereolab
: :The raw artiness and German rock influences heard on this U.K. sextet's landmark Transient Random-Noise Bursts (1993) have been distilled into a smooth sour-mash cocktail here. As with sister act The High Llamas, there's a buoyant '60s whimsy to these tracks, recorded in Chicago (with Tortoise's John McEntire), Düsseldorf and elsewhere. Laetitia Sadier has refined her Françoise Hardy routine, and Tim Gane marshals his vintage synths to fine effect on 'Prisoner of Mars' and 'The Flower Called Nowhere.' --Jeff Bateman
Buy Now
Sound-Dust
(more) »rank: 51778by: Stereolab
: :On their 12th release, art-pop act Stereolab float deeper into the post-rock atmosphere. They still draw from Ennio Morricone and Henry Mancini when creating their own fantasy soundtracks, but Sound-Dust lacks the dynamic interplay that invigorated Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night. The disc is all easy-listening lounge that's almost too gentle on the ears. There are no urgent sonic experiments, and only three tracks really spark to life: 'Spacemoth,' 'Captain Easychord,' and the Kubrick-inspired 'Gus and the Mynah Bird.' 'Easychord' is the catchiest song on the album, containing the CD's most ebullient melody-emitting, warped, country-twanged notes. Beyond that, ...
Buy Now
Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night
(more) »rank: 13314by: Stereolab
: 's Best of 1999:Like Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys, Stereolab have always acted as cultural ambassadors (enthusiastically turning folks on to neglected artists and sounds) as much as a band of their own. On this gorgeous disc the group spice up their sonic soup with jazz, creating complex songs that are spot-on terrific and remind the listener of no other band in the world. --Mike McGonigal Amazon.com:On this bemusingly titled album, Stereolab toss around small chunks of music as catchy and irresistable as anything they've ever recorded. The warm Moog synth that leads off 'Infinity Girl' or the horns that burst out ...
Buy Now
Refried Ectoplasm: Switched On, Vol. 2
(more) »rank: 124982by: Stereolab
: essential recording:In proximity to all their gloriously conceptualized full-length albums, Refried Ectoplasm is surely an odd one, a motley collection of singles and rare tracks, each a miniature by a band whose career has been built on experiments that typically took a whole CD to flesh out. Refried, though, far exceeds the totality of its parts. The singles are distinct, and so not terribly obvious as cogs in a machine, but they're also almost flawless. Stereolab's keyboard colors are all over the place, lighting up 'Lo Boob Oscillator,' and Laetitia Sadier's droney, airy vocals seem ever in contrast to the music. A ...
Buy Now
Serene Velocity: A Stereolab Anthology
(more) »rank: 108668by: Stereolab
:Album Description:This newly-compiled collection explores the many-splendored sounds of Stereolab's career from their formation in London in 1991, through rising out of the underground, to becoming one of the most influential rock bands of the '90s.
Buy Now
The Groop Played 'Space Age Bachelor Pad Music'
(more) »rank: 134805by: Stereolab
: :The Groop Played Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, an odd and hypnotic mini-album, represents the point where Stereolab ceased to be simply another ultrahip London band. Their twin influences, Neu!-style trance-rock and easy-listening pop, still hadn't quite fused by this point, existing side-by-side rather than coalescing, but the whole thing sounds smooth and assured, with the charm and confidence of a group well aware they've hit on the kind of good idea that'll last them for years. They made better records than Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, but this is where it really began, and it has a freshness and life of its own. --Taylor ...
Buy Now
Mars Audiac Quintet
(more) »rank: 72899by: Stereolab
:Album Details:Japanese Budget Reissue Containing Bonus Tracks. :Think of a sober B-52s taking their inspiration from Brian Eno and the German synth pioneers of the '70s, and you'll have a sense of this English sextet's sound. --Jeff Bateman
