STEREOLAB - Sound-dust

After the not-always-convincing results of their last three albums, in which they'd seemed trapped in a musical formula as pleasant as it had become formulaic, Stereolab return to inventing new sounds and harmonies with "Sound-Dust", the album that crowns a decade-long career devoted to experimenting with pop, rock and electronics. Tim Gane's band's new record sounds far less repetitive than its predecessors and, on the whole, darker and more decadent, helped along by the contribution of a sound wizard like Jim O'Rourke and John McEntire of Tortoise. "For this anniversary we treated ourselves to another exploration," Gane explained. "We wanted to try every kind of sound, to be more sophisticated. The instinct of the moment led us towards music that was melodic, soft, impressionistic." A rediscovered state of grace also confirmed by the British band's brilliant live performances on their recent Italian tour.

The new climate is perceptible right from the start, with the tense, austere overture of "Black Ants In Sound Dust", a minimalist, entirely instrumental piece. Laetitia Sadier's beguiling singsong resurfaces starting with the second track, "Spacemoth", with a sort of funeral march led by the sound of trumpets and a faint melody, underpinned by obsessive percussion and stylistic variations in pure minimalist technique. "Captain Easychord" unwinds around a piano sonata, Jim O'Rourke's slide guitar and celestial choirs with vocal interweavings reminiscent of Enya. The pace tightens on "The Black Arts", carried by a dance beat and a colorful carpet of keyboards.

The closing "Les Bon Bons des Raisons" is a summa of this new style, as austere as it is richly arranged. The recycling of lounge and pop themes from the Sixties resurfaces here and there, in tracks like "Baby Lulu" and "Hallucinex". But one gets the impression that, with the "sound-dust" of these twelve tracks, Stereolab are grafting new variations onto their traditional sonic cocktail, one that blends an art-rock streak borrowed from Velvet Underground and kraut-rock, French pop melodies of the Sixties, early experiments with the Moog, and new wave. A formula that has yielded them genuine masterpieces, such as "Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcement" or "Emperor Tomato Ketchup", but one that had started to feel a bit worn out on their most recent efforts.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

25/10/2006