Stereolab, a band, an enigma, a left-field art institution, and you can dance to them. Instant Holograms On Metal Film, the band’s first album in 15 years makes it sound like they’ve never been away from your record emporium of choice. Some six years after they reactivated in 2019 after a ten-year hiatus, the ethos of the band remains the same. The core duo of Tim Gane and Letitia Sadler are joined the other three current band members, and by a cast of many guests (see the endless credits below) to conjure up more Anglo-French avant pop for our delectation.
All the familiar traits are here – motorik grooves, analogue synths bubbling away, impish musical switches mid-song, infectious rhythms, and of course, Sadler’s cutting social and political commentaries. Some might say she is left wing. Me, I just applaud her conscience. On first impression this album seems less obviously Krautrock than some of the earlier records, and a song like Melodie Is A Wound would not sound out of place on a recent Aksak Maboul album. I love the way it breaks down with distorted synth treatments before the toe tapping melody breaks through again, as if its spirit is indomitable.
The Gallic melancholy of Immortal Hands perhaps sees love triumphing over “Ego skyscraper, Erect and collapsible, Nihilistic and vulgar”. I wonder what that could be referring to? Hmmm…? Again we witness the musical switch after the vocal, a change that heightens the mood, Letitia’s brief wordless vocal joined by a life-affirming brass section. As with all the songs here, it is obviously composed, yet there is a freedom within these grooves. This is music (and lyrics) for the head, but also for the feet!
Electrified Teenybob! is a fast-paced churn of bubbling sequencers that is impossible to sit still to, that climbs and climbs and flies off, refusing to be anchored. Bloody marvellous it is too!
Could a song title be more Stereolab than Vermona F Transistor? Well, ok, maybe Esemplastic Creeping Eruption! In a nice touch, the former includes the backing vocals of Molly Read, the niece of Letitia’s vocal foil of earlier times, Mary Hansen, who sadly met a tragic end in a motor accident in 2002.
If You Remember I Forgot How To Dream Pt 1 is a funky little number with groovy brass interjections extolling the oneness of the universe, evolution through “quantum entangling” and “permanent revolution”, just trying to make sense of it all, all in three minutes and forty one seconds. I dare you not to shimmy to it. Colour Television, a neat takedown of bourgeois expectations reminds us that Letitia Sadler retains her philosophy, over a laid-back little number in the classic ‘Lab style.
The album ends with If You Remember I Forgot How To Dream Pt 2, reprising the theme from part one but with the funk turned down, and it is a lyrical tour de force, depicting courage in the face of adversity. But for all that, the most life-affirming lyrical take is there in one simple line from part one: “Je dis ‘non’ a la guerre”, and who in their right mind would disagree with that?
I make no comparisons to previous albums as I only have a couple of Stereolab’s extensive discography, but I think it’s better not having too many frames of reference, or for that matter, expectations. Suffice to say this is a highly enjoyable album that feeds the soul as much as the intellect. I can’t wait for the second December gig in London!
TRACK LISTING
01. Mystical Plosives (0:55)
02. Aerial Troubles (3:20)
03. Melodie Is A Wound (7:37)
04. Immortal Hands (6:25)
05. Vermona F Transistor (4:37)
06. Le Coeur Et La Force (4:21)
07. Electrified Teenybop! (4:16)
08. Transmuted Matter (4:16)
09. Esemplastic Creeping Eruption (6:04)
10. If You Remember I Forgot How To Dream Pt.1 (3:41)
11. Flashes From Everywhere (5:35)
12. Colour Television (5:33)
13. If You Remember I Forgot How To Dream Pt.2 (2:56)
Total Time – 59:37
MUSICIANS
Andy Ramsay – Drums, EMS Synthi, Wasp, Roland Jupiter 4, Electro Harmonix DRM15, Acetone, Soundmaster Latin Percussion, Watford Electronics, Vox Drum Machine, Ranger Snare Trap, TR606, Boss DR110
Laetitia Sadier – Vocals, Keyboards, Synth, Trombone, Guitar
Joe Watson – Solina Strings, Vox Jaguar, Hohner Symphonic 30N, RMI 368X Electrapiano, Roland System 100M, Korg MS20, Wurlitzer Piano, Fender Rhodes, Yamaha Portatone, EMS Synthi, Acoustic Piano, Moog Matriarch, Prophet 5, Horner Clavinet, Modular Synth, Wasp, Mellotron
Xavi Muñoz – Fender Bass VI + Precision Bass
Tim Gane – e. guitar, acoustic 12 string, Vermona Organ, Roland SH5
~ With:
Cooper Crain – Cwejman SM-1 , Korg MS20, TR 606, Roland Jupiter 4, Oberheim SEM, Roland CR8000, Mellotron , Moog Micromoog, TR 707, General Filtering
Rob Frye – Saxophone, Woodwinds, Clarinets, Flutes, Bass Clarinet, Electronics
Ben LaMar Gay – Cornet (4,5 & 10)
Ric Elsworth – Percussion, Hand Drums, Marimba, Vibraphone and Glockenspiel
Holger Zapf – Additional Electronics (4 pt.2), Ancient Dabbling & Treatments (7)
Xavi Muñoz – Backing Vocals
Marie Merlet – Backing Vocals
Joe Watson – Backing Vocals
Molly Read – Backing Vocals [Special Guest] (5)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Warp Records
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 23rd May 2025
LINKS
Stereolab – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X | Instagram
