Expansive, eclectic, catchy, clever futurist-retro experimental electro-pop? Yes it’s the first studio LP for 15 years by the now veteran band formed by Laetitia Sadier and Tim, Gane, here with significant instrumental skills by Joe Watson and production by Cooper Crain. “The numbing is not working any more / An unfillable hole, an insatiable state of consumption (systemic) / assigned trajectory (extortion)”, are the first, and not untypical lyrics sung by Sadler, along with backing singer Marie Merlet, that welcome us on the instantly toe-tapping Aerial Troubles (following rippling 55-second synth intro Mystical Plosives), and that title comes from Gane reading random articles from a copy of Australian Hi-Fi magazine 1970 that was lying around his studio. It’s these sort of evocative, if abstract titles (including that of the album itself) that are familiar territory for Stereolab, such as here Vermona F Transistor, Esemplastic Creeping Eruption, or Transmuted Matter. And while there are obscured meanings to be discerned here, such as If You Remember I Forgot How To Dream Pt 1, which Sadler says is about rebalancing the yin and yang in a male dominated world, the joy of this album is the array of inventive, perky sounds and krautrocky momentum throughout, some tracks going through various pace-changing phases with those key elements of yé-yé and loungey, easy listening. Melodie Is A Wound is a multi-sectioned classic, winding up through a series of rising key changes, Immortal Hands leaps out of a serene melody in a galloping synth and drum beats and arpeggios in a funky riff, Vermona F Transistor is classic nostalgia Stereolab (“I”m a creator of this reality”), half sung in French, with added brass, as is the noirish sci-fi sound of Le Coeur Et La Force. Perhaps the most instantly fun is Electrified Teenybob! which is a kind of bubblegum fast, synthy krautrock. Transmuted Matter has fabulous funk-jazz bass lines, and Flashes From Everywhere has a haunting woodwind element. An hour of stylish nostalgic fusion of past and future, wrapped in fabulous tunes and original twists. Great to have them back. Out on Warp Records.
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