Stereolab: Instant Holograms On Metal Film (Duophonic UHF / Warp)

The one Nineties British group of their contemporaries could agree on liking (even Noel Gallagher was a fan), Anglo-French expermiental art pop project Stereolab have seen their reputation has grow steadily since their initial demise in 2010.

Reforming in 2019, the ‘Lab’s influence is detectable from Wet Leg to Le Volume Courbe making Instant Holograms On Metal Film an ideal opportunity to kick off their second era.

Thirty-five years since their formation, their Space Age Bachelor Pad Music template: vintage keyboards, Kosmiche motorik pulse, bossanova elements, and Lætitia Sadier’s unmistakable vocals is in rude health on their tenth LP.

Previewed by one of their finest singles Aerial Troubles, a perfect distillation of their sound, two of the strongest cuts Le Coeur Et La Force and Transmuted Matter revolve around funk inspired basslines, the former embellished with ascending woodwind curlicues.

The band’s fondness for song titles that refer to various bits of musical kit: Vermona F Transistor (a synth, like ancestor Jenny Ondioline) and bizarre juxtapositions: the wonderful Esemplastic Creeping Eruption, (defined by the OED as “moulding into one; unifying”), are much in evidence.

The band's tendancy to wander off into ten minute plus experiments, sometimes twice on the same LP have been curtailed this time around. Filing down the spikier tendencies of their early works, the pattering, brass assisted Immortal Hands and pastoral stroll Flashes From Everywhere are among the prettiest missives ever issued by the outfit. The Groop done well. 4/5