May 15, 2002
Stereolab: Switched On
CD, Too Pure/Duophonic 1992
Track list: Super-Electric - Doubt - Au Grand Jour' - The Way Will Be Opening - Brittle - Contact - Au Grand Jour - High Expectation - The Light That Will Cease To Fail - Changer
After reading an article about post rock from a Finnish music magazine and listening to one mp3 song ("French Disko"), I expected this one to be good. I wasn't disappointed. Stereolab is very close to Neu!, they have the very same motor-like, should I say Teutonic beat in their music. It's not made by machines, it's made by humans but it emulates a machine. Still, Stereolab is very organic. There's the machine beat and a damn fine groove created by drums, guitars, bass and analog synths and on top of that, very beautiful and soft female voices singing. I don't know how this could be any better. *****
Six months later:
I'm taking one star of the initial review. Stereolab didn't seduce me as thoroughly as I perhaps thought it would. I haven't listened to it much, but that's also because I've been busy being interested in other things (jazz in the summer, black metal lately). But some of it has to do with the fact that the tracks just didn't make a strong impression on me - the music is good, but none of the tracks leave an impression, so I don't listen to the album much. If there were a real killer track I absolutely love, I bet I would listen to the album more. ****