Chemical Burns

Stereolab Tweaks Signature Sound on New Record

originally published September 24, 2008

Eleven albums into its career, Stereolab is still tweaking its signature sound. While Chemical Chords, Stereolab’s 4AD debut, maintains the group’s tried-and-true formula of lounge-pop meets Krautrock, the grooves on the new record are a little more pop-focused, direct and concentrated. For a group consistent almost to a fault, the change is noticeable and, as it turns out, intentional.

Tim Gane, Stereolab’s mastermind since its inception in the early '90s, says that while the group made a conscious decision to write concise songs, “it wasn’t the intention necessarily to make a more ‘poppy’ record. And in fact," says, Gane, “I don't think it is particularly more ‘poppy.’ Actually, I think some of the songs run contrary to pop logic.”

To be fair, some of the songs on Chemical Chords are dense offerings that use traditional pop song architecture as a jumping off point for other musical pastures.

In the Stereolab canon, Chemical Chords stands strongly. After Stereolab released its first record, Peng!, in 1992, it quickly became the band whose name you wanted to drop at parties. Stereolab was hip and new and foreign (three of the most important traits a new artist can posses in the minds of most hipsters). With French vocals and danceable rhythms, Stereolab sounded like a digital and more formulaic (not in a bad way) version of the Talking Heads.

Gane says the group first realized its international popularity when it ventured from England - where the various international members of Stereolab first had communed - to America.

“[We] had record labels buzzing around us and a lot of musicians and bands saying they liked us - hip and famous people coming to the concerts, etc.,” says Gane. “Before that I never thought our ideas would travel very far and that we were a distinct minority taste.”

Indeed, one would think that the sundry styles of music that Stereolab seamlessly combined into its own sound would prove unmarketable. Some of Stereolab’s influences were styles of music that hadn’t been popular in America for decades, if ever. However, the group succeeded in combining bossa nova, pop and Krautrock without ever sinking to the level of kitsch.

“My musical tastes have always been at the fringe,” says Gane. “My first introduction to music was the post-punk and new wave. I moved into the electronic noise cassette scene at the turn of the decade, as well as the experimental/electronic/minimalist scene. I decided to form a group that combined these earlier influences with my latter ‘pop’ ones. I was interested in repetitive minimalist rock in combination with naïve melodies and harmonies. There were other groups trying similar things, but I felt like Stereolab didn’t sound quite like anything else at the time.”

Part of Stereolab’s initial and enduring success has to do with the Gane’s own artistic biases.

“I always liked collage, the Dada-ist type in the beginning, which I suppose are now quite obvious influences,” says Gane, “but as a teenager then they opened my eyes to so many new interpretations on how to look at something, and this definitely leaked into how I began to look at music. I also began to like animation films, and I remember thinking I wanted to make music that looped around like that and did similar things to the mind.”

Stereolab’s unique style of looping melodies and looping vocals has been co-opted or straight-up cribbed by a variety of bands. Post-rock bands like Tortoise owe a debt of homage to Stereolab (and interestingly, Tortoise’s resident genius John McEntire plays on and has produced multiple Stereolab records).

Another aspect of Stereolab’s appeal was the uniqueness of its twin female vocalists, Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen. The duo's sing-song and playful lyrics - sung in French - helped define the group’s sound. However, in December 2002, Hansen was tragically killed when a truck hit the bicycle she was riding. The process of mourning the loss of their friend was difficult for the members of Stereolab.

“I don’t know how we adjusted,” says Gane. “After a time we just carried on. We took one step at a time and did the thing that seemed most natural to do. I didn’t want any falseness about the situation and no melodrama, just to have honest feelings and take it as it comes. We are, of course, thrown into many situations and locations where we naturally think of Mary, sometimes this is sad and sometimes a good laugh thinking about all the silly things.”

Gane and the remaining members of Stereolab still have some tricks up their sleeves, and though perhaps the band no longer is as relevant as it once was in terms of pushing boundaries, its music is still smart and eminently listenable. However, Gane has no plan to vastly overhaul Stereolab’s signature sound, partly because he doesn’t plan that far into the future.

“I don't have a master plan,” says Gane, “and I am only thinking about the present. I prefer to run into ideas spontaneously, at the time, so to speak, and it would be a bit depressing to have everything all mapped out.”

As for Stereolab’s live shows, the hypnotic music translates well to a live setting. Despite Gane’s penchant for strange art, his shows are not stylized affairs. Rather, they are constructed to offer fans a true glimpse of the musicians who have created such a stellar catalogue of music.

“Our shows are the complete opposite to that,” says Gane. “I am totally influenced by Throbbing Gristle in that you should be exactly the same onstage or off, otherwise everything becomes too much cabaret.”

John Seay

WHO: Atlas Sound, Stereolab
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Saturday, September 27
HOW MUCH: $15 (Advance)