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It's more than a little strange that a band as academic and intricate as Stereolab crafts such accessible music. Co-founders Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier have built a soft sonic foundation on enough esoteric influences and ideas to keep a musicologist busy for years, but on their sixth and most complicated album, Dots and Loops (Elektra), the lushly orchestrated layers and minimalist pop melodies amount to nothing so much as fanciful ear candy. The complex means to this likable end are even more baffling. Rather than record in a studio close to home in London, Gane, Sadier and the current lineup of Mary Hansen, Richard Harrison, Morgan Lhote and Andrew Ramsay jetted to two cities thousands of miles apart. Stereolab conducted its latest round of pop experiments in Chicago with Tortoise's John McEntire, who engineered last year's more upbeat Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and in Düsseldorf, where the six collaborated with the mechanical-sounding German duo Mouse on Mars. Hansen, a guitarist and backing vocalist who joined Stereolab in 1993 after moving to England from Australia, says working in far-off locales helped the band maintain focus. "It was more intense than when we record in London, because we live here," she said on the phone from her apartment in North London. "[In Chicago], we all stayed in the same space, in John McEntire's loft. We'd go to the studio and back to the loft and to the studio again. In Düsseldorf, we actually stayed in the studio. We had a lot more concentration than when we record in London." Although some label Stereolab's music as easy listening for the young and hip, it's evident that there's a steady, practiced hand behind each synthesized dot and roundabout loop. Whether a taut pop tune like "Miss Modular" or an 18-minute epic like "Refractions in the Plastic Pulse," the attention to detail on Dots and Loops is mind-boggling; analog synths and guitars mingle amid soothing swirls of rhythm and meticulous string and horn arrangements. The members of Stereolab proper and assorted assistants incorporate a bizarre amalgam of styles. Gane's fascination with the structuralism of '70s Krautrock bands like Neu! and Kraftwerk prevails; Paris-born vocalist and musician Sadier brings a French pop sensibility while singing variously in her native tongue and in English; McEntire introduces elements of jazz that are detectable in the vibe-laden opener "Brakhage" and elsewhere; Sean O'Hagan, who left the band a few years back to concentrate on the High Llamas but who still contributes to records, brings his knack for arranging and orchestration; and somehow the band conjures a sleek, seductive stride reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto. To add to the highfalutin nature of Stereolab, the cohabitating couple of Gane and Sadier pepper the band's lyrics with thinly veiled Marxist sentiments, though Hansen dismisses the argument that they have a political agenda. "We don't look at the band as some kind of platform to teach people what they should be thinking," she says. "It's a bit more subtle than that." Yet both in French and in English, Sadier and Hansen sing about an egalitarian society. In "Contronatura," Sadier preaches pacifism: "Don't go to war/Don't choose to go/You will not win down the cursed path of war." Whether it's the intellectual messages or Stereolab's buoyant electro-pop aesthetic, Stereolab's evolving synthesis of disparate styles has made its last few albums increasingly popular at home and abroad. Hansen says that shows in London regularly attract up to 2,000 fans, and Stereolab's current tour includes North American and Japan. Dots and Loops is earning almost as much praise as its predecessor, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which was considered Stereolab's breakthrough; so it looks as though the band's exotic music and geographic excursions will continue. With the proliferation of electronic dance music, one new door has already opened: Stereolab has enlisted remixes from techno-oriented artists. Luke Vibert offered a souped-up take on Emperor Tomato Ketchup's "Metronomic Underground," and the band shipped a raw recording of its song "Animal or Vegetable" to Nurse with Wound, which Hansen says provided fascinating results. "When we got it back, we had no idea what it was going to sound like; we didn't have an original mix. It was really great to distance ourselves from what we were doing," she says, then notes the downside: "It doesn't always work. Sometimes you get back something bad. I won't mention any names." Even with the occasional miscue, Hansen feels privileged to be part of a band that simultaneously pushes the boundaries of modern music and borrows from the past. "I don't think I would have stayed in the band as long as I have if I didn't agree with what they thought sounded nice," she says. "I really love listening, and I've had an incredible musical education in Stereolab." |
