Chemical Chords

Performer: Stereolab
Engineer: Joe Watson...
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Stereolab: Laetitia Sadier (vocals); Tim Gane (guitar, guitars, bass guitar, drums); Joe Walters (French horn); Joe Watson (keyboards, vibraphone, drums, electronics); Simon Johns (bass guitar); Andy Ramsay (drums, drum machine, electronics). Personnel: Sean O'Hagan (strings, brass); Marcus Holdaway, Laura Melhuish, Brian G. Wright , Sally Herbert, Brian Wright (strings); Dave Liddell, Dave Liddell, Steve Hamilton (brass). Audio Mixer: Joe Watson. Recording information: Instant Zero (2007); Press Play (2007). Stereolab are as experimental as ever on this, their eleventh album and first for 4AD. This time around, the sometimes obtuse group has decided to craft short pop songs, built around several series of drum loops and improvised puddles of vibraphones and keyboard. Most bands working from a base of improvisation would be content to sprawl and stretch; it's a testament to Stereolab's professionalism that they go from messy blueprints to a tight end product full of vibrant, sophisticated melodies. Darkness haunts some of the details, like the trip-hop of "One Finger Symphony" and "Nous Vous Demandons Pardon," which recalls COBRA AND PHASES. For the most part however, CHEMICAL CHORDS is a sunny affair. "Neon Beanbag" opens the album with a bouncy beat and a harpsichord, which resurfaces throughout, notably on "Vortical Phonotheque." Sean O'Hagan's brass arrangements give bounce to the effervescent "Silver Sands" and "Three Women," one of the tracks with French-sung lyrics from Laetitia Sadier. The highlight is the title track--it brims with vintage synths and shoegazery atmospherics, and is as excellent or better than anything in their extensive catalog.

Spin (p.111) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he summery results shine with unexpected passion that heats up even Laetitia Sadier's impenetrable bilingual cool." The Wire (p.55) - "CHEMICAL CHORDS is unmistakable Stereolab: audible throughout is the familiar oscillation of bandleader Tim Gane's pop sensibility between a streamlined minimalism on the one hand and a fascination with baroque detailing on the other....There is fresh skip in its step." Q (Magazine) (p.112) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he brass flourishes on 'Three Women' and 'The Ecstatic Static,' Laetitia Sadier's hypnotically sing-song vocals and the succinct, sweet 'Valley Hi!' show there's still much to admire." Blender (Magazine) (p.84) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[E]ndearing hints of '60s pop glow faintly beneath the frictionless surfaces of Gane's loops, chirps and austerely percolating rhythms." Paste (magazine) (p.72) - "[T]he same core elements that initially characterized Stereolab -- an unrequited love of Krautrock, lunge, cheesy '60s pop and 'space age bachelor pad music,' combined with lyrics embracing Marxist politics and Situationist themes -- are still very much present in its output." URB (Magazine) (p.88) - "Maintaining a pop-baroque signature...Gane's Burt Bacharach on mescaline ear for composition and Sadier's subdued French-wrapped vocals remain in a class by themselves."

This British-French outfit started out in the early 1990s, with a sound that incorporated French-chanteuse vocals, primitive electronics, and Velvet Underground-meets-Neu chugging rhythm. Over the years, they refined their approach immensely, with echoes of sophisticated '60s pop, Steve Reich/Philip Glass-like minimalism, and increasingly more accomplished use of synthesizers. With the help of pals like Gastr Del Sol's Jim O'Rourke and High Llamas mainman Tim O'Hagan, they crafted classic albums that rank among the finest productions of the '90s. In 2002, band member Mary Hansen was killed in a tragic accident, but the group decided to soldier on.

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