Stereolab
‘Not Music’
(Duophonic UHF Disks)

Recorded in their Bordeaux studio in 2007 at the same time as the songs that formed their 2008 album, ‘Chemical Chords’, Stereolab’s twelfth studio album, continues the French band’s twenty year love affair with making experimental, twee, indiepop. There’s the computeresque lounge instrumental ‘Equivalences’, the sunny tinklings of ‘Delugeoisie’ and the angular, spiky, robotic indie-funk whimsy of ‘Sun Demon’ which changes tempo wantonly, as Stereolab songs are prone to do. Certainly, this is not an album of background music – there’s so much going on that, even when listening intently, it’s impossible to take it all in. That can make it a frustrating listen at times, but it’s one that Stereolab fans will undoubtedly relish. Others may just struggle a little.

Mischa Pearlman