|
diversions
Stereolab keeps
roots
By Alex Roman
On-line Forty-Niner
People who love
music sometimes choose to listen to bands or types of music
that leave their friends and neighbors scratching their heads.
There is nothing more entertaining for these audiophiles than
throwing in one of their favorite compact discs for their
friends and seeing that look on their face that asks, "What
the hell is this?"
Stereolab is one of those types of bands, and their latest
"Sound-Dust" is one of those types of CDs.
Do not be fooled though. "Sound-Dust" is not completely
inaccessible. In fact it is as most Stereolab albums have
been - a musical trip through various sounds and grooves.
And it is both entertaining and therapeutic: Entertaining,
because of its ability to switch grooves, tempos and sounds
more adeptly than any electronic artist on the market; therapeutic
because the steadily changing flow transports you away to
another place.
On "Sound-Dust," Stereolab, which consists of core
members Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier, introduce a brand of
music that draws on familiar sounds from their past melding
them into one big bag of sound.
Horns, woodwinds and drums dance and crash together into one
lush mind-altering sound as Sadier's vocals dance atop it
all the way Nico's vocals did when she was part of the Velvet
Underground.
In fact, Stereolab reaches musical nirvana on songs like "Baby
Lulu" and "Double Rocker," as their sounds
soothe and drift, crash and drip through the speakers, jumping
from melodic lounge styles to funky danceable grooves.
However, the flow of the album may be the most impressive
of all.
While it is surely easy for a band to make one masterpiece
of sound that is great for one song, to keep an entire 12-track,
63-minute plus CD, coherent and lucid is an accomplishment
shared only by bands like Sonic Youth or artists like John
Cage.
Although the sounds and tempos are constantly shifting the
deftness at which it is being created is not.
When "Sound-Dust"
is all over it is amazing to sit and ponder what just happened
to you and how it is that this band was able to throw together
such a cornucopia of sound without losing sense of who they
were or what they were doing.
But this is what Stereolab has been doing for years and "Sound-Dust"
is just another example of the beautiful music people can
make when they still consider themselves artists and not entertainers.
|
|
Photo Courtesy Deidre O'Callaghan/Elektra Records
Stereolab, from left, Tim Gane, Mary Hansen,
Laetitia Sadier, and Simon Johns.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Search our site
DEPARTMENT
OF
JOURNALISM
ONLINE 49ER
DEPARTMENTS
ADVERTISING
ADMINISTRATION
DAILY
49ER ALUMNI
SUBSCRIPTION
SERVICE
GIVE
FEEDBACK
|
