Staff Reviews

Stereolab - Not Music

Review by Jon Falcone

Through all this beauty, rhythmic intricacy and European cinema influenced strangeness, there is nothing here that screams out differently from Stereolab's output of the last decade. »

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500 copies only rough trade exclusive clear vinyl version. 'not music' is stereolab's twelfth album and is released during the band's self - imposed hiatus from recording and touring. the tracks that make up 'not music' were recorded in early 2007 - half of the recordings from the session would be released in august 2008 as 'chemical chords' - stereolab's eleventh album! about the recordings - tim gane started messing with 'a series of about seventy tiny drum loops' on top of improvised chord sequences using piano and vibraphone. "building them up from there - later slowing the tracks down or speeding them up - a totally new way of doing songs for us". with typical prolificacy, the band laboured over the summer at their studio, instant zero (in bordeaux, france), helping transform these blueprints into 32 luminous new songs, with keyboardist / technician joe watson manning the mixing desk. the album features two remixes by atlas sound and emperor machine. 'not music' is released via stereolab's own imprint - duophonic uhf disks for the world excluding north america / canada, where drag city will be handling the release.
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