Serene Velocity - A Stereolab Anthology

Love Stereolab, have done since Jenny Ondioline, and like many Stereolab fans, have bought nearly everything they've released (except for the odd limited edition single).

Thankfully, Stereolab always pop up every few years with a brilliant Switched On compilation that mops up all those harder to get tracks.

Then came Oscillons From The Anti-Sun, which although may have been slightly intimidating for the newcomer was precisely the sort of treatment Stereolab needed. 3 career spanning discs mapping a selection of singles, album track and b-sides.

This compilation then is a bit of an anomaly. It can't really be called a singles collection (where's John Cage Bubblegum, Super Electric?), it's not really a definitive "best of" (where's Pack Yr Romantic Mind, The Noise Of Carpet and countless other tracks), it can't even be called an album or career overview seeing as it doesn't include any tracks from Peng, Space Age Batchelor Pad Music, Music from the Amorphous Body Study Center, The First of The Microbe Hunters or this year's Fab Four Suture.

BUT maybe this really is not for the Stereolab fan. There's no denying the quality of the tracks on this compilation at all, French Disko is still is visceral and thrilling as it always was and I deny anyone to listen to Ping Pong without grinning, so for the newcomer it would make a handy one-CD catch all for how much Stereolab have developed over their 15 year career.

So four stars for a newbie (because you're missing some very good tracks and I would hold out for Oscillons to go on sale and pick that up instead), but for your average Stereolab fan there's no need to pick this up other than to save you the trouble of compiling it yourself.

Time for another retrospective reappraisal of one of the best bands of the last 20 years methinks. I have done this purely because they have just issued their latest [final?] album, the rather negatively-titled 'Not Music' which is effectively the remaining unreleased tracks that formed the sessions for their 2008 album 'Chemical Chords'.

Much as I absolutely ADORE the mighty Stereolab, there hasn't yet been a truly definitive 2CD resume of their best highlights yet. True, there have been the absolutely essential 'Switched On' series of compilations which have collected together the singles, oddments, unreleased tracks, split 7"s, demos and alternative mixes that make up their vast [yes, really!] catalogue, and of course the 3CD/1DVD box set from a few years back 'Oscillons In The Anti-Sun' which is an overview of a big chunk of their output pre-2002 (the year that they tragically lost second singer Mary Hansen, which resulted in the band having to rethink their strategy and change tack, having lost such a hugely important member of their line up), but so far nothing resembling a 'best of' or indeed 'greatest hits' collection.

Of course, such notions are completely irrelevant: Stereolab did not have any 'real' hits as such.... 1994's ace single 'Ping Pong' was the closest they came - a giddying rush of space-age pop euphoria, undoubtedly the most perfectly precise 3 minute song anyone could hear that year, which reached number 44 (pretty respectable all told as it was playlisted on Radio 1 as well!) and probably the ONLY pop single ever to hit the top 50 in the 90s with lyrics about wars and its effect on the changing fortunes of the economy....

This remastered 16-tracker is merely a brief summary of the vast back catalogue they issued between 1991 and 2001 - ten years of Anglo-Franco/Krautrock grooves, Neu!-tastic two chord mantras, droning moog-pop, swinging hipster beatnik-lounge and all manner of sumptuous gorgeousness that have made Stereolab one of our best loved institutions, who inspired whole hordes of other similarly-inclined analogue enthusiasts to go scurrying around antique emporiums hunting down those elusive vintage Farfisa or Revox organs to form their own esoteric sci-fi pop ventures.

Needless to say, to do Stereolab's music any justice at all, it's a far better proposition to simply compile one's OWN best-of compilations. As a result, this CD is more of a 'primer' than an 'anthology' - of benefit mainly for those who have not got any of their recordings at all and would like to discover their catalogue for the first time. So if you are one of those people, then this is a great place to start.

If, however, like myself, you already have these recordings, and prefer to compile your own and then luxuriate, then the following non-chronological 2CD running order - focusing on their most melodic tracks - is what I recently managed to come up with (based entirely on my personal choices but with the intention of introducing the band's music to new listeners who might appreciate them).

CD1
1. Pop Quiz
2. U.H.F. - MFP
3. Laisser-Faire
4. Pack Yr Romantic Mind
5. Cybele's Reverie
6. Ping Pong
7. The Extension Trip
8. Fluorescences
9. Spark Plug
10. I'm Going Out Of My Way
11. Cosmic Country Noir
12. Baby Lulu
13. Jaunty Monty And The Bubbles Of Silence
14. People Do It All The Time
15. Allures
16. John Cage Bubblegum
17. Monstre Sacre
18. Spacemoth

CD2
1. French Disko
2. Percolator
3. ...sudden stars...
4. Double Rocker
5. You Used To Call Me Sadness
6. Vonal Declosion
7. The Spiracles
8. Infinity Girl
9. The Noise Of Carpet
10. One Small Step
11. How To Play Your Internal Organs Overnight
12. International Colouring Contest
13. The Flower Called Nowhere
14. Naught More Terrific Than Man
15. Our Trinitone Blast
16. Margerine Rock
17. Slow Fast Hazel
18. Metronomic Underground

That's 36 brilliant tunes from one brilliant band. So come on all you pop pickers, it's time to celebrate the godlike genius of Stereolab by compiling your own 'best of's - once you have bought all of their albums that is.....!!

Stereolab are a long-time leftfield favourite that seem to have drifted in and out of critical favour during their prolific recording life. Somewhat derisively referred to as an "art-school" band at stages in their career, they mine a similar, but less abrasive, territory to Broadcast: psychedelic retro pop flavoured with hypnotic medodies and chugging krautrock rhythms. At times it comes across as rather heavy on style and low on substance, the detached vocal style - often in French - recalls the icy conceit of Nico. But while there isn't much to engage with emotionally in their songs, the Stereolab aesthetic is a very particular and beguiling one. It is easy to become lost in their kalaedoscopic lullabye grooves which are redolent of acid trip sequences in forgotten late-60s films. That is not to say that their sound has remained unchanged throughout, but this anthology shows that while the mood has largely stayed intact, they have continued to embrace new sonic concerns, from the shoegaze of the early period to flirtations with acid-jazziness and freak folk whimsy.

As a layman, I'm not qualified to comment on whether this compilation best represents their output, any band with a die-hard following tend to provoke controversy with this type of release. However, if you are looking for a place to start - as the sheer size of Stereolab's back catalogue makes it rather difficult to know where to begin - you can't do much wrong with this. I suspect that Broadcast's more industrial take on this antiquated-keyboard-retro-futurist-pop schtick is a little more purposeful than Stereolab's - the reliance on prettiness can be wearying. But there's no denying Stereolab's enduring influence in modern music, and one can't help admire their resolve to keep refining their vision while fickle musical trends have come and gone. If you like Stereolab, you might also like Broadcast (especially 2003's 'Ha Ha Sound'), Blonde Redhead's '23', Lali Puna or Asobi Seksu.