Stereolab’s almost break-up not so bad thanks to “Not Music”

“Indefinite hiatus” is a word everyone hates, universally. It’s the overture to breaking up, the “we should take it slow for now” of relationships, television and music and when Stereolab said those exact same words in 2009, everyone started fretting. Regardless of whether they are truly calling it quits or just putting a bluff, the band was “kind” enough to launch a new record as a way of saying “let’s still be friends” in an attempt to calm down us weeping fans, and it kinda works, kinda.

 Not Music is certainly a misleading name.

The Londoners and laid back lounge rockers extraordinaires Stereolab released “Not Music”, a package of unreleased songs from their 2007 album “Chemical Chords” recording sessions, Tuesday on Duophonic Records. This maybe farewell gift by the ensemble is just a little more than an anthology of esoterica by the group; it’s a whirling ditty of pop grooves and robotic rhythms.

“Everybody’s Weird Except Me” kicks off the album, a sing-sung piece pulsing with synth leads, chiming harpsichord and Tim Gane’s  guitar leads alternating with Laetitia Sadier’s entrancing and warbling croons, all of which ride upon the subtle pound of a background piano and ultra-tight mechanical drumming. What follows is an hour-long rendezvous of classic Stereolab tunes: vibrant yet relaxed, seemingly simple yet laden with the soft nuances of a pop aesthetic.

 “So Is Cardboard Clouds” is a lofty electric piece of a tasty driving nature bubbled by analog flutters that hypnotize and ensnare and their “Sun Demon” mixes in the wavering of static with frenetic sunshine melodies but it’s still unafraid of being a playful imp with the clashing of teeny-tiny internal movements. 

The band has not strayed off from their catchy, yet loose, sound which has made them a favorite among long haired listeners and which this album has remained faithful to it like Lassie is to someone stuck between a rock and a hard place. The only qualm with this replication of sound is that it is not as aurally challenging as it was in the past: surprisingly, the bossa nova rhythms found in other classic albums such as “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” and “Dots and Loops” is surprisingly toned down and made transparent (with the exception of the track “Equivalences” which is as close as the album gets to anything south of the Tropic of Capricorn) and the mangy fuzz-drenched crunch is also tamed (“Pop Molecules” getting a little bit out of the clean sounding safe-space and breaking out the feedback, but in small doses) , which might leave some fans with somewhat of a bland taste in their mouths because the vivacity of the band relied on the decadence and excess of noise and pop melody, combined with the “motorik” beats of the krautrockers of yesteryear.

Besides that, Stereolab manages to merge the cold mechanical buzz and crank of drum loops and synthesized instrumentation with the warm reception of traditional rock orchestration with a couple of interesting endeavors. “Delugeoisie” is charmer with its Steve Reich like vicious vibraphone overture to a dreamy and shimmering passage with a tinge of a muzak filtered keyboard. “Silver Sands” (mixed by pysch-rockers Emperor Machine) is one of the pieces that jumps out and sticks: a 10-minute piece buoyant with Kraftwerk heavy analog programming and super-tight percussions juggling and gravitating between NEU! Riffs and 8-bit funk, that will have everyone stomping their feet like a British disco. The album’s closer “Neon Beanbag” (off “Chemical Chords”, remixed by Atlas Sound) is the apt closer, remembering the band’s days of wilder noise and sweet drones through an 8 minute mammoth of recurring beats.

“Not Music” is certainly an album, or at least feels more like a full-fledged record rather than a collection of B-sides, and though it isn’t as visceral as their previous releases the Stereolab magic still resides on the little things, the million myriad collection of sounds and details that give each song a wider depth and sonic palette than merely just, “Oh, you know, that Stereolab song”. Hopefully, “Not Music” shouldn’t be their farewell gift, because it doesn’t feel like the bang they deserve, this albums feels more like the “until next time” record. But for now, this album pleases, and we have to take whatever we can get.