![]() ![]() Where Peng! presented rock vocabulary as a series of noisy pop songs, Transient… takes an imaginative approach to structure and arrangement, questioning what and why a rock album can be on a broader level. ![]() These two, along with Mars Audiac Quintet to a lesser degree, are Stereolab’s only true ‘rock’ albums, and they make the most of their inclination as such. ![]() It’s also one of their loudest and most urgent outings, rivalled only by their debut Peng. While its palette is distinctly more overdriven than its many descendants', Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements is probably the clearest mapping of this convectional philosophy in Stereolab’s discography and, by happy coincidence, one of their crown jewels. Their art lies as much in forward-thinking experiments as it does in deadpan acts of deconstruction, yet it’s no simple matter to balance these variables with such consistency and in such an endearingly personable manner. Stereolab explore both acts without drawing a firm distinction in their combination sometimes they strike gold with inspired combinations of familiar sounds (their oft-trumpeted staple track “Cybele’s Reverie” is as good an example as any) sometimes they will mine their substance to exhaustion and move on only when necessary ( Peng!’s slowburning closer “Surrealchemist” comes to mind) sometimes they will come up with volatile acts of quirk that shine with fresh brilliance for every second they verge on falling apart at the seams (the jittery “Parsec” is a poster child for this). Here, 'deconstruction' does not equal 'destruction' for Stereolab, considering the way to destroy it does not constitute an act of annihilation or erasure, but rather highlights an awareness of how musical vocabulary can be dismantled and, with an appropriate act of creation, remade for the band's own purposes. To this end, the overhead citation, taken from the track “Crest” on their 1993 masterpiece Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, seemingly alludes to creation and deconstruction as two equally important parts of the same process, a perspective critical to the album's methodology. This playfulness is key to their sound, adding character to an almost scientific approach to their stylisation and composition. First it was krautrock, later it was lounge, and somewhere along the way the two supposedly turned into post-rock, but any point in their chameleonic career Stereolab be found juggling a variable handful of genres with a blend of studied focus underpinned by quirky wryness. Testament to this is the way they often seem not so much to be playing music as playing with music from album to album for them, acts of construction and deconstruction are not so much existential absolutes as much as building blocks to toy with in their ever evolving manipulation of disparate styles. Widely influential in their stylings yet comfortably precedented in their styles, Stereolab are about as innovative as a band can be without outright coining an original genre. Rarely has a standalone lyric cut to the heart of a band's craft so succinctly. If there’s been a way to build it, there'll be a way to destroy it. Review Summary: What I decide to be is what I am. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |