Stereolab --- Aluminum Tunes 2xCD

Up until late 1996 or so, Stereolab was one of those bands that put out consistently good records. Marxist minimalist pop-culturists. Oh yeah. Those were the days. Now they seem to be more concerned with where in Chicago they are going to eat with John McEntire. Dots and Loops ? Ummm, more like Jumping Trends and Ruining A Good Thing. Not that I dislike musical evolution, but it should be a natural progression, not "Wow, Jim O'Rourke seems to have his name on a lot of things, lets see if he'll do something for us". But get to the point, right? Well, most of the material on this collection of obscenely- rare B-sides and out-takes (their third, but I'm sure you already know that, you urban hipster you) pre-dates their transformation. The best tracks are flawless and/or perfect, the worst tracks are failed-experiments. Yet even the failed experiments aren't bad. The best disc is the first: samba to a psych re-mix of "Metronomic Underground" and everything in between. But the best song is the last song on the second CD: "One Small Step", a really upbeat ditty about nuclear annihilation that sounds what I imagine the third VU record would've sounded like if Nico was involved. Oh, and if you buy this, pick up the Japanese vinyl version (free stickers!!)- the CD version has the worst cardboard case imaginable

(Duphonic Super-High Frequency Discs, distributed in the US by Drag City, P.O. Box 476867 Chicago, Illinois 60647)

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Michael Keegan
2.3.1999