STEREOLAB – Chemical Chords

Stereolab have played around with pop for nearly twenty years, and Chemical Chords is the latest result of their tinkering. The tracks are short, sharp and intensely colourful episodes that marry love and science. Simple drum loops are a platform for decadent 60s harmony that moves in highly unpredictable directions. Lounge music tracks like ‘The Ecstatic Static’ and ‘Self Portrait with Electric Brain’, complete with strings, saxes and brass, are equalised by grittier offerings like ‘Pop Molecule’. For the most part, Chemical Chords maintains an amazing vividness and buoyancy.

STEREOLAB – Chemical Chords
Inertia/Duophonic
4/5

by Hugh Milligan