Stereolab - 'Fab Four Suture' (Too Pure) Released 06/03/06

Fuck the term “post rock”. Stereolab is future music that tips it hat to the past. And while the future seems to be looking more and more ravaged with war, death, disease, pollution, Big Brother, global warming, and quite possibly an impending nuclear apocalypse, its nice to know that Stereolab has and is still churning out tunes which make us feel like the we’re all going to be sitting in a nice luxury lounge in outer space one day and sipping martini’s. With Stereolabs own signature hybrid of melodic sixties sugar pop, sweet harmonies and Krautrock guile, Fab Four Suture is an effort of limited edition EP’s from the past year tacked together on a single disc. While not as groundbreaking as any of their previous efforts, it is still solid as well as remaining essential for the most avid of fans.

It should be noted however that the disc’s opener ('Kybernetika Babika Pt.1') and closer ('Kybernetika Babika Pt.2') serve as bookends and are quite headache inducing. But no sweat because it eventfully segues into the ultra lounge-laden, chic vibe of 'Interlock', a nugget of retro space pop and a really kitschy breakdown on the Moog. While the instrumental deliverance is fairly good Tim Gane’s sedated croon is the perfect element of which remains next to Laetitia Sadier’s harmonies which sound and drizzle like honey as they both sing like they are floating on a cloud throughout the tracks.

'Plastic Mile' is a twinkling array of zig zagging soprano chants as Stereolab travels into all sorts of scenarios be it a high speed car chase jam that crashes into a Parisian disco ('Excursions into the Oh-A-Oh') or a party on the ocean floor with the Snorkels ('I Was a Sunny Rainphase'). 'Fab Four Suture' may not have that unique “feel” of a typical studio album from Stereolab but in the midst of it’s duration it’s nice to get some clarification that the future won’t be as Orwellian as it seems (even though it kind of will be).