Stereolab - Escape Pod (From The World Of Medical Observations)

In the world of the 1990's, it was probably hard to imagine anything that wasn't rock and roll piercing your eardrums, hip-hop branching out from it's roots and re-emerging as modern R&B, or indie rock going from the garage to the stadium. Stereolab was a breath of fresh air -- a modern evolution of Esquivelian experiments, Krautrock meanderings, odes to heroes like Burt Bacharach, John Cage and Andre Popp that generated galleries of individualized audible art fueled by revolutionary Marxist lyrics (frequently in French) repeated through melodic, hypnotic vocals. Buried within their clever electronique French spy pop has always been a design, tousled like so many locks of hair at the beauty salon, shorn away and falling gently on the shoulders of music's current cutting-edge giants, none of whom could collapse Stereolab's legacy. Stereolab discovered a way to make it cool for people to enjoy electronic technologies of music that had been deemed obsolete or no longer relevant, finding ways to incorporate them into their music and giving them an entirely new life.

Impressive both in quantity and quality of music, Stereolab's newest 3 CD + 1 DVD box set retrospective, Oscillons From The Anti-Sun is a worthwhile look backwards at fourteen years of prolific musical subterfuge crafted from the hands of band members Laetitia Sadier, Tim Gane, Morgane Lhote, Andrew Ramsay, Duncan Brown and the late Mary Hansen. It is an ideal collection both for fans and for those who have never experienced Stereolab. Whatever your curiosity level, this is a reverentially well-rounded referential on the band covering well-known and rare tracks from the band's singles and from hard-to-find Duophonic EP's. It is filled with music suitable for long drives, short walks, good reads, or just listening to learn what has made Stereolab a consistent object of affection and attention. Or, if you should happen to be in the mood to watch some Stereolab, the bonus DVD contains a series of videos and television performances from over the years.

Stereolab is working on a new album due out in 2006, but this will certainly give you something to talk to your friends about until then. Be sure and grab this early, as the initial pressing will also contain 8 stickers of each original EP's artwork.

BONUS TRACKS:

Miss Modular
Ping Pong (Single Version)