Join us for a PERSPECTIVES Artist Talk with Tim Gane, Laetitia Sadier, and Joe Watson of Stereolab ahead of their evening show at The Orange Peel. The band will discuss their performance practice and how the legacy of Black Mountain College \u2013 including the work of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor \u2013 informs their experimental approach. This conversation will highlight connections to the upcoming exhibition Points in Space: Performance at Black Mountain College and how BMC\u2019s radical, interdisciplinary spirit continues to influence Stereolab\u2019s artistic vision.<\/p>\n
About Stereolab:<\/p>\n
With their hypnotic rhythms and mesmerizing vocals, Stereolab became one of indie\u2019s most distinctive and influential bands when they emerged in the early \u201990s. Led by Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier, the group celebrated strands of pop music \u2014 bossa nova, lounge-pop, movie soundtracks \u2014 that were traditionally banished from rock\u2019s lineage.<\/p>\n
On early singles and albums such as 1993\u2019s Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements, Stereolab combined \u201960s pop melodies with an art rock aesthetic borrowed from Krautrock bands like Faust and Neu!; by the time of 1996\u2019s Emperor Tomato Ketchup, their sound incorporated jazz, hip-hop, and dance music.<\/p>\n
Their work with John McEntire and Jim O\u2019Rourke on 1997\u2019s Dots and Loops and 2001\u2019s Sound-Dust reflected an increasingly intricate, experimental approach, but following the 2002 death of member Mary Hansen, they eventually returned to a poppier style on albums like 2008\u2019s Chemical Chords. Stereolab\u2019s unmistakable sound had a lasting impact: Contemporaries like Pavement and Blur aped their style in the \u201990s, while hip-hop artists such as J Dilla and Tyler the Creator sampled the band\u2019s music or collaborated with its members in the 2000s and 2010s. Late in that decade and into the 2020s, Stereolab\u2019s revival as a touring band and a steady stream of reissues underscored their reputation as innovators.<\/p>\n
Tim Gane (born July 12, 1964; guitar, keyboards) was the leader of McCarthy, a London-based band from the late \u201980s that functioned as a prototype for Stereolab\u2019s sound. Gane met Laetitia Sadier (born May 6, 1968; vocals, keyboards), a French-born vocalist, at one of McCarthy\u2018s concerts. The pair began a romantic relationship that became a musical collaboration after McCarthy disbanded in 1990; Sadier sang on the final McCarthy album. The duo began recording as Stereolab, borrowing the name from Vanguard Records\u2018 hi-fi effects division in the \u201950s. Gane and Sadier also formed the label Duophonic Records with manager Martin Pike to release their singles. Stereolab\u2019s first year of existence was prolific: The debut EP Super 45 arrived in May 1991, followed quickly by the Super-Electric EP that September and the Stunning Debut Album EP that November. At that point, the group were working with Th\u2019 Faith Healers drummer Joe Dilworth and former Chills bassist Martin Kean; Gina Morris occasionally provided backup vocals.<\/p>\n
Too Pure released the band\u2019s first full-length, Peng!, in May 1992, and the EP compilation Switched On in October. As with all of the group\u2019s releases from this era, both albums featured the visual trademark of a maniacally grinning cartoon taken from a \u201970s Swiss political comic (which the band named \u201cCliff\u201d). That year, Stereolab also issued the Lo-Fi EP and added keyboardist\/vocalist Mary Hansen and drummer Andy Ramsay to the fold.
\nReleased in early 1993, Stereolab\u2019s The Groop Played \u201cSpace Age Bachelor Pad Music\u201d EP featured the core group of Gane, Sadier, Hansen, and Ramsay, along with ex-Microdisney guitarist Sean O\u2019Hagan and bassist Duncan Brown. One of the first \u201990s alternative records to explicitly draw from the \u201cSpace Age\u201d lounge-pop music of the \u201950s, The Groop became an underground sensation, paving the way toward Stereolab\u2019s first American record contract with Elektra Records. Their next album, and first American release, was Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements. Released in August 1993, it became an underground and college hit throughout the U.S. and U.K. They followed it that October with Crumb Duck, a split EP with Nurse with Wound. Early the following year, the Jenny Ondioline EP became Stereolab\u2019s first charting release when it entered the U.K. Singles chart at number 75.<\/p>\n
Stereolab soon became a hip name to drop for many musicians, including Sonic Youth, Pavement, and Blur, who had Laetitia Sadier provide guest vocals on their 1994 hit single \u201cTo the End.\u201d Where Transient was dominated by a lo-fi experimentalism, the group\u2019s sound became lusher and more layered with Mars Audiac Quintet, which was released in August 1994. O\u2019Hagan moved from a full member to a part-time guest during the recording of the album \u2014 he was busy forming his own band, the High Llamas \u2014 and the group added keyboardist Katherine Gifford. By the time of Mars Audiac Quintet\u2019s release, Stereolab\u2019s style was prominent throughout the underground, and the band began to change their approach. Created for an interactive art exhibit by Charles Long, the limited-edition 1995 EP Music for the Amorphous Body Center boasted detailed, intricate string and vocal arrangements that were more sophisticated than the group\u2019s previous releases. That July, the band issued their second rarities compilation, Refried Ectoplasm, which was released on Drag City in the U.S.
\nBefore Stereolab recorded a new album, Gifford was replaced by Morgane Lhote. Featuring contributions from Tortoise\u2018s John McEntire, 1996\u2019s Emperor Tomato Ketchup was an even bigger departure from the band\u2019s early drone rock, demonstrating a heavy hip-hop, jazz, and dance influence. It was Stereolab\u2019s greatest success to date, earning positive reviews in both the U.S. and U.K. and becoming a significant college hit in the process. After the recording of Emperor Tomato Ketchup, bassist Duncan Brown was replaced by Richard Harrison. That year, the band worked with Herbie Mann on \u201cOne Note Samba\/Surfboard,\u201d which appeared on the Red Hot Organization\u2019s AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio. At the end of 1996, Stereolab released the limited-edition, horn-driven Fluorescences EP. For their next album, Dots and Loops, the band reunited with McEntire and recruited Mouse on Mars\u2018 Jan St. Werner; after its September 1997 release, it peaked at number 111 on the Billboard 200 chart. Another Nurse with Wound collaboration, Simple Headphone Mind, appeared that year, and singer\/poet Brigitte Fontaine joined Stereolab on the 1998 single \u201cCalimero,\u201d which featured the debut of Sadier\u2018s other project Monade on its B-side. Aluminum Tunes, the group\u2019s third rarities collection, appeared in October 1998.<\/p>\n
After taking time off from touring following the birth of Gane and Sadier\u2018s first child, Stereolab resurfaced in 1999 with the intricate Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, which featured production by McEntire and Jim O\u2019Rourke. An EP, The First of the Microbe Hunters, quickly followed in 2000. Their seventh full-length, 2001\u2019s Sound-Dust, reunited the band with O\u2019Rourke and McEntire and took a more melodic approach. In 2002, Sadier and Gane ended their relationship, but Stereolab continued. The collection ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions arrived that October, just a few months before Hansen died at the age of 36 when the bicycle she was riding was hit by a truck in December 2002. Following Hansen\u2019s death, the group soldiered on, releasing The Instant 0 in the Universe EP in October 2003 and the full-length Margerine Eclipse \u2014 a tribute to Hansen \u2014 in January 2004. After Elektra Records folded later in 2004, Stereolab returned to Too Pure, which released a series of six limited-edition singles collected on 2006\u2019s Fab Four Suture. The group re-teamed with producer\/arranger Sean O\u2019Hagan for 2008\u2019s Chemical Chords, a collection of short, poppy songs released by 4AD.<\/p>\n
Following their Australian tour in February 2009, Stereolab went on an indefinite hiatus. Not Music, a collection of material recorded during the Chemical Chords sessions, arrived in 2010. Subsequently, Gane formed the kosmische-inspired trio Cavern of Anti-Matter, which also featured former Stereolab drummer Joe Dilworth. Sadier pursued several projects, including solo albums and the groups Little Tornados and the Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble. In 2019, Stereolab ended their hiatus to play a series of concerts and festivals that coincided with deluxe reissues of their albums, beginning with Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements and Mars Audiac Quintet that May. Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Dots and Loops, and Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night followed that September, and Sound-Dust and Margerine Eclipse appeared that November. Electrically Possessed: Switched On, Vol. 4 arrived in February 2021 and collected singles, B-sides, and rarities from 1999 to 2008, including the entirety of The First of the Microbe Hunters.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Gane, Sadier, and Stereolab manager Martin Pike revived Duophonic Super 45s with the first full-lengths released by the label in over 20 years: Ghost Power, the self-titled album from the duo of Gane and Dymaxion\u2019s Jeremy Novak, appeared that April, as did Flickering i, the debut album from Astrel K, the solo project of Ulrika Spacek\u2018s Rhys Edwards. Sadier contributed vocals to the Japanese doom rock duo BlackLab\u2018s August 2022 album In a Bizarre Dream, and that September saw the release of Pulse of the Early Brain: Switched On, Vol. 5, which gathered rarities and remastered tracks spanning the early \u201990s to the Chemical Chords era and featured collaborations with Nurse with Wound and remixes by Autechre. Around the time of the collection\u2019s release, Stereolab embarked on a world tour. In March 2024, the box set Switched On, Vols. 1-5 gathered all of the band\u2019s singles and rarities collections. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Heather Phares, Rovi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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