For those who have fallen into the Stereolab orbit, there is no getting out. Their music rewards obsession in a way that very few bands manage, each listen revealing a new layer of interplay between the grooves, the politics and the sheer melodic pleasure of what Laetitia Sadier, Tim Gane and their revolving cast of collaborators put on tape across thirty years or so of activity.
Which is why, when Ben Cardew spent three years speaking to over fifty people from the Stereolab universe for his book Space Age Batchelor Pad Music: The Story Of Stereolab In 20 Songs, he found himself with more to say. What follows is a companion piece of sorts: five deep cuts that sit largely outside the book’s twenty songs. Think of it as the bonus tracks no one asked for but everyone needed.
One Note Samba / Surfboard (with Herbie Mann)
By 1997 Stereolab had entirely transcended their London indie roots. “Emperor Tomato Ketchup”, the band’s fourth album, was a monster of interlocking grooves, like Can on Cubase, while 1997’s “Dots and Loops” saw the band wholeheartedly embrace the head-spinning possibilities of electronic production.
As if to really prove it, though, they appeared on the 1997 compilation album “Red Hot + Rio” alongside such resolutely un-indie names as George Michael, Mad Professor and Gilberto Gil, covering two songs by legendary Brazilian musician Antônio Carlos Jobim in the company of jazz flute maestro, Herbie Mann. Follow that, Th’ Faith Healers!
Of course, all this would mean nothing was the two-song medley of “One Note Samba / Surfboard” not perfectly realised, taking Stereolab’s latent Brazilian influences and running them right into the band’s ability with a rolling groove, as Herbie Mann lets loose over the top.
Refractions In The Plastic Pulse [Feebate Mix]
The handful of remixes of Stereolab songs are, on the whole, pretty inessential. The exception to his is Autechre’s Feebate mix of “Refractions In The Plastic Pulse”, originally released in 1998 on the Japanese 12 inch and CD of Miss Modular, which takes one of the band’s most far-out, ambitious songs, a 17-minute, multi-tiered epic, and puts it through the Autechre wringer.
What comes out is twisted, tangled and tied up – but still noticeably Stereolab beneath it all, a ghostly guitar line and elegiac vocal drifting along underneath a drum track cut up for maximum unsettling intensity. Autechre’s remix works so well because it feels like something Stereolab could, perhaps, have come up with by themselves, given the right circumstances, only for Autechre to give them a short cut into the electronic orbit.
Margerine Rock
“Margerine Rock”, from Stereolab’s eight studio album “Margerine Eclipse”, is a perfect example of the band’s gift for innovation worn lightly. Listen carefully and you can hear the band’s “dual mono” innovation, with a subtly different recording in each channel of the mix. Lean back, though, and you’re faced with what sounds like a perfectly relaxed and totally joyous indie rock track with an air of Slade’s glam boogie and a brilliantly realised melody.
What makes it all the more amazing is that this song, which pulsates with light and life, came out of one of the most difficult periods for the band, after much-loved co-vocalist Mary Hansen died in 2002 and Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier’s romantic relationship ended. How is it possible to even think of something as heroically breezy as “Margerine Rock” in these circumstances? Let alone to put it on tape? That’s the magic of Stereolab.
Spool of Collusion
For some people, Stereolab have a slightly dour reputation: Marxist drone stars obsessed with dusty jazz and political upheaval. Which is kind of true – apart from the Marxist bit, which they have always denied. But they are also an absolute riot of fun when they want to be, with a slightly silly edge and a strange sense of humour.
Witness, for example, “Spool of Collusion”, originally released as a iTunes Store bonus track on their far from universally loved ninth studio album “Chemical Chords”. Doesn’t sound that promising, right? But the song is one of the band’s most vibrant and alive pieces of work, sat somewhere in between De La Soul’s sunshine grooves, the groovy power of the Austin Powers soundtrack and the slivering sadness of Laetitia Sadier’s vocal line.
Fed Up With Your Job
Stereolab’s return to new music following their 2019 reunion has been a Slowdive / Suede-esque success (as opposed to a Happy Mondays-ish nosedive) and it continued with the release of “Fed Up With Your Job / Constant And Uniform Movement Unknown”, a double A side single that was released in September 2025 as the band embarked on a huge American tour.
“Fed Up With Your Job” – which I’ve seen both adorned with and bereft of a question mark – is the pick of the two. I imagine it was left off “Instant Holograms On Metal Film”, the band’s comeback album, for just being a bit too similar to that record’s “Esemplastic Creeping Eruption” – the keyboard intros are so similar they might have even started off as the same tune – although I actually prefer it to “Esemplastic…” with a garage-rock-leaning guitar fuzz chorus and an ecstatically twinkling mid section that reminds me a little of The Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much”. Perfectly Stereolab, as ever.
Further information
Space Age Batchelor Pad Music: The Story Of Stereolab In 20 Songs
