Stereolab: Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements (2LP) [DUOPHONIC]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 2LP set was pressed in the EU for Duophonic and Warp. It was the first full Stereolab album with Mary Hansen and Andy Ramsay, and it reached No. 62 on the UK Albums Chart.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Remastered
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

The cover looks like a hi-fi test record because it more or less is one: Stereolab adapted the sleeve of a 1969 test LP from Hi-Fi Sound magazine, then sampled the record itself on "Jenny Ondioline." It tells you plenty about the band, who liked their pop songs with a side of laboratory equipment.

Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier lean harder on distortion, feedback and droning organ here than anywhere else, while Hansen's backing vocals and Ramsay's motorik drumming lock it all together. "Jenny Ondioline" takes up a whole side and earns every groove of it, "Pack Yr Romantic Mind" borrows from Strangers in the Night, and "I'm Going Out of My Way" nods to One Note Samba. Phil Wright produced and engineered.

On vinyl, "Lock-Groove Lullaby" ends in a locked groove looping a phrase from Perrey and Kingsley, so the record will happily play forever. We recommend getting up eventually, ideally to flip back to side A.

Also at Kops: more Stereolab on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Duophonic / Warp (cat# D-UHF-D02RT), a reissue of the 1993 album.