Details
Track Listing
1. Outer Bongolia
2. Intervals
3. Barock-Plastik - (French)
4. Nomos et Phusis
5. I Feel the Air (Of Another Planet)
6. Household Names
7. Retrograde Mirror Form
| Details | | Contributing artists: | Sean O'Hagan | | Distributor: | WEA (Distributor) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
This is an Enhanced audio CD which contains regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Stereolab: Letitia Sadler, Tim Gane, Mary Harsen, Andy Ramsey, Morgane Lhote, Simon Johns.
Additional personnel: Sean O'Hagen.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Although THE FIRST OF THE MICROBE HUNTERS was described by the band and promoted by Elektra Records as an EP, this seven-track release runs over 40 minutes, as long or longer than many band's full-length efforts. This proves the effortlessness with which Stereolab creates their trademark blend of hypnotic Latin and German rhythms, urgent post-punk guitar attack, and chilly synth drones, topped with Laetitia Sadier's alluring bilingual croon and heady lyrics. THE FIRST OF THE MICROBE HUNTERS is centered on a pair of epic tunes, "Outer Bongolia" and "I Feel the Air (Of Another Planet)," that run nearly 20 minutes between them. But the remaining five tracks are equally compelling, most notably the floaty "Intervals." Much like 1993's essential THE GROOP PLAYED SPACE AGE BATCHELOR (sic) PAD MUSIC, this EP is as enjoyable as any of Stereolab's longer albums.
Industry Reviews
4 stars out of 5 - ...Sees their elevated brand of tuneful bleeps, bloodless harmonizing and motorik beats sculpted into the most luxuriant shapes yet....[an] aura of doleful sophistication pervades...
Q (07/01/2000)
7 out of 10 - ...Palatable...it eases up on the rigorous deconstructivist tendencies...taking a cue from the carefree effervescence typical of recent live encounters....Always different, always the same...
NME (06/03/2000)
4 stars out of 5 - ...Indecipherable, Marxist-Situationist lyrics, funkily motorik grooves, samba-friendly shakers, sweetly cooing vocal harmonies, the hum and gurgle of museum-bound synths, the strum and glide of a thousand gently stroked guitars...
Melody Maker (06/13/2000)
...The embodiment of [their] happy insularity: strait-laced pop music is shown the door by Krautesque repetition, but the 'Lab's fondness for Latin exotica pushes the music well clear of egghead tedium...
Mojo (07/01/2000)
...Simple, yet exotic fusion of cool Krautrock, suave French guitar-pop and luxurious lounge that made the group's mid-'90s offerings such cult classics...
CMJ (05/22/2000)
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