Stereolab Overdose

Margerine Eclipse

I was supposed to be seeing Stereolab at the Albert Hall tonight, but they've had to postpone due to ill health, so I'm at home listening to latter day classic Margerine Eclipse - one of their finest, but most overlooked albums.

It demands your full attention and has a slightly bonkers sound thanks to it being recorded in "Dual-Mono", which sends your head into a spin and makes concentrating on anything else almost impossible -  I had to write this post twice as I managed to somehow delete my initial one. This is the first spin the album has had since I upgraded my turntable cartridge and it sounds even more intense and immersive than I recall.

Margerine Eclipse was the first Stereolab album since Mary Hansen was killed in a cycling accident. It's a fitting tribute and touchingly signs off with the inner sleeve message "we will love you till the end". This still makes me a bit sad.

Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements

My favourite album by Stereolab, one of my favourite bands. It brings together the band's love of krautrock, 60s garage and easy listening, whilst striking the perfect balance between experimentation, repetition, melody and marxism (probably) - managing to be both derivative and innovative.

It's also housed in one of my favourite record covers, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the band like to wear their influences on their record sleeves too - I picked this up from King Bee Records today, "Hi Fi Sound Stereo Test Record" from 1974.

Even the track names (or "tests" as the album calls them) could be Stereolab titles. my favourite being side one, test 2: "Lateral modulation for determination of tracking pressure in conjunction with bias correction".

Lovely.