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We're delighted to confirm what the eagle eyed among you have already spotted, Stereolab's forthcoming new album, Chemical Chords, is indeed being released by Duophonic UHF Disks / 4AD on August 19th (August 18th for those outside the US). Chemical Chords is their first album proper since 2004's Margerine Eclipse (if you discount the EP collection of 2006, Fab Four Suture) and it features thirteen songs by Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane and one solo Gane composition, as well as string and brass arrangements from Sean O'Hagan. The picture you see up top is the sleeve for the new album and the tracklisting reads like this... 1. Neon Beanbag 2. Three Women 3. One Finger Symphony 4. Chemical Chords 5. The Ecstatic Static 6. Valley Hi! 7. Silver Sands 8. Pop Molecule (Molecular Pop 1) 9. Self Portrait with "Electric Brain" 10. Nous Vous Demandons Pardon 11. Cellulose Sunshine 12. Fractal Dream Of A Thing 13. Daisy Click Clack 14. Vortical Phonotheque --------------------------- BIOGRAPHY In an admiring review of their most recent studio album, 2004's Margarine Eclipse, Spin Magazine hailed Stereolab as one of pop's 50 most influential ensembles. "No one can do beautiful, energising crossover pop like Stereolab,°± concurred The Independent, while a US writer, one Eric Greenwood, echoed the sentiments of thousands of "Lab devotees when describing the band's enduring appeal thus: "The formula has never been broken; it's only tweaked slightly with each new album, and I never want it to end.” Indeed, over fifteen prolific years of qualitatively consistent output Stereolab have accrued a vast, peerless cache of work, hallmarked by a unique, carefully evolving but instantly recognizable sonic imprimatur. In addition to over a dozen glittering LPs, their back catalogue is littered with fan-pleasing gems: limited editions, one-off collaborations, split singles et al. In the process they've galvanised an extensive, staunchly loyal international fanbase; become a byword for playful, stylish excellence; struck a blow for the feminisation of rock and booked a permanent seat at experimental pop's high table. Not bad for a group who eschew many of the established calling cards of rock careerism in favour of dedication to a singular, picturesque muse. To all intents and purposes, Stereolab continue to inhabit some hermetic parallel universe forever redolent with the innocent-yet-glamorous promise of space age futurism and timeless radical chic; their essential fluorescence blissfully unsullied by the dreary spreadsheet certainties of the modern music industry. Theirs is a rich, overflowing palette, readily able to blur the gulf between Os Mutantes and the BBC Radiophonic Orchestra; merge Krzysztof Komeda with the Velvet Underground, Francoise Hardy with Neu! and Burt Bacharach with Esquivel. A deluxe blend, in other words, with ingredients plucked assiduously from pop's coolest outposts: 50's lounge, Rive Gauche chanson, Brazilian tropicalia, North American art rock, East European film music, Krautrock. hi-fi test recordings, mood music and more. Somehow they distil these apparently incongruent components into an ageless exotica that is all their own. Their song titles alone are evocative exercises in arcane modernism: John Cage Bubblegum, Lo Boob Oscillator, Jaunty Monty And The Bubbles Of Silence, Motoroller Scalatron, Ticker-tape Of The Unconscious, Suggestion Diabolique and the like - designations that are evocative, smart, mischievous and, like the music they frame, somehow impossibly sophisticated yet beguilingly childlike. Ditto a litany of vivid, graphically alluring, naively modish record sleeves.
 

Hometown:
London 

Record Label:
4AD 

Members:
Chemical Chords Credits: Recorded and mixed at Instant Zero. Extra recording done at Press Play. Recorded by Joe Watson. Mixed by Joe Watson & The Groop. Laetitia Sadier – Vocals. Andy Ramsay – Drums And Drum Machines, Electronics. Simon Johns – Bass. Joe Watson – Keyboards, Vibes, Electronics & Occ. Drums. Tim Gane - Guitars, Bass & Occ.Drums. Joe Walters - French Horn. Plus Sean O`Hagan - String & Brass Arrangements  

Website:
http://www.stereolab.co.uk/ http://www.beggarsgroupusa.com/stereolab/ http://www.beggarsgroupusa.com/releases/Chemical-Chords/