Stereolab

Stereolab

Stereolab are an English-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group’s music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music. The band were released from their recording contract with Elektra Records due to poor record sales. After a ten-year hiatus, the band reunited for live performances in 2019.

About Stereolab in brief

Summary StereolabStereolab are an English-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group’s music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music. The band were released from their recording contract with Elektra Records due to poor record sales, and their self-owned label Duophonic signed a distribution deal with Too Pure and later Warp Records. After a ten-year hiatus, the band reunited for live performances in 2019. They are regarded among the most innovative and influential groups of the 1990s. The group’s first full-length album, Peng! was released in May 1992. The High Llamas’ leader Sean O’Hagan was a member from 1993 to 1994 and continued appearing on later records for occasional guest appearances. The early material was rock and guitar-oriented; of Super-Electric, Jason Ankeny wrote in AllMusic that \”Droning guitars, skeletal rhythms, and pop hooks—not vintage synths and pointillist melodies—were their calling cards …’’ The band’s name was taken from a division of Vanguard Records demonstrating hi-fi effects, and they released the 10-inch vinyl EP Super 45 in 1991. The first of many customised and limited-edition Duophonics records. Stereolabs have never had a significant commercial impact, but were influential enough to spark a renewed interest in older analogue instruments, and to be dubbed ‘post-rock’ by some critics.

They have released three albums, the most recent of which is Peng! (1992). The band has released two EPs and a single, Stunning Debut Album, followed in November 1991. They also released a compilation titled, Switched On, in October 1992 and would be part of a series of compilations anthologise the band’s more obscure material. In a 1996 interview in The Wire, Gane said that by releasing one’s own music \”you learn; it creates more music, more ideas\”. The band have released two albums, Super-electric (1991) and Peng! ( 1992), and have released one more, Stunning Album (1993), which was released on the independent label Too Pure. In the early 1990s, the line-up consisted of Gane, Sadier plus guitarist Mary Hansen, drummer Andy Ramsay, keyboardist Duncan Brown, and keyboardist Katharine Hansen, born in Australia. Gane has been in touch with Gane since his McCarthy days, and had been invited in for a tour by the band. The two were romantically involved for fourteen years and are the group’s only consistent members. After the early 90s, StereOLab was introduced to Sean O’Hagan, who had recently formed the band High Lloras, who was then invited in to tour with them.