STEREOLAB
Radio 1 Sessions
Strange Fruit
· A metronomic princess: Mary Hansen, 1966 to 2002.
The worrying road of indie rock began, for me, with Stereolab. Flushed and unsure of whether I should buy the Stereolab album Emperor Tomato Ketchup, I probably spent an hour in that record store fretting over a decision I'd never end up regretting.
It didn't matter that my crude elementary knowledge of French left much of the record incomprehensible – I could taste the John Cage bubblegum and feel the wow and flutter rushing my reeling brain. As X and Y manipulated the audio graph, the faceted shades of vibration and hum vented outward in sensuality and style to the delight of my teenage sexual desires.
Stereolab's methodical keyboard mantras would alter your perception of time with each listen. Has this been going on for two mintues or 10? Buzz, buzz, zap, zap, whatever. It would be years until I'd care for any other sort of modulations, and even then I couldn't dawdle along having fun fun fun on the Autobahn. Tomorrow was truly already here.
Meanwhile, in a corporate music chain somewhere, a young lad/lass might be moments away from changing his/her life forever. Don’t hesitate any longer – you need this record.
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