| · The veteran band’s first new music since 2001’s Sound-Dust and the accidental death of singer-guitarist Mary Hansen late last year.
Repetitive. Predictable. Long past its usefulness, if ever it was useful. None of which are criticisms directed toward Stereolab, but rather the chorus of detractors and lapsed admirers who insist that the durable British "groop" has been furrowing an identical path since it began 12 years ago.
Stereolab easily engenders such misunderstanding. Much like Cocteau Twins or The Fall – fellow British post-punk iconoclasts who exist(ed) at a deliberate remove from virtually everything around them – Stereolab’s core sound is an elastic, subtle, ever-evolving body that demands attention and patience. Those who make the effort to listen closely have been rewarded with some of the most consistently beautiful and inventive music of the past decade (the sonic layers of 1997’s Dots and Loops are being peeled back to this day). In the wider world, such virtues mean the band risks being taken for granted. But who could ever take their place if they decided to stop?
So, Instant 0 In The Universe is either more of the same, or another small but dazzling step in one of the most unique careers in modern music. Yes, you probably know what it sounds like, and yet you don’t at all.
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