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Nov 28, 2018 Web Exclusive By Dom Gourlay

By the summer of 1995, the musical landscape had changed considerably, and so too had Stereolab‘s line up. While founders Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane remained at the forefront of the operation, band members came and went at regular intervals. What this ensured was the band’s constantly evolving sound continued to develop at an even faster rate of knots, so while many of their contemporaries wallowed in Britpop nostalgia, Stereolab pushed the envelope even further.

Consisting of 13 tracks recorded over a two-year period during 1992 and 1993 and freshly remastered and reissued on clear vinyl, Refried Ectoplasm documents the next step of an ever-expansive journey into the musical unknown. The two collaborations here with Nurse In Wound make particularly interesting listening. “Exploding Head Movie” follows the motorik driven mantra exercised by “French Disko” (also included here and still arguably their most instantly recognized three and a half minutes) whereas “Animal Or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason)” embarks on all kinds of twists and turns which must have sounded alien in a Gallagher dominated era when this compilation initially came out.

By this point, Stereolab existed in a world of their own, which at times they struggled to keep pace with. (www.stereolab.ochre.store)

Author rating: 9/10