The new album from Stereo Total, Ah! Quel Cinema!, out tomorrow on Tapete Records, sounds simultaneously like the previous near-dozen from the band, and utterly different. And while there's lots here that has the retro charms of earlier records, there's a newer, rougher edge to the tunes of Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring this time around.
"Ich Bin Cool" is primitive jive, while "Cinemascope" mixes a flash of a Gainsbourg-like orchestral figure in with the insistent melody. The tune is both lovely and eerie, and, really, rarely do other bands achieve this level of that sort of thing. "Methedrine" has a similar kind of appeal, while the buzzing "My Idol" sounds a very tiny bit like both Bis and early Stereolab. I think decades ago it would have been fair to compare some of the tunes of these two to those of Laetitia and crew, but now it feels lazy. Stereo Total are in their own orbit, for the most part, mixing elements of Eurotrash pop up with hints of Brill Buidling stuff, and all wrapped up in a delicious lo-fi stew. And while the electro-pop of "Dancing with a Memory" succeeds, far better is "La Spleen", a Suicide-like stroll through society's underbelly. So much of Ah! Quel Cinema! works precisely because even the most astute of listeners would have a hard time pinning down each point of inspiration that the duo drew from, even thought I tried up above.
Ah! Quel Cinema! is out tomorrow via Tapete Records.
More details on Stereo Total via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Paul Cabine]