Stereolab walks fine line between art and noise

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Stereolab frontwoman Laetitia Sadier dedicated the song "Interlock" to "all of the people with wet feet" during Tuesday night's sold-out performance at the Music Box in Hollywood.

But after 17 songs and 90 minutes with the experimental U.K. outfit, it would have been nice to see the band display more warmth and make more of an effort to differentiate itself from the cold rain falling outside the venue.

Amid a din of unbridled artistry and unrelenting noise, the musical anarchy of Stereolab's performance offered a night of avant-garde escapism with one meddlesome hitch: The path of escape was never quite clear, and the destination never came into focus.

If ambition were a fault, it would be too easy to blame Sadier, longtime collaborator and guitarist Tim Gane and their two keyboardists, two guitarists and drummer for their inability to see a musical progression through to fruition. Save for a few presong comments that were as flat as the frontwoman's occasional dance moves, Stereolab barely acknowledged the crowd, let alone one that seemed so eager to bask in every clashing note. The night's resounding challenge proved to be the band's ability to navigate the choppy waters of musical experimentation without succumbing to overindulgent instrumental puffery.

There were fleeting moments of success, but the performance ultimately collapsed under the weight of the evening's shortcomings. "Need to Be" swung to life with deep brass that bridged adventurous jazz heights with retro-pop and lounge feels. "Excursions Into 'Oh, A-oh,"' one of seven tracks from the new release "Fab Four Suture," was introduced as a disco song and provided one of the night's more fulfilling endeavors, with meandering sound effects and eerily fascinating keyboards exorcised atop a steady, repetitive backbeat.

The new album unravels with a mellow and enchanting demeanor, but the live offerings too often fell victim to breakneck pacing and the divergent, renegade paths of the onstage musicians. "I Feel the Air (Of Another Planet)" never seemed to graduate from the rolling prelude that opens the track, and "Whisper Pitch" reached such manic heights that the instrumentation seemingly flailed against itself, bludgeoning the senses in the process. The closing trio of "Cybele's Reverie," "U.H.F. - MFP" and "The Noise of Carpet" proved the set's most successful compositions, finding the perfect marriage of Stereolab's live sense of adventure and the recorded warmth of their music.

Unfortunately, it proved to be too little, too late as Stereolab's visit to Los Angeles was marked by too much experimentation and not enough of the finely crafted artistry that has defined the band's history as true innovators of alternative music.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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