Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements (Limited Clear Vinyl)

Stereolab: Laetitia Sadier (vocals, guitar, Vox organ, Moog synthesizer, tambourine); Mary Hansen (vocals, guitar, tambourine); Tim Gane (guitar, Vox organ, Moog synthesizer, percussion); Sean O'Hagan (guitar, Vox & Farfisa organs); Duncan Brown (guitar, bass, background vocals); Andy Ramsay (bazouki, Vox organ, percussion). Recorded at Blackwing Studios, London, England in May, 1993. Stereolab's brilliantly-titled third album is the first fully-realized example of the band's unique vision that combined the mechanical rhythms of early-'70s krautrock and the lush romantic flourishes of '60s soft pop in the Astrud Gilberto/Dionne Warwick tradition. To this mix the band added the relentless drones and political fixations of late-'80s British indie guitar bands such as McCarthy (Stereolab leaders Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier's first band) and the gorgeous textures of vintage analogue synthesizers. Packaged in a perfect reproduction of the sleeve of an early-'60s hi-fi test disc, complete with technical liner notes, TRANSIENT RANDOM-NOISE BURSTS WITH ANNOUNCEMENTS follows one wonderful track with another, culminating in the astonishing 18-minute "Jenny Ondioline," an obsessive explorations of all the sonic and melodic possibilities of one chord, overlaid with creamy Beach Boys-style harmonies and Sadier's melodic trill. The song, like the rest of the album, is a definitive moment in '90s indiepop.