Stereolab

Stereolab? In the Brixton Windmill? But that’s tiny!

But it turns out to be to their credit - you know how, if you’ve been to the Windmill before, the sound’s a bit ropey and the acts are occasionally a little… mid-table? Well, when things like this happen, it makes you utterly grateful for its weird, pokey, hard-to-find-ness. When energy’s up in this venue, it becomes one of the capital’s favourites. Stereolab are here to perform a few new songs and a lot of old songs, and it’s an absolute honour to witness. Every homespun nook and cranny of this most perennial of pioneers is in sharp focus and close-up.

They shamble up on stage, minus singer Laetitia Sadier, who is still struggling with two pints in her hands like a weedy bloke trying to get past the rugby players at the student union… charming stuff… but when she finally ends up on stage it’s like slipping on a velvet jumper. Her authority is welcome and still surprising, dealing with the crowd by turns with humour and pithy knowing (“guess which song is next?” she continually asks, often lying about the answers). Throughout the night, her vocals are impeccable. Her time in her other band, Monade, has clearly given her vocals a new prominence and enhanced confidence, often being the sole point of melodic focus in the more kraut-influenced moments. Oddly, DiS’s +1 reckons he can see Monade’s bass player bobbing around down the front. Heart-warming!

It takes a minute to realise that we’re listening to songs from one of the most influential albums of the 1990s in this tiny, tiny venue, but the nimble bass leaps of ‘Percolator’ from Emperor Tomato Ketchup are still sublime and hilariously laidback given their technical ridiculousness. Similarly, imagine hearing their biggest numbers - ‘Ping Pong’ and ‘French Disko’ - in a venue as cramped as this, with a hundred people pressed up against your arms and back. It’s a special kind of feeling, like watching Jesus turn water into wine in Costcutters. Newer tunes from their forthcoming album fit delicately into place, not too fussy, no flab, simple enough to sing along with and get a handle on but still completely watertight in arrangement and execution, yes. But the new tunes aren’t so important as the experience of hearing such a wealth of pop invention being dealt by six excellent and clearly divinely happy musicians. Though there are obvious problems in the band’s past that have been widely discussed and possibly exaggerated, they appear effortless and becoming throughout.

Those old songs, they come thick and fast. If, like this reviewer, you’ve never seen Stereolab in your life and have waited reasonably patiently until they’ve toured near enough to your current dwelling, then you want nothing but the best material from their back catalogue. ‘Lo Boob Oscillator’ (hit!) ‘Three Women’ (hit!), ‘John Cage Bubblegum’ (hit!) and, best of all, an encore of ‘Cybele’s Reverie’ (monster hit!) all ensure that, purist fan or not, we’ve had a delightful evening. Ending the night with a particularly exploratory version of ‘Stomach Worm’ from Peng! (my personal favourite amongst their records), it truly is a complete victory. The new album will be predictably excellent, their festival slots will rule and the following tour of the US will be a typically accomplished affair. If not, see you in Costcutters while the beardy guy waves his hands over the Evian.

Photo: Annette Lee