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A FEW STEPS MORE
(Too Pure/Beggars)
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No, Stereolab haven’t called it quits, though after losing the integral presence and la-la-la vocals of Mary Hansen in December 2002, when she was killed by a car while riding her bicycle, one could hardly blame them. Instead, the prolific collective (a "groop," as they like to put it) have retrenched. As a memorial to Hansen, they’ve followed up the reissue of 1992’s Switched On (Too Pure/Beggars) by compiling a three-CD/one-DVD box set — Oscillons from the Anti-Sun — that collects material from eight EPs released between 1992 and 2001 and rare television and video footage. As if that weren’t enough space-age bachelor padding to keep fans occupied, their other integral voice, founding member Laetitia Sadier, has been busy with Monade, a very Stereolabbish side project whose second CD distills the bubbly pop, melodic drone, and Bacharachian touches of the band’s most accessible material into a dozen mostly French-sung soundscapes full of all the analog keyboard chordings, chiming guitars, and slow-building crescendi you’d expect from Stereolab. No disrespect to Sadier or the groop’s other founder, guitarist Tim Gane, but A Few Steps More could have been a new Stereolab disc. And I mean that as a compliment. (Monade headline this Wednesday, May 18, with the Zincs at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square; call 617-492-BEAR.)
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