About this item

Mars Audiac Quintet saw Stereolab beginning to shed their experimental tendencies in favor of a post-modern space-age pop. The album exudes a sophisticated cool and catchiness that helped them gain new fans while straddling the line between their experimental-rock brethren and the ascending class of premillennial British pop. It’s also the album that put them on the A-list of underground rock bands. Arguably the band’s most accessible album, Mars Audiac

Quintet not only features gentler textures than any of its predecessors, but also more upbeat and hooky songs such as “Ping Pong” (the first Stereolab song to receive widespread video and alt radio airplay) and “L’Enfer Des Formes,” not to mention groove-dominated tracks like “Outer Accelerator” and “Transona Five.” The album is layered with a sensual and beguiling vibe, bringing the allure of lead vocalist Laetitia Sadier to the forefront. The hints of exotica and lounge music on Transient Random-Noise Burst With Announcements are now fully explored on the mellow, marimba-driven album closer “Fiery Yellow” (featuring major contributions from The High Llamas’ Sean O’Hagan). The bubblegum pop of “Wow and Flutter” exhibits the earliest example of the band’s Krautrock stylings being overpowered by an ingratiating melody. Mars Audiac Quintet is one of Stereolab’s most complete attempts at bridging experimental rock and retro-pop. Future releases were at times more cerebral or more poppy, but rarely again were the two simultaneously so perfectly realized.

This new edition utilises the same remasters as the 2019 expanded album edition, cut from the original 1/2" tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane, but without any of the bonus material from the 3LP version.

TRACK LISTING

1. Three-Dee Melodie
2. Wow And Flutter
3. Transona Five
4. Des Etoiles Electroniques
5. Ping Pong
6. Anamorphose
7. Three Longers Later
8. Nihilist Assault Group
9. International Colouring Contest
10. The Stars Our Destination
11. Transporte Sans Bouger
12. L’Enfer Des Formes
13. Outer Accelerator
14. New Orthophony
15. Fiery Yellow