Monday, October 11, 2010

Weird indie and the return of Stereolab

Even if Jonny is Tracasseur's panda (what indie kids are called in Sweden because of their white-powdered faces and dark eyes), I have of course also listened to some indie music, even if it always have been sort of on the side. Sweden had a great indie scene around the mid to late nighties, and I remember one of my favourite bands was Komeda. They were a pretty obscure band from the northern university city of Umeå, which you almost could hear in their cool and brainy music. It's that arty sort of indie music that university students and advertising people like, full of weird harmonies, beats and tempo changes. Listen to a couple of my favourite tracks from the 1998 album "What Makes It Go" yourself:

Komeda - A Simple Formality

Komeda - Binario

Anyway, every time I happened to mention Komeda to anyone who new something about indie music, I got the same comment; "if you like them, you would like Stereolab". For some reason I never really took up on that advice. I mean, I came across Stereolab stuff and I always liked it, but if I remember correctly I dove into minimal techno instead around that time.

The French-English band currently have five members, even if the constellation have varied a lot since 1990. There are eleven former members, but Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier have always been at the helm. I know they recently were on a hiatus, but they are now back with their twelfth album, entitled "Not Music". This time I'll try to get to know them better.

Stereolab - Sun Demon

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