Recorded in their new French studios, this mini album represents a first dip in the water for Stereolab following their bereavement, but not too radical a departure in sound. Still, the place they’re at is hardly one from which you would particularly wish to depart. On “…Suddenly Stars” and “Jaunty Monty And The Bubbles Of Silence”, there’s the bracing, fragrant whiff again of ’60s dashboards and lost springs, the usual, unusual variations on their retro-futurist theme. Only the disco-fied “Mass Riff” takes you aback?it’s as if Sophie Ellis-Bextor has walked in the studio. A tangy taster for their album proper in 2004.
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