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For the 5th or 6th release in a row, let's start off a Stereolab review with "more of the same." While that's a bad thing on most sites, on this one (see our myspace account xTrueStereolabFanx for proof), that's mostly positive. After Emperor Tomato Ketchup, I would have gladly taken a half dozen more. After they mixed things up with O'Rourke on Cobra Phases..., they eventually got around to that - not quite as kinetic, but always pleasant and usually enjoyably so. The band's latest, Fab Four Suture, continues the trend. Fab Four Suture is actually a collection of 7"s the band did in the past year or so. While you could get away with only buying two or three of the 7"s, the cost conscious buyer still probably buys the album as you can find it for $10 or $11. The best thing here, in my opinion, is "Kyberneticka Babicka." For the 7", it is broken into two parts, five minutes for the A side and five for the B side. For the CD compilation, it's also broken into two parts, bookending the album. While Stereolab has been Dotting and Looping all over the place for the past 8 or 9 years, this one is straight from Mars - just one big fat lush drone that repeats over and over again for ten minutes. The song's title is taken from an animated short from Czech puppeteer Jiri Trnka and translates to "Robot Grandmother" - while there's no direction connection between the two works, imagining fluid motions of sci-fi puppets seems to help. While that's the highlight and the biggest departure here (or, rather, more surprising style revival), some of the more percolative pop is also great. Since, except for "Kyberneticka," all the songs are made for one side of a single, they're all very concise. "Excursions into Oh, A-Oh" starts off all sparse and jittery but quickly gets really heavy and spacey (should be great live). A longer version of this song would meander too long but this one breezes by. "Visionary Road Maps" - at only three and a half minutes - packs quite a punch with robotic funk and brassy sounding keyboards bouncing about at high rates. Actual brass adds color to "Interlock," which gives you all the socialist message you need from a 'Lab record ("so in love with freedom"), packed inside a nice, fast tempo Laetitia pseudo-rap atop a "Cybele's Reverie"-esque groove. Perhaps there's nothing new here, but it's 50 more minutes added to my Stereolab shuffle, and I could listen to Stereolab all day. Some days I actually do.

Stereolab at Amazon & Insound