They were founded in 1990 by songwriters Tim Gane (guitar, keyboards), formerly of the band McCarthy, and Laetitia Sadier (sometimes credited as Seaya Sadier; vocals, keyboards, trombone, guitar), who is from France and sings in both English and French.
Over the years, Gane and Sadier have enlisted a large number of other musicians to accompany them on stage and on record. The initial line-up featured Martin Kean, formerly of The Chills, on bass, and Joe Dilworth (from their Too Pure label-mates Th’ Faith Healers) on drums, with Russell Yates (of Moose) and Mick Conroy (ex-Modern English) also appearing at early live shows. In 1993 they recruited Andy Ramsay (drums), who has remained in the group line-up ever since, and Mary Hansen (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion). Hansen’s distinctive backing vocals became an important aspect of the Stereolab sound, and she remained a regular feature of the line-up until her death in a cycling accident on December 9, 2002. Multi-instrumentalist Sean O’Hagan of The High Llamas has also been a frequent contributor, particularly with string, brass and keyboard arrangements to the band’s studio albums. John McEntire (Tortoise) has also contributed keyboard, electronic effects and studio help over the years. Other members have come and (in some cases) gone over the years, including Duncan Brown, Dave Pajo (from Tortoise), Richard Harrison and Simon Johns (all bass); Gina Morris (vocals); and Katharine Gifford and Morgane Lhote (both on keyboards).
Early Stereolab material displayed a heavy influence of krautrock sounds, particularly Neu! and Faust, characteristically relying on droning, repetitive guitar or keyboard riffs, with or without vocals. Early heavy use of distorted Farfisa combo-organ sounds were also reminiscent of early recordings by The Modern Lovers. As the band developed, they incorporated new instrumentation, and an increasingly complex sense of rhythm and structure, frequently making use of irregular time signatures as well as unorthodox chord progressions and melodic intervals. The band has often made copious use of female backing vocal lines.
Lyrically, Stereolab’s music is quirky (song titles evoke memories of 1950s science fiction stories, and are often borrowed directly from old films and records of the period, but have nothing to do with the song’s content), but highly politically and philosophically charged, sometimes with a decidedly Surrealist or Situationist bent. (Sadier notes the libertarian Marxist theoretician Cornelius Castoriadis as a particular inspiration.) Sadier’s lyrics, in both French and English, often read like highly condensed sociological texts, standing in deliberate and distinct counterpoint to the lush hedonic pop sound of the band. A prime example would be “Ping Pong” from Mars Audiac Quintet, which is an explicit restating of Marxist theory concerning the relationship between economic cycles and war cycles.
Stereolab earned a minor place in the Britpop movement, with their sound proving influential to bands like Blur: occasional keyboard-driven b-sides and singer Damon Albarn’s love of retro keyboards showed the influence, and in recognition Laetitia Sadier was invited to provide vocals on “To The End” from Parklife.
Despite the band’s fan base and critical acclaim, Stereolab has not achieved high levels of financial or popular success. On June 7, 2004, suits at the Warner Music label (to whom the band was signed in the U.S.) announced they were dropping Stereolab in response to the poor sales (40,000 to that date) of Margerine Eclipse. This was part of an ongoing effort by Warner to cut costs; The Breeders and Third Eye Blind were also dropped from the label for this reason. Laetitia Sadier is now also a member of Monade, which is essentially expressive of her own singular musical goals.
Des Etoiles Electroniques
Stereolab Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Les villes vues d'avion sont semblables
A des etoiles electroniques
Qui sont ecrases au sol pour prendre racine
Et vivre ainsi etales.
Translation
Towns seen from an airplane
That are squashed on the ground to take root
And to live spread out thus.
The opening lines of Stereolab's Des Etoiles Electroniques immediately evoke a sense of detachment and aloofness, as if the singer is observing the world from a distance, removed from the hustle and bustle of daily life. The comparison of cities viewed from an airplane as "electronic stars" reinforces this sense of otherworldliness, as if the urban landscape is transformed into a constellation of lights, a man-made version of the cosmos.
But the following lines then subvert this initial sense of detachment by suggesting that these "stars" are actually "squashed on the ground" in order to take root, to establish themselves more firmly in the world. This tension between distance and connection, between abstraction and materiality, is a hallmark of Stereolab's music as a whole, and it speaks to the band's ongoing interest in exploring the intersections between technology and humanity, between the organic and the synthetic.
Overall, then, Des Etoiles Electroniques is a song that invites us to reflect on the ways in which our own lives are shaped and mediated by the technologies and systems around us, while also reminding us of the strange beauty and wonder that can emerge from even the most mundane experiences.
Line by Line Meaning
Les villes vues d'avion sont semblables
Towns viewed from above look the same
Les villes vues d'avion sont semblables
Towns viewed from above look the same
A des etoiles electroniques
They resemble electronic stars
Qui sont ecrases au sol pour prendre racine
That are flattened on the ground to take root
Et vivre ainsi etales.
And live spread out like that.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: LAETITIA SADIER, TIMOTHY JOHN GANE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind