Stereo Total

Stereo Total is a rather odd band from Germany. Their music is an interestingly strange and strangely interesting blend of some kind of retro garage rock and basic low-tech electronic sounds. However, the aural variety and experimental nature of Stereo Total's music doesn't allow for any labels to be truly applied to their work. Most of the lyrics are in either French or German, and a few in English, as the band is comprised of Françoise Cactus, who is French and does nearly all of the vocals, and Brezel Göring, who is German. Their music is recorded at a lower quality in order to fit the style, and I find that such a decision fits Stereo Total's music quite well. I would not really say that Stereo Total is a “good” band, mostly due to the fact that most of their music is really not much more than rhythmic noise, e.g. one song has a badly sampled car screech looped over and over. “Then what good are they?” you are surely asking. Well you see, like many bands, amongst the multitude of bad songs there are a few that are actually quite good, diamonds in the rough if you will. I must point out, of course, that I really have only heard the music from their second album “Monokini” and several of their newer songs, and so there may be many more songs worth listening to than I am aware of.

The really good ones:

• Bad News From The Stars
• Megaflittchen
• Ach Ach Liebling
• Ex Fan de 60ies

A few more that are still pretty good:

• A La Sortie Du Lycée
• Schön Von Hinten
• Lunatique

“Bad News From The Stars” is a song the likes of which I have never heard before or anywhere else since. It stars off with a whistle, then a few drums and a small choir of robotic cherubim singing the words “bad news from the stars”, which as soon becomes apparent, are the only words in the entire song. Then the music kicks in with some sort of grooving bass the color of tin and the subtle traces of something electric zinging around at the top. Somehow the various parts all come together and let themselves be counter-intuitively enhanced by the low-tech feel of the recording. The music begins skipping, jumping, and dragging in a fashion that not only transfigures the vocals into part of the music itself but enhances the delicious confusion of whatever it is that this song thinks it is doing. After a nice time of bumping around with the music, you will hear Françoise adding in with her own line of “bad news from the stars”. The song ends soon after that, leaving the listener thinking two things: “What just happened?” and “I hope that it happens again!” So what does “bad news from the stars” even mean? I have absolutely no idea, but I do know that the song invokes a feeling of soft metal and happy stars somewhere very far away. If you like “Bad News From The Stars”, I also recommend “Megaflittchen” as it has a somewhat similar idea and feel.

You can listen to “Bad News From The Stars” here.

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