Kill Rock Stars
2002
Musique Automatique
About This Album
Originally released in 2001 on Bobsled Records and re-released by Kill Rock Stars a year later, Stereo Total's Musique Automatique pares the group down to the core duo of Francoise Cactus and Brezel Goring. In the process, the album gains a newfound polish, particularly in the production, but also loses some of the spontaneous energy and wide-ranging influences that characterize the rest of Stereo Total's work. Sometimes this clean and glossy approach works: the endearingly clunky rhythm, plinky keyboards, boy-girl vocals, and low-rent sampling on "Automatic Music" are quintessential Stereo Total, and the smooth, sophisticated "L'Amour a 3" almost sounds like Ivy in a playfully amorous mood. Unfortunately, though, the more rock-oriented side of the group's sound suffers due to the occasionally sterile sonics. Punky songs like "Forever 16," "Le Diable," and "Ich Wiess Nicht Mehr Genou," which would've sounded explosive with a production like that on their previous album, My Melody, don't quite come off -- they're undeniably fun, but a little flat and too clean for their own good. Indeed, much of Musique Automatique is uncharacteristically monochromatic for Stereo Total.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,8,12,17 and 18)

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