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| are mutant disco party anticomformists, new wave children bred on garage-rock and
electro-pop and the pleasures of synthesized orgasms. No other band working today has the
ability to shift so effortlessly between guitar raunch, analog synth silliness and disco punk. Based
in Berlin, the band is the brainchild of French chanteuse/drummer Françoise Cactus and German
guitarist/organist Brezel Göring (who has been building his own synthesizers since his early
teenage years). Their first three releases Oh Ah Oh Ah, Monokini and Juke-Box Alarm, (the first
two of which have been edited down for their eponymous stateside debut) feature songs in
German, French, Italian, English and Japanese (they claim they're learning Turkish too). The duo
borrow from everywhere and anything, delivering eccentric covers of Serge Gainsbourg ("Je Suis
Venu Te Dire Que Je M'en Vais"), Salt 'N' Pepa ("Push It") and KC and the Sunshine Band ("Get
Down Tonight") and paying winking homage to the Ramones ("LA, CA, USA"), Brigette Bardot
("Comic Strip Girl"), Françoise Hardy ("Ach Ach Liebling" aka "Oh, Oh Cheri") and Slim Harpo ("Movie Star"). "C'est la Mort" even offers shout outs to
Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc (along with those other well-known ye-ye stars Napoleon
and Josephine). Unlike Japanese star Cornelius-whose pastiche-pop creations often veer off in
unshapely directions--Stereo Total are more than content to be a party band, playing what they call
"sissy disco." It's a cheeky term of course-Gloria Gaynor would rather have died than sung about
the "Nouvelle Vague" or use a typewriter for rhythm ("Dactylo Rock") or destroy a sampled groove
with keyboard blurts and bleeps ("Touche Moi"). Never has anarchy sounded so catchy, so sexy,
so goofily effervescent. These daft punks are supercool.
Brother Grimm |
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