Though it's their major-label debut,
Stereolab make no concessions on
Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements. If anything, it's one of the most eclectic and experimental releases in
Stereolab's early career, emphasizing the group's elongated Krautrock jams, instrumentals, and harsh, noisy moments. The album begins and ends with smooth, sensual washes of sound like "Tone Burst" and "Lock-Groove Lullaby" and smoothly bouncy pop songs like "I'm Going Out of My Way." These softer, more accessible moments surround complex and varied compositions such as "Analogue Rock," "Our Trinitone Blast," and "Golden Ball," which, with its distorted vocals and shifting tempos, serves as an appetizer for "Jenny Ondioline." A hypnotic, 18-minute epic encompassing dreamy yet driving pop, a Krautrock groove, forceful, churning guitars, and a furious climax, it's the most ambitious -- and definitive -- moment of
Stereolab's early years. But
Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements also features quietly experimental pieces such as "Pause," a slightly spooky song that uses distorted whispers as a rhythm track and places fluttery keyboards and
Laetitia Sadier and
Mary Hansen's sweet, slightly alien harmonies atop it. Likewise, the very sexy, very French "Pack Yr Romantic Mind" reveals the growing influence of '50s and '60s easy listening on the group's musical direction. If Switched On and
Peng! defined the band's essential sound,
Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements expanded it, reaffirming
Stereolab's place as one of the most innovative and evolving groups of the '90s. ~ Heather Phares