Stereo Total Pop 17 Items

“Monokini” came out in 1997. The press-info sounded like this: 40% Chanson, 20% R’n’R, 10% Punkrock, 3% DAF-Sequencer, 4% Jacques Dutronc-Rhythmique, 7% Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg, 1,5% Cosmonaute, 10% really old synthesizers, 10% 8-bit Amiga-sampling, 10% transistor amplifier, 1% really expensive and advanced instruments. Françoise was singing in French, German, Italian and Japanese language. The record was released on the new label Bungalow and at the same time released in Japan by the label Appareil Photo.

anuary 1996 Stereo Total released their first album “OH AH” on the label Peace 95 on CD, the vinyl was on Little Teddy records. It featured recordings from 94 to 95 made at Alien Sound and a lot of 4-track home recording. The song “Dactylo Rock” (which featured a typewriter-solo) was released as a single with a video. The single had remixes from A CERTAIN FRANK, which has Pyrolator and Frank Fenstermacher from the legendary early 80ties children-electronics-band der Plan, which had a huge influence on Stereo Total), Alec Empire, Chrislo Haas (who was playing in Liaisons Dangereuses and DAF), Le Hammond Inferno, Poptarts and Sons of 68. Stereo Total started to do a long tour through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. After this tour the band split up, and once again it was only Françoise and Brezel, going on touring and recording new material.

Françoise and Brezel started recording again with the help of their producer Cem Oral, a half Turkish, half Finnish technical genius from the band Air Liquide, who focused the widespread ideas for the new record and gave the band a new sound – away from the home recording practice of the older records. The record came out in Europe at Bungalow/labels, in Japan at Avex and in America by Bobsled and was re-released after the split from Bobsled records on Kill Rock Stars. After the release Stereo Total – still a duo, like in the early days – began a 5 month tour, which started in the US, Canada, Mexico and went on all over Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, England, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland) to Russia. They continued in 2002, and for part of the tour they played as a support act for the American band The Strokes. In Summer 2002, Stereo Total played Festivals all over Europe and were invited to play at the Gay Pride in Iceland. They made two singles and two videos for “Musique Automatique”: “Liebe zu dritt” was made by Cabine, who also designed of the album cover, and “Wir tanzen im 4 Eck”, which was made by Randy Kolbe.

n 1998 the record “Jukebox Alarm” came out. It was mixed and produced by Kurt Dahlke, aka Pyrolator, in Düsseldorf. For this record Stereo Total used a lot of home recording equipment and a big 16-bit-sampler, to cut up their 4-track and studio recordings. The result was a continuation of their garage-“trash”-sound with new weapons. The record was released in Europe by Bungalow and in Japan by Appareil Photo

This is the regular LP version with 14 tracks. Please be aware of the limited double LP edition with 20 tracks that we offer.

An album title with not one, but two exclamation marks, meaning something akin to “what a palaver”as it primes the listener for songs like “Cinemascope”. Themes such as personal injuries (“Ich bin cool”), betrayal (“Mes copines”), personality deficiencies brought on by drug abuse (“Methedrine”), rage (“Hass-Satellit”), inflated opinions of oneself (“Brezel says”), suicide (“Le Spleen”), grief (“Dancing with a memory") and souls in torment ("Elektroschocktherapie") are presented in widescreen format in and often in the most entertaining fashion.

Françoise Cactus apparently once said of herself: "I am a linguistic artist who can live with the laughs". Which says it all really, although Stereo Total’s penchant for wordplay is not in evidence in all of the lyrics on this record. Many tracks here echo the rather more sombre, desperate songs she wrote for her first band "Les Lolitas". Nevertheless, the anarchic humour which we have come to associate with Stereo Total resurfaces on compositions like "Keine Musik" and "Einfach".

Musically, this Stereo Total disc, their twelfth, cannot be readily aligned with anything at all. If earlier albums resonated with influences from chanson, trash or disco to punk, rock’n’roll and NDW (German New Wave), Stereo Total have now arrived in their very own musical universe which pays no heed to stylistic devices, reminiscent of “rien de tout”. What we can say: Françoise Cactus excels in the art of 8-track cassette recording, thus creating an extraordinary sonic experience. Brezel Göring draws on his favoured array of instruments more likely to be found in the hands of children in households where a musical education is not on the agenda: plastic baby organ and dreadful mouse piano, accompanied by home-made guitars glued together by less than gifted artisans.

1. Stereo Total continue to make electronic music with flea market Casio sounds which fly in the face of what is generally accepted to be electronic music. Each musical instrument could probably be translated into social coordinates and in this sense, the tools of Stereo Total’s trade speak an unequivocal language.

2. Stereo Total continue to play LoFi garage rock music which makes a mockery of all the masculine clichés associated with guitars. When Françoise Cactus plays the drums, the rhythms of feminism, anti-professionalism and subversive dilettantism come to the fore.

Any attempts to pigeonhole Stereo Total are destined to fail. In the words of Flann O'Brien: "When shall we ever see their like again?"

A word to our younger readers: Stereo Total began making music before the internet existed, before the Euro, before Germany reunited and before there were even bands or music. They will probably still be playing when all that has been consigned to the dustbin of history. The group comprises Françoise Cactus, who spends her time as a radio presenter, author and artist between band sessions, and Brezel Göring, a man whose very choice of stage name was motivated by a desire not to be taken seriously by music and art scribes.

When they began making music together, they made it their mission to disrupt rules, to destabilize ideas. They may not have thrown European harmonic structure or 4/4 time out of the window, but they have certainly asked questions of every other aspect of musical and lyrical techniques. Lines like "you look good from the back", "love as a threesome", "I am naked", "I’m the young gigolo with a smoker’s lung " and "sex complex" are designed to repel serious music lovers whilst shocking them with sound engineering which falls well below the standards of mainstream listeners.