Mars Audiac Quintet (Double LP)

Mars Audiac Quintet sees the band foreshadowing their eventual dive into jazzy pop, largely exchanging the noisy outbursts for a cleaner, more spaced-out frame. Their taste for political tenets is peppered over rolling motorik beats ('Nihilist Assault Group') but is also tested over jangly pop backings, like on the brilliant 'Ping Pong'. The album finds Stereolab at some of their most refined and aesthetically sound points, achieving a level of fidelity that would only continue to rise moving forward.

This new pressing uses the 2019 remasters, cut from the original 1/2" tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane.