I recommend this...

Stereo Total

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

Despite the preponderance of genres that Berlin-based boy-girl duo Stereo Total have in their arsenal, it all diverts back to pop. They're slaves to its bright, sparkly ephemeral nature, and they've managed to turn their music into a multi-dimensional entity that plays as an avant-garde artistic response to that sycophantic genre. And there's no way that French-born vocalist, guitarist and drummer Francoise Cactus and German-born vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Brezel Goring can create their zippy, witty compositions without an undying love for music both fleeting and sophisticated.

Stereo Total began out of two projects in the early '90s, Cactus's all-girl garage punk unit and Brezel's noise pastiche project. Finding artistic kin in each other, their early efforts skittered around simple takes on French chanson, disco, rockabilly and garage. Their eclectic tastes mean that Stereo Total delivers their songs in a multiplicity of languages; French and German, obviously, but also Turkish, Japanese and Spanish. Uber-kitsch and kooky, they pumped out albums, finally gaining US recognition with Kill Rock Stars reissuing their 1995 debut Oh Ah!, 1997's Monokini and 2001's Musique Automatique in the early '00s. Deconstructing pop into nuggets of sound, Stereo Total amplify its inherent campness.

Andrew Tijs, August 2007