Stereolab: Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night [Expanded Edition] LP

September 2019 sees the continuation of Stereolab's seven album reissue campaign when 1996's Emperor Tomato Ketchup, 1997's Dots and Loops and 1999's Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night are reissued, via Warp Records and Duophonic UHF Disks, as expanded and re-mastered editions on triple vinyl. Each album has been re-mastered from the original 1/2" tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane. Bonus material will include alternate takes, 4 track demos and unreleased mixes. These reissues follow 1993's Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements and 1994's Mars Audiac Quintet which received Expanded Editions earlier in 2019.

Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night is Stereolab's sixth studio album and a return to the poppier tendencies the band had left behind on their previous full-length, Dots and Loops. Where that album was an amalgam of often chilled, abstract electronica, prog and jazz, this work's exotic pop features warm Moog textures, bursting horns and lush, layered vocals. Co-producers John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake) and Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth, Gastr del Sol) add new wrinkles to Stereolab's sound and deliver rich and expansive mixes. Their contributions to the album's sonic deconstructions and analog keyboard textures present a radical model of pop-rock song architecture. Harmony and cacophony coexist throughout, wrapped up in the group's familiar, mellow '60s bossa-groove.

The arrangements incorporate Chicago post-rock, Sun Ra-styled free-form jazz and classic British acid-psych styles, while the songs return to the core melodic instincts of the band's classic albums. Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night ended a decade in which Stereolab constructed a singular vision of popular music. It completed a journey from the lo-fi fuzz of their early '90s singles to the sophisticated and complex soundscapes of their more mature second phase. The result is an alluring collage of '60s jazz, French pop and shimmery, ambient guitars, and an underrated piece of Stereolab's oeuvre.