Buzzin Electronic Music

Stereo De Luxe – Monosyllabic – album review

Stereo de Luxe's new full-length is their first in 9 years

Stereo de Luxe are the Berlin production duo of Tom Krimi (multi-instrumentalist) and Kassi Wolf (DJ/vocalist). They combine with various guest vocalists on their new album Monosyllabic to produce zippy, catchy tunes with playful experimentation.

The album is something of a ‘best of’ (despite being only their second full-length) in that it brings together the best of the huge range of material the two have produced since their first album from 2000.

In their chilled out moments, Stereo de Luxe are a bit like Groove Armada on ‘At The River’, as is seen in the laid back central section of Monosyllabic , such as ‘Breakfast At Annies’ or ‘Your Sweat’, where smooth bass lines and female vocals complement the jazz-funk vibe of the track. But finding Stereo de Luxe chilled out is a rare luxury.

Take, for example, their opening track ‘Aerocyclette’, which has schizophrenically jumpy male and female “doo”s and “wahs” over the top of some carnival drum rhythms. These moments remind me of the sort of backing track you hear radio DJs speaking over, and it comes as no surprise to hear that Stereo de Luxe’s tracks get used on numerous adverts.

The play on genre continues on ‘Favourite Radio’, which contains bluesy guitar, and ‘Disco Desperado’, which is largely funk orientated, both retaining, however, the important continuity of fast rhythms and a positive outlook.

These fast rhythms develop later on in the album to pulsating dance rhythms ornamented with brass (Sexuality In The 80s) before the closer ‘Aquacyclette’ brings the album to a dark and slow close, breaking completely with the tone of the album in an interesting cadence.

If you know the Freshly Squeezed Music label at all, it shouldn’t come as much of a shock to hear Stereo de Luxe’s music – their release of The Voodoo Trombone Quartet’s EP late last year is by no means incongruous to this, and represents the sort of pop-electro-sunshine-instrumental music that Mark Ronson is making at the moment. Monosyllabic is a playful, tight, punchy and gloriously sunny record from a very talented pair of producers.

Visit Stereo de Luxe’s MySpace page to have a listen.