Filed with Stereolab.
New York-based, post-rock boogie band Ui clearly have good ideas, but lackluster execution, like Tortoise with sprained hands or lesser record collections. London-based Stereolab, on the other hand, are peerlessly interesting, always pushing the limits of their lush, gurgly-churgly, melodic, joyous sound. One of the ways Stereolab do this is by pretending they have peers: releasing tons of arcane discs by others on their own Duophonic label and inviting the most challenging electronic musicians to destroy their songs for remix records. On Fires, Stereolab and Ui--née Uilab--collaborate well, performing two pleasant, vaguely meandering originals. Then they put together and take apart one of Eno's finest rock songs, "St. Elmo's Fire"--four times, no less. It's way more fascinating than it deserves to be. --Mike McGonigal
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