Stereobate
Distance Formula Records
Brooklyn-based Stereobate offers strange concoctions made of mathematical rhythms, pop dynamics, and hallucinatory noise. Armed with numerous noisemaking tools, including phasers, samplers, and effects pedals galore, Stereobate makes a surprisingly big sound for a trio. On some songs, the prominent positioning of rhythmic, attitude-soaked vocals within a maelstrom of dynamic guitar buzz, monkey man percussion, and more FX than the Fox cable channel suggests a less self-consciously sexy Girls Against Boys, which figures because GVSB keyboardist Eli Janney produces the group. Then there are instrumentals that suggest the band is saling the same dark, violent, spooky sea Slint charted a decade ago. Rhythm is always key, but sometimes it comes in the service of moody, introspective experimentalism often featuring disorienting vocal samples and other decontextualized noise fragments, while at others it serves as the backbone of abrasive post-punk eardrum flagellation where noise and melody vie for primacy.
Stereobate debuted with the four-song 1 Dub EP in '99. Two years later they resurfaced on the A side of a split seven-inch with fellow Brooklynites The Distance Formula. Soon after they hooked up with Janney and put together the nine mighty tracks that comprise their debut LP Selling Out in the Silent Ear.
The band takes considerable pride in Jane Magazine's assessment that they "suck beyond imagination." Most 13-year-old girls would probably agree with that sentiment, but if you find well-rendered post-punk and post-rock intriguing, you're likely to find that Stereobate is actually pretty awesome.
Jesse Ashlock
last updated:
07/11/02
Similar Artists:
Girls Against Boys, Slint, Paul Newman, Fin Fang Foom, Abilene, Les Savy Fav
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