The First Of The Microbe Hunters

It's mini-album (or is it EEP?) time again, although thankfully this is not the clumsy stopgap release-between-albums-proper that such affairs usually prove to be.

Laetitia & Tim have brought in a few of their old friends on this one, most notably High Llama Sean O'Hagan (credited with "additional instrumentation all over the place") and Tortoise's John McEntire gets a look-in on production duties. As a statement of intent, the opening salvo of 'Outer Bongolia' is a nine-minute education in just how good Stereolab can be when they put their minds to it, brimming with over-the-top organ flourishes and fortified with an insistent, spiralling groove.

'Barock - Plastik' is truly a thing of beauty, a great big scrap between a staccato Sadier and a robust organ 'n' bass riff that'll leave you propped up against a wall with your trousers round your ankles, panting for more (Disclaimer: this may not actually happen).

'Nomus Et Phusis' and 'Retrograde Mirror Form' are the weakest, Stereolab-by-numbers tracks on offer here, covering territory that they've travelled a hundred times better in the past. 'I Feel The Air (Of Another Planet)', with John McEntire on the knobs, is on the other hand a gorgeous slice of Gallic froideur that refuses to outstay its welcome.

And that's it, clocking in at a little under 40 minutes, Microbe Hunters winds up as suddenly as it begins - it's no Emperor Tomato Ketchup in the (relative) mass appeal stakes, but non-initiates would do well to peer into this skewed little microcosm of 'Lab tunefulness, especially at a budget price. The collective triumphs again.