This 7 cd Box set covering the first 10 years of French duo Stereo Total's existence, was the final project lead singer Francoise Cactus was working on, before her tragic early death in February of 2021, it has now become as much a tribute and memorial for her work.
The box set also comes with a book of her artworks. The other half of the band multi non-instrumentalist Brezel Goring has overseen the completion of the project that now marks the end of the band and there restless and cheeky French take on outsider pop.
The box set opens with the band's first album Oh Ah with the first sound on the album being of a typewriter used as a musical keyboard and set against some spare percussion and guitar on Dactylo Rock and it feels like we are in a very cool cocktail lounge before Francoise Cactus vocals come in with hints of Francois Hardy to lead us into the wonderful world of Stereo Total.
Other highlights on the album include Comme Un Garcon that has a sort of garage indie feel similar to Marie Et Les Garcons. Belami is the first song with shared vocals on a slightly fuzzy song that re-works J'Taime into a more modern indie love song.
Je Suis Venute Dire Je M'en Vais reminds me of a slow song by Taxi Girl even if Brezel's vocals sound more like Etienne Daho. There's a brilliant minute long cover of Push It that gets to the magic of that song.
Moviestar is in English and points the finger at the sort of pumped up so call star who is nothing but an empty suit, over a cocktail indie backing with Brezel taking the lead vocals and some great backing vocals from Francoise.
There's a great funky disco take on Get Down Tonight that's great fun, in some ways less sleazy than KC And The Sunshine Bands original, either way it's a dancefloor sensation.
Epitaph has an almost Edith Piaf style vocal over chiming acoustic guitars and is most effective. Before the first cd closes with Mai Je Joue that is as close to sounding like classic Francois Hardy as you could hope a Bridgit Bardot cover to be.
The second cd Monkini opens with the German song Ach Ach Leibling that's a sparse low-fi indie tune of love and lust and is followed by the brilliant Lunatique that has a shuffling Velvets style sparseness to it.
Schon Von Hinten sounds like it should be on the soundtrack to a film from the early 70's set somewhere on the border between France and Germany.
Cosmonaute has the sort of spacey sounds you'd expect, in a lovely sparse tale of Johnny Cosmonaute as he floats off into space.
La, Ca, USA is a great chant pop song that should have been a big hit, great fun it also reminds me a bit of Bis. Grand Prix Eurovision almost sounds like they wanted to make as sideways a French entry as they could come up with, this song would work to get a few jaws dropping as voting beings.
Monkini ends with Ushilo Sugata Ga Kilei a sweet synth pop song sung in Japanese with some cool casio style keyboards.
The third cd Juke Box Alarm opens with Holiday Innnn that sort of sounds like Shonen Knife with cool percussive elements as we all rush to go to a Holiday Innn.
Thankfully Crazy Horse isn't an Osmonds cover instead being almost a nursery rhyme sing song low fi indie pop classic instead.
Les Minets has sparse keyboards and what sound like coconuts and some bewitching vocals and intoxicating backing vocals.
Film D'Horreur is full of weird horror film noises and what I imagine are knowing lyrics. Vertigo almost has a Metal Boys feel to the percussion and the synths are very moog mood like.
Francoise goes properly sultry on a brilliant version of Grace Jones Heavens In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac set to some sparse funk and synth backing, this grooves like you're up to no good in the back of that car.
Party Anticonformiste is a wallflower dance classic, to peel you off that wall and make you love to love this tune, it's just a brilliant off the wall party time Classique.
The Juke Box Alarm closes with Holiday Out a sort of re-mix reimagining of Holiday Innnn, this time with cool indie guitars Metal Boys Style percussion and weird synth stabs and squelchy cartoon noises.
The fourth CD My Melody opens with Beauty Case a song that sounds like it could have been made for a Sephora advert campaign, a slightly skewed synth pop list song about all the things you might find in your Beauty Case.
Larmes Toxique re-works Nico's Chelsea Girls into an equally dark and sparse minimal song of despair, it's quite wonderfully evocative.
Ich Leibe Dich, Alexander is probably the quickest paced song on the box set so far and begs the question who was the Alexander that Francois is singing about, on this fairly frantic indie pop song, with what sounds like the drums are actually pots and pans being hit.
De Und Dein Automobil has all sorts of car noises, from hooters to hand brake turns and is loads of fun for what sounds like it could be a song about a car crash.
Ringo I Love You is amazingly the second song about Mr Starkey I've reviewed this month, so he seems to be having a moment, this is more Low-fi than The Courettes R.I.N.G.O. and I still don't want to join in any sort of Beatles Love in.
Tokyo Mon Amour is much more like it. Like Taxi Girl re-imagined as a synth-based lounge act, it works like a dream.
My Melody closes with a great cover of Vanessa Paradis' Joe Le Taxi with Brezel's vocals sounding quite deadpan over the very lean keyboard and shaker backing and some backing vocals from Francois.
The 5th cd Musique Automatique opens with its title track a rather droll sounding synth pop ode to the wonders of pre-programmed music.
Wir Tanzem Im 4-Eck sounds like a playground chant set to sparse low fi synth odd pop backing. Les Chanson D'A total re-tools and reimagines the Manhattan Transfer classic into a totally different kind of Chanson, it's sweetly romantic sci-fi synth pop.
La Diable has some properly devilish synth doom metal stuff going on a deliciously dark weird tune with hints of Hawkwind about to take off.
Exakt Neutral uses some great 80's computer games noises and casio keyboards to make a very bewitching dancefloor indie classic that's anything but bland and neutral.
Musique Automatique closes with Hep Onalti D'a which may well be the best track on the album like Plastic Bertand on hyper speedy acid, but obviously with female vocals, this is bouncy indie dancefloor madness incarnate.
The sixth cd is Do The Bambi a title that hints at perhaps a slightly more cartoonish element, the album opens with Babystrich a oddly catchy indie underground funk pop song in German and English.
The title track Do The Bambi strips things back to a minimal core on this rather sad little song of love and betrayal.
Cinemania is a brilliant list song of classic actors, actresses and directors that has some great organ parts that have a very late 60's feel to them.
Das Erste Mal is a duet sung almost as if they are Serge Gainsbourg and Francois Hardy, that then progresses to feature a third vocalist who sounds a bit Bridget Bardot in a very cocktail lounge pastis and Perrier style on this wonderful menage a trois song.
Hunger! Has some wonderful Pinky and Perky style backing vocals on this angry as it needs to be song against anyone who is suffering from Hunger when there is enough food to feed everyone.
The first cover of Nico's Chelsea girls I bought was Bernie Torme's punk metal version, Stereo Total go in a very different direction to that classic cover, as this has cool icy vocals and a very busy and off the wall synth part that really works as a stark contrast to the vocals and all the tales from that most venerable and storied on New York Hotels, I like the way the theremin eventually comes in as the song gets darker towards the end.
The version of Orange Mecanique from A Clockwork Orange ramps up the oddness scale marrying the classical leanings of the music to a motoric beat and a theremin that is all over the place in the best ways possible.
Partymadchen Gefoltert is a short and sweet Party shout out tune for the sort of mad night out where anything could and might happen as we all bounce along with this.
Do The Bambi closes with Troglodyten a truly bonkers musical mash up that's part classical part break beat odd indie pop song that is full of echo and effects and is quite intoxicating.
The seventh and final cd is Carte Postale And Other Rarities that opens with the title track that's in fact a french language version of The Dictators classic California Sun, or is that The Rivieras classic? Either way they play it in a low-fi punk way and it sounds fantastique.
Tetsuwan Atomu is full on computer game madness with lots of squelchy bass and computer games sounds and is sung in Japanese.
Bad News From The Stars is glitch core madness ramped up with all sorts of weird drum and bass effects and treated vocals this is odd in all sorts of ways and totally mad.
Je Reve Encore De Toi is the real reason for getting the box set for the rarities cd, as they do a brilliant cover of the Taxi Girl French language cover of the Velvet Undergrounds Stephanie Says, it mainly uses Taxi Girls translation and just ups the off synth bits and bobs and played before listening to the Taxi Girl version that's on Les Enfants Du Velvet that's still one of the best Velvets tribute albums ever, it takes the song off into another slightly different realm especially with female vocals rather than the originals male vocals.
Hey Protest sounds like they are at the maddest of maddest French protest marches and causing all sorts of hoo ha as they sing repeatedly Hey Protest!
The box set ends with its 116th song Megaflittchen that suitably sounds like it should roll over the end of some incredible Bollywood french Noir film in the 23rd century it's a out there as anything else on this very immersive and subversive box set.
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