Peng!

Stereolab

explicit

Released on 01/01/1992 by Too Pure
Main artists: Stereolab
Genre: Alternative & Indie

Available in

16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

Following a string of EPs and singles in 1991 (which included their winkingly-titled third single, Stunning Debut Album), Stereolab released their true debut album Peng! in May 1992. It was quickly complemented by the October release of the singles-and-more compilation Switched On, so it's not too much of a stretch to think of Peng!'s 11 tracks and the ten cuts on Switched On as being of a singular piece. And to be sure, the guitar-focused, motorik-inspired socialist drone-pop of these songs are notably different from the synth-incorporating, exotica-adjacent vibes of subsequent material like Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements. However there is a concision and cohesion to Peng! that makes this material feel more focused than some of the more experimental tracks the band released as singles.

Opening with "Super Falling Star," which leans on a repetitive and hypnotic guitar-based groove as a backing for Laetitia Sadier's bilingual lyrics, the album is a clear attempt to straddle the line between beguiling melodies and avant-garde experimentation. Other cuts like the rhythmically propulsive jangle of "Orgiastic" and the spare, spooky swoon of "K-stars" are similarly daring in their approach, seamlessly shifting between chiming guitars and burbling keyboards for their retro-futuristic vibes, while "You Little Shits" manages to find the exact sweet spot between the Velvet Underground's drone, the Beach Boys' harmonies, and a Jaki Liebezeit drum solo.

It's on the album's second half where Stereolab's more experimental ambitions and influences get a full airing, with cuts like the aptly titled "Mellotron" (a Silver Apples homage that's as dronily monotonous as it is diaphanously beautiful), "Surrealchemist" (half gentle pop, half dissonant drone) and "Stomach Worm" (a giddy, garage-pop number about the spiritual and psychic burden of sexism). While many of the elements that would make Stereolab one of the most important bands of the '90s and '00s are present here—the collision of highly avant-garde influences and pure pop structures, the refreshingly radical lyrics delivered with ethereal harmonies, the hi-fi/retro-audio fetishism, the sense of experimental fun—they had not quite jelled into the truly dazzling material of later releases. Still, had Peng! been the only album by Stereolab, it would have been a remarkable discography. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

More info

Peng!

Stereolab

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From 12.49€/month

Super Falling Star