Microbe Hunters

Few bands have come to single-handedly rule a genre as well as Stereolab. The only question remaining is which genre. The band's machine-funky grooves, oddball synthetic washes, and disturbingly flat vocals suggest a futuristic disco where the survivors of nuclear war have settled for alienation anthems that recall the "space-age bachelor pad" music of the distant innocent past. But this is all conjecture. No one knows what the music of the future will sound like. (Heck, we once thought by the year 2000 we'd all be walking around in Lost in Space outfits.) Stereolab, however, are certainly what we think of.