What's to say about Stereolab that hasn't already been said? The London quintet's brainy, stylish blend of kitschy Euro-pop groove, bubbling electronic wizardry and socio-politicial/academic lyrics is virtually unparalleled on the FM music band, and we can't think of a better poster group for the '90s college radio ideal in adventurous, hip, entertaining programming. Dots And Loops, the band's sixth proper full-length, is a bit of a return to 1994's breakthrough, Mars Audiac Quintet, going in for more subdued and rhythmically experimental textures, no doubt fostered by John McEntire's production hands on many of the tracks (the rest having been recorded with German electro sound-painters Mouse On Mars). In fact, there's nary a guitar or out-and-out vintage organ send-up to be (easily) found here, yet the album is still blissfully pop-minded in Stereolab's own retro-futuristic way. "Brakhage" decorates Laetitia Sadier's sultry vocal cooing with playful counter-rhythms and sputtering analog fills, mixed so delicately as to invoke both loungy cool and an odd kind of anxious musical backdrop. "Prisoner Of Mars," with its opaque organ backdrop and Sadier's detached French vocal caresses, might concede to a '60s laissez-faire sensuality, were it not for the subtle, not-quite-human touches of ambience and metronomic rhythmic structure.

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