Stereo Total

Stereo Total were getting off on the ’80s synth-tinged, tongue-in-cheek trash pop before Fisherspooner or W.I.T. and their electro-clash followers’ glossed lips could even pronounce "Kraftwerk.” The Berlin-based quirky duo of Brezel Goring and Francophone writer/performance artist Francoise Cactus are six years and five albums into their eclectic career and show no signs of narrowing their broad-based musical world. This is actually a re-release originally put out by Bobsled Records last year. Goring is both the guitar strummer (when needed) and rhythm propeller, alternating between Wire-y stop/start suspense patterns and frenetic fluttering of the knobs. Cactus croons (in French, German and English) melodious Gainsbourg-inspired chansons of devils, a menage-a-trois, pop and, most of all, l’amour. Like Cactus’s lyrics, the whole package is very fun and flirty multilingual eccentricity with a punk-y edge. From the first blips and the first thickly accented words, you’ll be charmed, well, automatically. Rarely is an album title more apropos.