OK, so I missed the boat on the 2001 Bobsled release of Stereo Total's Musique Automatique, but Kill Rock Stars, who are reissuing the album on October 8, have cured me of my ignorant ways. This record is DELIGHTFUL, so much better than I expected it to be (I just listened to an mp3 by an awful blippy-midi group called Coin and thought THIS HAS TO STOP NOW! A POX ON YOUR GENRE!). But Stereo Total actually make very listenable and lovable and repeatbuttonable music -- music that sounds like an accomplished piece of art rather than just nervous, detached dilletantism. They're German, but they make synthy French pop that's less record-nerdy than Stereolab, less locked-down than Komeda (who are Swedish, but owe it all to the Frog-pop tradition). Thankfully, the emphasis is on the pop here, even as Stereo Total bounce between snaky Bardot-Gainsbourg sex-jazz and cheeky Elastica sex-wave and posing-for-consumer-products Kraftwerk sexless-sex and breezy, joyeux Yellow Magic Orchestra roller-sex and creepy-children's-music Bruce Haack perv-sex and focus-grouped-to-hell Josie and the Pussycats germ-free-adolescent-sex. Sweet.