The Groop Played Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, an odd and hypnotic mini-album, represents the point where Stereolab ceased to be simply another ultrahip London band. Their twin influences, Neu!-style trance-rock and easy-listening pop, still hadn't quite fused by this point, existing side-by-side rather than coalescing, but the whole thing sounds smooth and assured, with the charm and confidence of a group well aware they've hit on the kind of good idea that'll last them for years. They made better records than Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, but this is where it really began, and it has a freshness and life of its own. --Taylor Parkes