Uilab - Fires

7.0 - England/USA - 1997

A collaboration between the Anglo-French Marxist pop groop Stereolab and the New York post-rock funkers Ui. Billed as an EP, "Fires" is really more of a single as it primarily consists of the groops' cover of Brian Eno's "St. Elmo's Fire". There are four versions of the track, the "radio" version being the best; the others are more or less remixes of varying quality. For the "radio" version, the listener is treated to a nice double-tracked vocal featuring the 'Lab's Laetitia Sadier and Ui's Sasha Frere-Jones, and it's bit disconcerting to hear a male voice in a Stereolab (more or less) track. Being a cover, the song's melody is somewhat un-'Labbish, which allows for a fresh take of the patented Stereolab sound (I'm probably not giving enough credit to Ui here).  Alongside "St. Elmo's Fire" are a couple of instrumentals, one of which is based on a Sun Ra tune. It's all quite nice, but aside from the first track -- the main "radio" version of "St. Elmo's Fire" -- it is rather inconsequential. A nice rarity for fans, perhaps, but probably not worth the effort of tracking down for casual listeners.