In their earlier days, Broadcast couldn’t seem to escape the curse of always being compared to Stereolab. On the surface, the comparison makes some sense—Broadcast put out its first releases on Stereolab’s Duophonic imprint, and both bands meddle with keyboards and vintage sounds. The similarities pretty much end there, however, and the differences become more evident with every Broadcast release.

For one, Stereolab has all but ceased to evolve. Everyone has a fairly good idea of what to expect from a new Stereolab album, and about half of the target audience just wants their Emperor Tomato Ketchup days back and nothing more. Broadcast, on the other hand, started out as a more sinister and 60s-influenced version of Stereolab—less jazz cocktail, more spy orchestra—and has since moved on to greener pastures.

Like fellow Stereolab-curse sufferers Pram, Broadcast have succeeded in carving out their own alternate universe, a sleek yet hollow incarnation of the 60s, distorted and skewed into a more oppressive version of reality. Songs like The Noise Made By People’s “Papercuts” and “Man Is Not A Bird” are good examples: you think you’ve heard these songs before, but everything seems strange and out of place.