Stereolab sent out mysterious vinyl records to fans with what appears to be new song “Aerial Troubles”

Stereolab have been back in action since 2019, with many tours and reissues of their vast catalog, but there’s been no hint of new music. Till today.

In the band’s latest missive from their “Lab Report” email list on Monday (3/31), way down at the bottom, there are the words “click here,” which leads to an image that has “Unsolicited Stereolab Material” printed on it. Then on Tuesday (4/1), they posted a photo on Instagram of what looks to be a record in a brown paper bag, sealed with copper-colored sun sticker. There was no text accompanying the post — what could it be?

Today, some Stereolab fans in the UK found out, receiving “Unsolicited Stereolab Material” in the mail. In that bag was indeed a 7″ record with those words stamped on it, as well as the logos for Warp Records and Stereolab’s label Duophonic U.H.F. Disks. The 7″ features the song “Aerial Troubles” on one side and an instrumental of it on the flip. Redditor Ape1720 posted pictures along with a short snippet of the song.

As to what “Aerial Troubles” is, some in the Reddit thread wondered if it might be an unreleased outtake from Fab Four Suture, but others think it sounds new. Listen here.

Could we be getting the first Stereolab album since 2010’s Not Music? The “Unsolicited” package also came with a word hunt puzzle, and within it include the words “album, stereolab, sadier, tim, ramsay, plastic, melodies, warp, flashes, film, television, transistor, transmute, disk” and more. Hopefully we’ll find out what it all means, and get to hear “Aerial Troubles” in full soon. Check out photos from Reddit below.

Stereolab will be touring this fall and play NYC’s Brooklyn Steel on October 1 & 2.