LM Artist Poll No. 74 · STEREOLAB · Results Thread

Speaking of which... Final tie in the poll and contains one of my favorite sound dust songs:

http://i.imgur.com/jBIibVn.jpg
TIE 28. Captain Easychord 7 votes, 151 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Captain Easychord EP / Sound-Dust (2001)
http://youtu.be/KZ9z0Puurgk

http://i.imgur.com/TPCTKlC.jpg
TIE 28. Our Trinitone Blast 7 votes, 151 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Transient Random Noise-Bursts... (1993)
http://youtu.be/IZsuqlJ4kUI

wow, nice. Our Trinitone Blast is another one, like The Noise of Carpet, where Laetitia's vocals sound much more impassioned and forceful. Love it.

Really like the outro on the album version of Captain Easychord.

Amazing run so far today, five of these nine were on my ballot.

There was definitely something uncool about Stereolab in 2001, they were a safe firm of retro that seemed so unadventurous all of a sudden. At least compared to what they'd been doing five years earlier. I blame John McEntire's production (I'm sort of serious about this).

Safe form of retro, rather. Maybe I'll think this over some more when I'm not typing this on my phone.

The show I saw on the Cobra and Phases tour was easily the largest I've ever seen them play, and it was also fairly uninspired. I felt bad because I had excitedly dragged a couple friends to it who had never seen them before. Don't know if this was a common experience at that time.

On the flip side, shows that I saw in support of Microbe Hunters and Sound-Dust were some of their best and had lots of energy.

I never experienced a bad or even lacklustre Stereolab show. They were always good. Even on the final North American tour (2008 I think) they were on fire. Best shows were in the mid-90s though. Love live Stereolab so much. I had ABC Music on my ballot for this reason - it's the best representation of what they sounded like live. It's brilliant that there are complete concerts on youtube now.

Oh man, I kind of wish I listed ABC Music on the album portion now -- yeah, they have this louder more aggressive sound that appeals to me a lot.

I sadly only got into them during Chemical Chords, which was the only time I got to see the play live. Still one of the funnest gigs I've been to, though.

MAQ vs ETK goes 6 on 6 once again.

http://i.imgur.com/lVKrnUJ.jpg
27. Wow & Flutter 6 votes, 153 points. 1 first place votes.
From: Wow and Flutter EP / Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
https://youtu.be/JI-G5Cd6OeU

haha hanging chad MAQ vote here!

actually, it's really cool how often single and album versions would be different, like the synth stuff on the EP version

Love that song but didn't vote for it haha. The contemplative stoner lyrics are great.

Years since I heard 'Our Trinitone Blast' didn't remember Laetitia sounding so 90's with that distorted vox effect, it's a really cool song.

I'm happy it was only a style exercise on this song, I'm not sure I'd love her using those vocals on a full album.

Probably wouldn't be great all the time, but I would like to hear it a bit more.

And once again ETK takes the lead. This is my favorite song on the album, so not complaining.

http://i.imgur.com/UYIYj56.jpg
26. Emperor Tomato Ketchup 6 votes, 159 points. 1 first place vote.
From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
https://youtu.be/SuwTHHHCGU8

great tune. in all seriousness, I might have truly learned to love minimalism through Stereolab.

Cool drums in this

http://i.imgur.com/vWcqDRA.jpg
25. Revox 8 votes, 162 points. 0 first place votes.
From: John Cage Bubblegum 7" (1993)
https://youtu.be/YaU48UtxrVc

To elaborate on what I was trying to say earlier: Stereolab in the 90's were a catalogue of then-obscure musical reference points. I hadn't heard anything by Neu or Can when I discovered Stereolab, and I think most other fans were in the same boat (reissues of their material didn't pick up steam until well into the 90's). So here was a band who were obviously way cooler and smarter than you and were in tune with all sorts of amazing music that most people knew little about. And they were pouring all that acquired knowledge directly into their music.

By 2001, Your Hard Drive was the album of the year, seemingly everything worth owning had been reissued during the 90's, albums that people would spend years hunting down were easily available through filesharing, so who really needed a band like Stereolab to tell you what was cool and worth listening to? They were starting to sound passe, and so Sound Dust was relatively overlooked.

And starting with "Dots and Loops", their music was sounding overly clean and digital, and all the organ drones and hacking rhythm guitar lines were gone or turned way down in the mix. Their earlier albums were so much livelier for me.

Dots & Loops is a great album! You take that back!

Or I'll post a D&L song.

D&L is one of their worst ... but still quite good, if you know what I mean.

>:( You brought this upon yourself:

http://i.imgur.com/UNKHn1M.jpg
24. Contronatura 7 votes, 167 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Dots & Loops (1997)
https://youtu.be/oH8WN-Dd3zw

But I never listen to it anymore. Most of their music is timeless, but the straight out of the 90's Mouse on Mars-y bleepy electronica on D&L isn't.

xpost oh well

Okay, this is my run, voted for the last three. Title track Emperor Tomato Ketchup, my #1, the pinnacle of the band for me. Organ right up front, perfect motorik groove (no surprise I love Yoko's "Why" so much), over the moon vocal melodies, lyrics I've never bothered to understand the meaning behind. Pure magic.

Hahaha. Somewhat related: I was looking at P4K's top 20 albums of 2001 list and they weren't as up to the times as I thought. Daft Punk's Discovery per example and the Strokes would end up in their top albums of the decade list and Discovery isn't even in there and the later is ranked at 15 I think.. Oddly enough, Mouse on Mars' Idiology is at 12 yet Stereolab... nowhere to be found.

The bleep middle section in Contranatura is a bit dull, but damn, the melancholy Sun Ra opening and disco outrageous are so fantastic.

Will never forget being in college in the depths of the library researching my thesis and stumbling upon a book of Feminist theory called The Future of an Illusion. Was one of those ah ha moments.

Contronatura is my favorite of the Lab Mouse experiments by far. Even tho exuberant rubbery house cut Schnick Schnack ought to be a discotheque staple.

Okay, this is my run, voted for the last three. Title track Emperor Tomato Ketchup, my #1, the pinnacle of the band for me. Organ right up front, perfect motorik groove (no surprise I love Yoko's "Why" so much), over the moon vocal melodies, lyrics I've never bothered to understand the meaning behind. Pure magic.

― Sushi and the Banchan (Spectrist)

Don't know if you knew this but the Emperor Tomato Ketchup song was also known as Ono! Mayhaps your Yoko reference to the song isn't accidental. The bass riff is pretty much the same as the Yoko one, might even be a sample...

Here's the translated lyrics and no, they don't make much sense:

The comings and goings,
labyrinth, well what's this I see?
The exit, I see it, it's there, not too far now,
much too close, from across, thick walls but I can do it,
bring down the screens of deception, of deception

Holding to emptiness, to smoke the balls are burst, start everything over.
What will we want to see? The curtain rises, silence is golden, I disagree.
To not make an effort and yawn a lot, to be able to rise up and salute you.
We are not pigeons, perhaps idiots, reality in another way

I was somewhat mm on "Dots and Loops", then about two years ago I was in Oxfam Reading, and they played it and of sounded so good I bought it. (I was fair, I went away and came back an hour later for it when they had finished playing it).

The double lp, obv.

Going back to the start for the next one.

http://i.imgur.com/dnKAEUx.jpg
22. Doubt 7 votes, 175 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Stunning Debut Album 7” (1991)
https://youtu.be/eiB_atFYAck

Oh shoot I ate up number 23... ignore 22 for a bit, we'll come back to it in a moment.

http://i.imgur.com/Xa1kwnq.jpg
23. The Black Arts 7 votes, 169 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Sound-Dust (2001)
https://youtu.be/CDbYgV1Wmr4

Did NOT know that about 'Ono'! It's as sensible a working title as any. Yeah those lyrics... the more I look at them, the more mysterious they seem. That's praise, of course. xps

I actually hated The Black Arts the first times I heard it... I'm not used to hearing Laetitia doing 'emotion' and the break sounds very awkward. In Captain Easychord the different sections work fine but in this one it feels very abrupt. Then I started hearing its beauty. The vocals sound stylized like a 60's Brazilian song... like Astrud Gilberto or something.

The break still sounds a bit awkward to me.

Should have voted for Doubt. ABC Music version is my favourite - sounds like McCarthy.

Haha, I'm a sucker for her at her most emotional

Xpost

I located all my S albums (proper) to see what I was missing: basically, their first and the last two.

should track 'em down with Discogs, really.

Not many people in here appreciate or are acquainted with their late albums/eps/singles. I should probably start a Stereolab 2000 - 2010 appreciation thread after the poll is over.

So much catchy up to do.

Moka, Tim has said the most recent vinyl reissues are really poor quality. He's planning to remaster them and do them himself but it has been held up for legal reasons. I'd love to get some more of their stuff on vinyl (I have Margarine Eclipse, Peng and the coloured vinyls of Dots & Loops, Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Refried Ectoplasm). I'm just going to wait until these new ones come out before getting anymore. See also Saint Etienne who are getting proper reissues done by the band who also said to stay away from the recent reissues.

Going back to Margarine Eclipse, That would have been in my top five if it had just been studio albums.

Oh I didn't know that. Any place I can check updates when those go for sale?

Those two albums I have Peng! and D&L are not reissues... at least not the recent ones, I've had them for almost a decade now.

I read that in an interview he did for the Cavern of Anti-Matter album. I'm not sure where I'd check for announcement. I'll be obsessively keeping an eye out for them, so I'll let you know on one of their threads or send you a message. Sadly, I got the impression it might take a while. He's desperate to get them out there.

Last song of the day! Apologies for the slight fuckup upthread. Coming up tomorrow: The heavy hitters. There's a significant point bump #16 onwards and keeps scalating from there, so I guess it means there's a more defined consensus on their top 15 songs.

http://i.imgur.com/niHqzJ8.jpg
21. Golden Ball 9 votes, 176 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Jenny Ondioline 7” / Transient Random Noise-Bursts (1993)
https://youtu.be/_sTN9ozglRo

"The Black Art" was one of my discoveries in preparing my ballot. Such an un-Stereolab song, too -- classically beautiful.

XPs WOOOOOH GOLDEN BALL.

Catching up on some of the songs. Great selection from Emperor Tomato Ketchup today. The title track ended up high on my list.

I remember hearing the single edit of Captain Easychord on the John Peel show and really not liking it. Then I heard the album version which changed everything. Great to see that and The Black Arts appear. Two of the songs that make Sound-Dust such a great song.

Totally thought Wow & Flutter would be in the top 10. Possibly the first song I ever heard of theirs.

I'm still so surprised when I see people saying Dots & Loops is one of their weakest albums. It's my second favourite behind Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Gorgeous songs with some really wonderful production.