Is 'Dots and Loops' the pinnacle of Stereolab's output to date?

Heh. ILM has been a battleground over this before -- it breaks down between those who love the album and those, like myself, that consider it to be by and large a disaster thanks to John McEntire's snore-rific production on most of the cuts. No guesses as to which side I'm on.

Finest hour? Well I've been listening to a great unofficial live compliation called The Tahan Project that's been circulating through the on-line fanbase and right now I might say that!

in particular:

Music For The Amorphous Body Center
Space Age Bachelor Music

i love every release up to this, culminating in emperor tomato ketchup and, as hstencil says, fluorescenses in 96. i dont like any of the post-dots and loops work at all, and find this so disappointing compared to the great records before this

i don't really have a favorite album of theirs... many of them are pretty different and i like certain ones better at different times.
m.

I think the fact that I dislike everything after it too (and my love of Mouse on Mars) means I can't blame the production, though at the time I wanted to and I suppose I do find a lot of McEntire's work snoozesome, though not all of it and not even all of it since D&L.

(Listening to Hanley's cover of it made me appreciate the composition even more than before.)

If you like Broadcast, you'll like The United States of America. But you'll probably like Stereolab, too.

go for:

emperor tomato ketchup
space age bachelor pad music
music from the amorphous body study centre
switched on
switched on volume 2- refried ectoplasm

That's a little unfair since Broadcast have only released singles and a single album, and Stereolab has such a large discography. They're pretty sonically different anyway, even if they both have "retro" electronic sounds and at least one female singer.

They contribute music to a track on the new Common album. That's gonna be interesting.

julio: i'm assuming that by 'diluted' you mean 'made, like, actually good'

i'll get my coat.

My favorite Stereolab would be the assemblence of all the 1995 era material from "Aluminum Tunes"... like the "Amorphous" EP and all the side things combined. (They all fit conveniently on a CD-R, tee hee)

I was just trying to work out my personal ranking, and I think it goes like this:

Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Mars Audiac Quintet
[upper limit of Transient Random's possible rankings]
Dots and Loops
Aluminum Tunes
Peng!
Switched On
Refried Ectoplasm
Space Age Bachelor Pad Music
[lower limit of Transient Random's possible rankings]
Sound-Dust
Cobra and Phases

1. Mid-period Lab (Transient Random through Dots and Loops) / 2. Early Lab (Peng through Transient Random) / 3. Late Lab (everything after Dots and Loops)

Suggested compilation on the way...

I haven't listened to DOTS AND LOOPS for years and years, but I remember thinking that I was hoping for a Stereolab album and got a Tortoise album instead. Kind of like when I bought the third Spinanes album.

They used to put on a freaking great live show back in 94-96 - I saw them play a show with Unrest, and then with UI/DJ Spooky, and both were just astonishingly fun - but recent records have sounded less energetic and made me think their live shows would be less good. Anyone want to speak out for/against recent live Stereolabness?

It's been foreverish (something like six or seven years) since I listened to the record, but as I recall my main frustration was the movement from the forwardish propulsive rhythm of earlier 'Lab records to a more scattered, "jazzy" rhythm, the latter of which is more in keeping with Tortoise's rhythmic approach than Stereolab's old rhythmic approach.

I actually liked Tortoise a lot at the time. (By the time the Spinanes album came out, and the relatively unique sound of STRAND was replaced with yet another Chicago-based rhythm sound, I was substantially less patient.) I went into the record hoping, and actually expecting, that I'd like it. But I thought his work with Stereolab was like crossing chocolate with garlic aioli - just because you like them both separately doesn't mean they should be combined.

Again, who knows what I'd think if I listened today. Don't have a copy of it, though.

I don't think anyone's denying that! What's being questioned are the results.

Prekop is my #1 musician crush

I started with "Transient", well, "Jenny Ondioline" obviously with "French Disco".

Got earlier albums, not so fussed. But Switched on vol 2 might be my all time fav.

Anyway, each new album i always felt like I didn't like them, but would play them again then would come around to them.

Dots & Loops it took hearing it in Oxfam that made me go back and listen properly..

After that? Well, other music was available and I do still have the albums up to "Not Music" but am unsure if I actually got round to playing it...

The groop first showed up for me when "The Noise of Carpet" got pretty heavy play at the Ole Miss campus radio station; I was working at the univ.'s student media center at the time and was getting a dangerously heavy dose of college radio every day. I associate D&L with my 1998-2001 years in Northern California. It blew my mind, to the extent that I refused to investigate their older work for a few years because I knew nothing could live up to D&L, and pointedly refused to give from Cobra & Phases & thereafter a fair shake until I gave the full discography a hard listen when the Stereolab ballot poll was running.

One thing that helped me overdose on D&L was the opening to "Refractions in the Plastic Pulse" being used as bumper music between shows on PBS You, the late 90s-2005 educational channel, which we had on a lot during the Redding years. Anyway, D&L is one of their pinnacles, though I don't listen to it often anymore. Sound-Dust is the one I keep listening to now.

Sea and the Cake was a band I never checked out, probably because the name is goofy. What’s a good place to start?

First three albums (s/t, Nassau, The Biz) are breezy guitar pop, very enjoyable stuff, especially The Biz

Next three (The Fawn, Oui, One Bedroom) are the ones I think people like most - they added some modern electronic elements which gave their sound a new dimension, if you come at them from Stereolab I think Fawn or Oui is the one you want to start with...I mean if you don't love "Afternoon Speaker" then just forget it

the ones after I think are fine, pretty good even, but the band didn't really have a clear direction after that, so my main impression is "that's the Sea and Cake, alright". I still like them all though, they're such a good vibes band, that said I'm kinda glad they went kaputt so Prekop and McEntire could focus on other things...that album they did as a duo with the cats on the cover is fantastic

Oui is my favorite, and the most Dots n Loopsish in its own way

Personally I'd suggest The Fawn and Sam Prekop s/t as your entry point

Also, for nerds, and this is only my recollection, but The Sea And Cake got their name from a misheard Gastr Del Sol song title "The C In Cake"

Realising I'm chronically unfamiliar with "The Groop Played Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" and listened to it this morning. Wow, what a weak release. I remember seeing it on CD in stores in the late 90s and thinking that it seemed unthinkable that I'd pay $22 for an EP at the time and I am so glad I didn't. "We're Not Adult Orientated" is nice. Not at all surprised that none of these tracks were subsequently compiled or made any appearances in Peel Sessions or what have you

aw, I love “Avant Garde M.O.R.”

but yeah the rest is kinda self parody

In 1996 I saw Sonic Youth with Stereolab opening in Berlin and then the next day caught a triple header of Tortoise/Sea and Cake/Trans Am. Peak 90s moment. I like Dots and Loops a lot but prefer the relaxed/fun vibe of ETK.

Live recording from is are intsersting. Alsao in case i have not self promoted this simce 2002... https://www.koly.com/stereolab/bootswitch.php

Thank you fgti, despite listening to it for 30 years I have neither known nor appreciated the lyrics of "Cybèle's Reverie", and now I love it even more.

For me they peaked with "Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center" and I bailed after Cobra but I've warmed to later material over the years. The non-lp stuff has always been where it's at, the EPs and compilation contributions are where they let their freak flag fly.

Go easy on The Groop Played Space Age Batchelor Pad Music. The trippy "We're Not Adult Orientated" video on late night TV was my first exposure to the groop so it's a sacred artefact lol. I guess the title track(s) and the second "WNAO" are inessential but I suspect I've listened to it way more than, say, Lo Fi over the years.

U.H.F.- MFP is a top five all-time Stereolab track and I'd rather hear it twenty times in a row than the entirety of Dots and Loops... musically, lyrically, vocally that one track may be the purest distillation of their sound

I love buzzy, Farfisa-driven Stereolab and was all-in with them from the beginning so unsurprisingly, I was a Dots and Loops skeptic. I was so disappointed when it was released. After the incredible sound of the ETK tour when Sonic Boom was playing with them, DaL felt like a regression into oddball Free Design-inspired exotica that I just couldn't connect with. It put me off of them for a long time until the "Interlok" single came out. I saw them a couple of times after that and IIRC correctly, they didn't play any DaL material on the Chemical Chords tour so maybe they agreed with me too.

Fast-forward to now and the DaL songs they play live now (usually "Miss Modular" along with "The Flower Called Nowhere" or "Rainbo Conversation"). Don't know if that album just fits in better now or my ears have changed.

I never heard Low Fi until recently and I like it! The b-side of Bachelor is OK. My friend pointed out that they were still finding their “not a Neu! cover band” sound and I should be more charitable toward it

I think Bachelor was the first time they worked with Mary Hansen

low fi was the first appearance of both hansen and ramsay

i agree with fgti about space-age batchelor pad music, it's the weakest of their early period. the two versions of "we're not adult oriented" are great but the rest is rather slight

Not at home to check but I think Tim’s notes on the Batchelor reissue mentioned that they went in to record a single and ended up doing more tracks which may be why it doesn’t feel as fully realized.

UHF-MFP is indeed all time, and I want to say the same notes mentioned there was going to be drums added but they didn’t get around to it. Better for the song as the drum machine makes it, esp the last few minutes, hypnotic.

Low-Fi was the crossover phase with Mary and Andy joining for the first time, but Martin Kean (The Chills) still on bass and Mick Conroy (Modern English) still on Farfisa.

Dots and Loops is great but not the pinnacle for me. I loved how they evolved over time with different songwriting processes, different members and collaborators, but the early guitar/farfisa rock band from 91-93 (and up through 96) is what I fell in love with and still is what I reach for. The Neu homages are there but it’s a small percentage of their stuff in that period. Also Peng suffers from some weak production esp on the rockier tracks. They could get loud live on Orgiastic, Peng 33, Stomach Worm, etc.

For me, Cobra and Phases is Dots and Loops done better and is therefore the pinnacle.

cobra and phases is going for something a bit different, it's looser, jazzier, & more chaotic. there's some real highlights ("strobo acceleration"! "the free design"!) but it's also a bit much overall for me

Parts of "Infinity Girl" remind me of Trick of the Tail-era Genesis.

i just got to margerine eclipse in my full discography listen and i feel like people don't talk enough about how brilliant that album is. i certainly haven't spent enough time with it previously

they do some fascinating things with the hard-panned mix but it's also sort of exhausting and disorienting to listen to on headphones because nothing else sounds like it at all

I think I just bumped the Margerine Eclipse thread a week ago after coming to the same conclusion. helps that the first track hooks you in right away...Dots & Loops does that too

I fell off with Cobra, I incorrectly felt they were treading water. A dive into the albums I had ignored a couple years ago convinced me I was wrong.

said it on the other thread but the opening 3 songs on margerine might be peak stereolab for me

can’t believe I slept on Sound-Dust and ME for like 20 years

Space Moth rules

I've owned and enjoyed Cobra for years, but for the life of me I still have trouble reciting the full name of the record.

@ ufo I know Spiritualized have a dual mono album (Pure Phase) and I seem to recall Primal Scream (?) doing a similar thing at one point

i just got to margerine eclipse in my full discography listen and i feel like people don't talk enough about how brilliant that album is. i certainly haven't spent enough time with it previously

― ufo, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 13:11 (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oi

they made an album just for meeee <3

well, they made it for Mary Hansen and made damn sure it was the most music per minute an album can feasibly have, in her honour. Sound-Dust approaches this level at times and definitely shows that they were heading into new, more intricately poignant territory, but ME is a psychedelic fever-dream nonpareil

you aren't properly listening to the lyrics then, the album is for the people by the people

o7

Just piling on with the ME love, it really is a peak accomplishment.

I think Pure Phase was done a bit differently, where it has 2 different mixes of the same material for the left and right channels, whereas Margerine Eclipse has completely different recordings and musical parts on each channel.

yeah pure phase is the closest thing to margerine eclipse i'm aware of in terms of mixing approach but it's not quite the same thing, the effect isn't as intense

margerine eclipse is kinda the culmination of everything they'd done up to that point, it's all in there. top 3 easily

fab four suture is the first to really feel like they're running out of steam. the main development in their sound is that there's brass everywhere, which is less dramatic than the shifts they made each album over the previous decade, and the songs feel generally unmemorable?

tbf that release compiles a series of 7" singles which were pretty fun in their own right.
Looking at the TV performance from the Kraftwerk thread, it finally dawned on me - 30 years late - that "Metronomic Underground" nicks the bassline from "Autobahn".

is it? i don't really hear a similarity except the octave jumps, which are a pretty common thing for a bassline to do.

i know "klang tone" lifts the bassline from "european son" and slows it down, which yo la tengo then copied for "moby octopad"

True, but when you see the Kraftwerk one played, it's the Metronomic Underground line with an eighth-note echo on it, I think. Anyway I am tired and prone to mistakes like that!

There was some interview where Michael Rother was passing some tents at Glastonbury festival, in the mid distance Stereolab were just starting up, and he was all like "Shit, we're on!"

there's a few interviews where he tells the story of his friend introducing him to stereolab by taking him to a show, which he enjoyed but found it very odd to hear something so clearly influenced by his own work, saying he wondered if he was listening to his own playing

Yeah, i remember that. He didn't mind too much, nice bloke