Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse leaked

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Just started dling now. Anyone else hear it yet?

― Michael B, Thursday, 8 January 2004 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, it sounds like a stereolab record... only heard it once though.

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i am surprised i had enough faith in this to be disappointed again

― gareth (gareth), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Stereolab albums : You only need seven really.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:21 (twenty-two years ago)

They're never as good as the first time you hear them.

― roger_adultery, Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, I've liked what I heard of Sound Dust, which I didn't feel like checking out upon release, although I'm not sure I'll ever buy it. So I'm still midly interested by the new one.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The title, together with the track title "Bye Marge," suggests that this is a tribute to Mary Hansen. Not that you'd know it from the album - you might have expected grief, catharsis, Stereolab finally ripping up their studied cool and admitting to such bourgeois notions as "emotion" and "passion." Not a bit of it. Gane and Sadier might have relocated from Brixton to Bordeaux (and how bourgeois is that?) but they remain stuck in the same decade-old cul-de-sac, still wringing out variations on their one song on what might be their 20th or their 42nd or their 68th album (is anyone still keeping count?). I liked "Peng!" and liked what Sean O'Hagan brought to "Mars Audiac Quintet" (i.e. the High Llamas). But as for "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" - well, at least dEUS had the decency to credit their Don Cherry samples on "Worst Case Scenario."

The new Stereolab album? You've already heard it.

― Phoebe Dinsmore, Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

i never even bothered to listen to Sound Dust, so disillusioned have I been with 'Lab output of late. Am I mental?

Thanks for the tip re: the newie anyway, Michael B...

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

The Sound Dust tracks on the 2nd disc of the ABC Sessions are actually the best.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"Transient Random Noise Burst W/announcements"
"Mars Audiac Quintet"
"Refried Ectoplasm"
"Emperor Tomato Ketchup"
"Aluminium Tunes"
"Groop Played Space age batchelor pad music"

OK, six. These were the first six I got (actually dots and loops was before alumin.. ) but after that each seemed 'not-needed'

But these I still love...

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

A shame as "Cybille's reverie" was my fav. single so I looked forward to the next LP/whatever. Only to go "oh".

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Though I did like the mini-LP they did for the Charles Long installation - what was that one called again? Yellow cover; can't remember the title offhand ("Music For The Electronic Body Study"?) although I have good memories of the time when it came out.

Don't get me wrong; I used to think they were great, but after "Dots And Loops" it was as if they started making records to please Wire readers.

― Phoebe Dinsmore, Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

got it in a nutshell:(

― gareth (gareth), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it is another case of a band striving to make a particular sound, and one day succeeding. "Dots and Loops" was it.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

"The amorphous body " thing is on "Aluminium Tunes" in its entirety.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I don't even know if I'll buy this; I didn't buy Instant 0, and the couple tracks I downloaded don't seem like anything special.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 8 January 2004 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't even know they'd moved to Bordeaux. The idea of them doing variations on their one song isn't even something I object to, in theory, but these days it doesn't seem to be as appealing in practice.

I'll probably forever relate them with good times had in '96-'97, which is something I guess.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 8 January 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I, for one, need this kind of steady, reliable, neatly-packaged audiac bliss in my life. I expect I'll buy this LP and every subsequent release just like I bought the others. There's at least two fantastic no-one-else-can-do-this moments on every record. Er, OK, I'm still looking for them (not all that keenly, to be honest) on First Of The Microbe Hunters...

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 8 January 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm finding this nice and pleasant. Mind you, the last Stereolab album I heard was Emperor Tomato Ketchup so I'm not as jaded about the Stereolab sound as you lot are.

― Michael B, Thursday, 8 January 2004 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Odd you would say that, because the new one reminds me a bit of ETK. Not that they're terribly similar musically, but, where ETK seemed like some kind of a build-up to Stereolab's next phase, ME plays like a cooling off record.

It's a good, solid record. 'Lab fans won't be disappointed at all.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 8 January 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I know the title is supposed to be a kind of allusion to the departed member, but the image it conjours up makes me slightly nauseous

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 8 January 2004 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Sound Dust excels. Buy it, people. Download it, whatever. Tim Gane has some masterful work there.
Their recent EP has some nice moments, though doesn't break much new ground. (The lead track is a tribute to Mary and is appropriately in a 'classic' 'lab style. The rest has its moments.)
Personally, I think they're diff. enough from most other acts that I still enjoy them. I love what they do with song-structure. Fresh and organic.

― Robomonkey (patronus), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

gotta agree with the last comment about sound dust. i disliked the 2 previous releases - too full of jazzy, overlong jams. but sound-dust has great tunes and something as close to emotion as your likely to find on a 'lab cd.

on 1st listens, margerine eclipse is a step backwards - more jamming together of disparate parts instead of creating real songs. still there's a couple of lovely tracks.

― phil turnbull (philT), Thursday, 8 January 2004 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"Space Moth" on Sound Dust might actually be my fave Stereolab song. "La Demuere" on the new one is very good too. I like when they really try to do new things with the production - my dream 'Lab record would have 12 songs with 12 different producers.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

They get more prog as they go on. I don't find this to be a bad thing.

― Schwingung (Damian), Thursday, 8 January 2004 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i agree with the robo and phil -- but then i started listening to stereolab with Sound Dust and went backwards, since i thought Sound Dust was extraodinarily good.

I went back to Tomatos, Dots and Milky CDs and thought they were mediocre. I haven't heard the stuff before those that others seem to cherish, so i didn't have some expectations about what they should sound like, though i understand/heard the albums i mention here are "second phase" stereolab.

i'll reserve judgement on the early stuff, could understand how people could be bored with milky and tomatos, not sure about dots.
so

for those people who haven't bothered listening to sound dust, i say
you probably don't know what you're missing, but it's much more compelling than the other three, .. it's gorgeous.

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 9 January 2004 00:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I own eight of the albums. I thought that was enough, but it probably isn't.

I think I would like it if the Neptunes produced Stereolab, even for just one song - they both have that superclean sound going on, and Pharrell seems to like the 'Lab a lot, so it's too bad they haven't worked together in this way.

― Schwingung (Damian), Friday, 9 January 2004 00:57 (twenty-two years ago)

stereolab are way better live!

i've got Mars Audiac Quintet & Switched On. I don't listen to either frequently, but when I do it's a pleasant enough experience. Mars Audiac Quintet makes good makeout music since it's so long.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Friday, 9 January 2004 01:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Dots & Loops is the only one I listen to anymore. That one was really fresh to me when I first heard it and that album really still reminds me of a certain part of my life. That one and The Fawn by The Sea And Cake really got me interested in the production side of making music. The only Stereolab record I've heard since then is Sound Dust actually and it had some great moments but much of it seemed a bit overdone. Plus I'm never huge on Jim O'Rourke stuff - oooops. I am still amazed at how varied opinions are - even among Stereolab fans - on which is their best album.

― Johnny Badlees (crispssssss), Friday, 9 January 2004 01:12 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, and there i go trying to compare stereolab and sonic youth in another thread, and suggesting (in a subtle way) that o'rourke might have been the weak link,
but only a few people around here seem to want to even address what seems to me as many ambiguities regarding sonic youth,
and i get accused (by others) of "not making sense" (w/out these others having anything of their own to say about sonic youth)

obv. not everybody here on either thread is so seemingly simplistic & dismissive, and i hope this thread goes better than that other one.

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 9 January 2004 01:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Stereolab is the soundtrack to my life, and has been for years. As much as I'd like to hear the sound progress, it's a comfort to know the next release will be same as the last sixty-three. It might be stagnant, it might be directionless, but for my money there's no finer mood music available.

Stereolab has been, is now, and will always be the musical equivalent of those futuristic brown vinyl bucket chairs with pointy wooden legs from the 1970s.

― Senator Mal Colston, Friday, 9 January 2004 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, every stereolab album is great. they are taken for granted, our lives would be poorer without them. fromt he last ep it sounds like they're getting groovy. sound dust is beautiful. dots and loops is still the best one though.

― keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 9 January 2004 02:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Never let Jim O'Rourke kiss you--I heard he sucks out your breath and then you die.

― Robomonkey (patronus), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, also, Laetitia Sadier plays a mean trombone!

― Robomonkey (patronus), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I've had this for a couple of months, and the more I listen the more I like it--even the disparate-parts-jammed-together songs started making lots of sense after a while. Transient Random-Noise Bursts... is still my favorite of their records (and one of my favorite records ever), but this is super-good.

― Douglas (Douglas), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Gossett OTM. Sound Dust was a surprisingly good album considering how utterly rubbish Dots... and everything thence had been. I especially like how finally the brass sounds like *brass* rather than the thin timid parping of yore. I can't say I'm very excited about the new one though. I think we kind of know what they do now. Maybe enough's enough.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 9 January 2004 09:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Sound Dust, then? OK, shall see. Cobra and thingybob I got as a cheap promo, played once, should I persevere? Judge it by my previous list here, ta.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 9 January 2004 09:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I got so tired defending Cobra... on various fronts that I was on a drip for a fortnight. I maintain that the last quarter is glorious. It was one of two LPs Pam bought me (the other was Stewart Walker's Stabiles) the day our Gyrodec was supposed to arrive (and didn't). Extra fondness, y'see.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 9 January 2004 11:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Michael OTM, in regard to Cobra being great. In my mind it's tied for first place with Switched On 2.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 9 January 2004 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Really? Seeing as how that's my number one album stereolabwise, I really have to have another go at it.

I rmember really disliking Mars Audiac Quintet on the first play. Second play, I loved it. Biggest (quickest) turnaround ever.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 9 January 2004 16:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Thing about Cobra is that it's one of the few of their records that I start listening to and don't want to leave, like a really comfortable room. The other records are good, but I want to skip around a bit. D&L was the second S-Lab record I got (after SO2), and at the time i thought it was incredible...but as I bought more and more of their records it seemed too synthetic, or something. ETK has some of their best songs but, again, I tend to skip to said 3-5 great songs rather than sitting all the way through it.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 9 January 2004 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

i might approach Cobra myself again using cover art as sequencing guide .. it wasn't a promo but seemed like a book i'd never finish reading &or had judged by its cover, an uncomfortable room, or maybe it just puts me to sleep with the first few songs

i don't know the pre-birth guitar stuff still, but the fidelity or environment of the later plus-protools stuff is nice to hear deployed in actual songs if they're good -- i hope the earlier stuff is good, and the various sequencing suggestions that have been made about those albums will be fun, so thanks.

so, is it eno/ old school vs. o'rourke new i wonder ? so maybe it's that the analogue filters are better ? who knows the precise recording technique now ? the brass ? it'd be nice if stereolab listed the equipment they used on their albums (like old the synth artists who used to list specific synths perhaps as endorsements but interesting nonetheless)

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 9 January 2004 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

the BBC world service incidental muzak will drive me to abandoning this sort of music soon,.. so someone at the BBC, please change it.

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 9 January 2004 18:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Michael's right--the latter part of Cobra... IS glorious. (Not to knock the front end.) So glad to hear someone else say this. The final track (come and play in the milky night) is among the best cuts I've ever heard from any band. Utterly sublime. Best played late at night. It's a 75minute album, so I didn't get to the end for a few listens, didn't realize what I had. So, Mark, def. give it a chance!

― Robomonkey (patronus), Friday, 9 January 2004 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Lending support to all the Cobra lovers. Never got why that one was so maligned - especially not getting the hate for Blue Milk, which is some of the best krautrock since krautrock

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 9 January 2004 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Word.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i like the fake-ish post chariman M-ism of Stereolab, and i think moving to France is the right thing to do to preserve whatever political farvour they have (i live in NZ so i don't get some of it i suppose),

but i'm sick of those movement bands engineered to manoeuvre the youth of today -- do they work for Guiliania or crowd control or whoever ?

(the intersting peace movements the communists cynically used to supposedly recruite fellow travellers, the peace movement as it became, xxxxxxxxxxx
cf:
those media put-up bands, that parlay a certain economical/political aganda on behalf of the government, that should be strung by their nearest guitar string)

― george gosset (gegoss), Sunday, 11 January 2004 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i know it sounds a silly theory about the govt, like OK Coke or whatever it was called, that grey generic generation apathy drink Coke tried and failed to launch

― george gosset (gegoss), Sunday, 11 January 2004 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

and legitimate peace corps., well, they do exist, but unlike the '60s and '70s bands, todays bands have little to offer along those lines, with a few exceptions (The Dead C for instance, an exception, with their song "Power" (eg) )

― george gosset (gegoss), Sunday, 11 January 2004 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm with douglas on this one -- it's really good, and even the stitched-together traxx have their own logic to 'em

― geeta (geeta), Friday, 16 January 2004 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The P'Fork review is out. When is it hitting the streets? I'm tempted but I feel I should first get Sound Dust.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 16 January 2004 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

is the voice gonna run any review of it?

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 16 January 2004 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Well. I thought Dominique's review was pretty fair. And I'll probably buy it now -- I can't imagine that I'd dislike it.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 16 January 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought that Pitchfork review was fantastic, really. I was going to buy the new 'lab eventually, now I'll get a move on more expeditiously.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

But why was it reviewed three weeks before the album's due?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 16 January 2004 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Release dates mean very little to most Pitchfork readers, I think. It's "leak dates" that count, and the Stereolab has been around for a while.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 16 January 2004 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, this crazy modern world.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 16 January 2004 21:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not a fan of this development myself but then I have a 56K modem and very little patience.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 16 January 2004 21:32 (twenty-two years ago)

three weeks pass...

I think the beats are fantastic on this album. They should just go for it and make dance music. Margerine Melodie should get a house remix (by, I don't know, Boris Dlugosch). (Either that or collaborate with professed fans Jay Dilla and the Neptunes on the next one.)

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 9 February 2004 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh heh, that's an intriguing image all around.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 9 February 2004 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Stereolab has had some pretty cool remixes by electronic acts in the past (I'm thinking of the bizarre Autechre remix, and of course the MoM tracks on Dots & Loops). I think they absolutely should work with dance/electronic producers more often.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 9 February 2004 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I can totally imagine a Neptunes job. Some of the textures and funky phases of Sound Dust already veered in that direction.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Monday, 9 February 2004 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Having finally heard it - it's all about the Dual Mono. Everything hard-panned left and right (only things common to both channels sit in the centre), it's an Esquivellian masterstroke. Even the kaleidoscopic Sound-Dust pales next to it for ear-bathing depth and density. I'm not totally sold on yr ackchewal content yet - it sags in the middle like a few previous S'lab sarnies - but I'm hooked anyway. And, yes, it's a moving record, if you allow yourself such a notion in the first place.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 9 February 2004 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyone hear the hidden track?...the punk-funk one? It's fantastic! I know they're never ones to jump on the next bandwagon but it sounds great...as does the rest of the album which sounded lovely last Saturday morning.

― Michael B, Monday, 9 February 2004 17:26 (twenty-two years ago)

a track hidden before track 1's 0:00?

― (Jon L), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

it's after the last track

― Michael B, Monday, 9 February 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

you mean the reprise of part of 'Mass Riff' from Instant 0?

― zebedee (zebedee), Monday, 9 February 2004 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

That's it.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 9 February 2004 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone should do a mashup of that and Chic's I Want Your Love.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 9 February 2004 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

my voice review on this will run eventually (eventually!)

yes that part at the very end is a reprise of 'mass riff' (which is a great tune also)

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 9 February 2004 20:05 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

every time "mass riff" comes up on random play i think it's some DFA-produced thing. i think this could be my favourite stereolab song since the "aluminium tunes" comp.

― purple patch (electricsound), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 00:23 (twenty-one years ago)

nineteen years pass...

"vonal declosion" gleams

― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 9 September 2023 00:04 (two years ago)

between that and "dear marge" it might be their finest opening / closing track combo

― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 9 September 2023 00:07 (two years ago)

I'm personally a fan of Cosmic Country Noir and La Demeure

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, 9 September 2023 01:08 (two years ago)

If pressed I would nominate Margerine as their best album, it's exciting throughout and sounds fantastic, lots of variety in the writing too. ETK and Peng! are the other end-to-end bangers.

― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 9 September 2023 04:14 (two years ago)

“Sudden Stars” always makes me tear up.

― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 9 September 2023 10:51 (two years ago)

IMO their most underrated album

― afriendlypioneer, Saturday, 9 September 2023 13:16 (two years ago)

This was the first of theirs I heard, thought it was great. Heard Emperor Tomato Ketchup, was left cold by everything but "Cybele's Reverie". Still love every track on this album, but never got around to listening further.

― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 10 September 2023 16:39 (two years ago)

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