Stereolab - Dots and Loops

mission fucking impossible

voted The Flower Called Nowhere for the 6/8 harpsichord

FUCKING DOTS & LOOPS

O M Y GOD
BEST STEREOLAB ALBUM EVER

Right now I'm thinking Diagonals, but you know (Rainbow Conversation).

x-post yesses

i want the mouse on mars people who were involved with this to come back to the stereolab people who were here and make the babies that i will adopt.

The previous two were the best.

The next two were the best.

Isn't "Flower Called Nowhere" Pharrell Williams' favourite track ever or something? Whatever, you can hear it all over some recent Neptunes productions.

Rainbo Converstion people

keep your eyes on the fucking prize

Shiiiiiit I now want to hear this IMMEDIATELY

I hope everyone reading this in the next day or so is flailing back and forth between every track on this album, because yes everything here is that good.

x-post i am listening to it right now and for god's sake it is still great.

I put Contronatura on a cassette comp I used to listen to all the time when I got trashed so that is the one I have fondest memories of maybe

Contronatura is fantastic

MY DEAREST FRIEND YOU GAN ?????

The drumming on this thing is off the fucking hook

refractions in the plastic pulse should be ftw, but was this anyone else's fav song on this perfect album?

Yeah, this is where it started to all go a bit wrong.

NO! this was the apex

it's the drums and the MoM involvement i think i don't kn ow whatever, it is great.

SO much better than emperor tomato ketchup as much as i LOVE that thingy.

I mean RAINBO (FUCKING) CONVERSATION

I don't agree w/ Kate but I knew someone was gonna say that sooner or later

lol i would rate this like > transient > peng > abc sessions, dunno about the rest. ALL i know is love stereolab so much and i hope they make my baby and/or inform him/her about the world to come so i can rest assured, maybe show them a programme or two.

I was lukewarm on this album when it came out, but it has aged amazingly well. I like it just as much as ETK, if not a little bit more. That said, I'll always stand by defence of the hat-trick of TRNBWA - Mars Audiac Quintet - Refried Ectoplasm comp as being the pinnacle of their career. I'll take it all though, really, all the way up to the new one. They've had a remarkable dearth of dud moments for a band that has been around for so long and released so many records. Fuck a Cobra and Phases, but that's about it.

As for the matter at hand - there's plenty to choose from, but here they score biggest right off the bat: "Brakhage." Those skittering drum fills & organ riffs seal the deal.

refractions in the plastic pulse should be ftw, but was this anyone else's fav song on this perfect album?

― Matt P, Monday, December 22, 2008 9:53 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

YES

Miss Modular is incredible, Flower Called Nowhere is orgasmic etc etc but Refractions is the magnum fucking opus.

Reluctant to spooge all over the thread but I do believe this is my favourite album of all time.

(except Prisoner of Mars which is skippable)

In fact, ahem, I can only listen to this album as an entire piece (except Prisoner of Mars sometimes) because once it starts I cannot back away. Many times I've rushed to stop one of the songs playing on random because I can't be dragged in at that time.

I will spooge all over the thread with u AA

^_____^

There's a REALLY shitty tape dropout near the end of Ticker-Tape which bollockses the whole experience though.

?????????

This album rules, obv. I can't decide.

There's a REALLY shitty tape dropout near the end of Ticker-Tape which bollockses the whole experience though.

― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, December 22, 2008 6:47 AM (2 hours ago)

I've listened to this album about a million times and I have no idea what you are talking about.

"Parsec" is the one that was used in the VW Beetle commercial, right?

Surprised at the "Refractions" love, as it's the only song on the album I consistently skip (though "Ticker-tape of the Unconscious" occasionally gives me an itchy trigger finger).

Ended up picking "Miss Modular", because it's pretty much perfect, but just about every other track is a damn close second, especially "Rainbo Conversation" and "Contronatura". One of the greatest albums of the '90s, IMHO, and head and shoulders above every other 'Lab release.

Yeah, this is where it started to all go a bit wrong.

^^^^ OTM. The beginning of a long slide of mediocrity.

Now we just need Ned to weigh in, and the Anglophile drone fans will have made their point.

This album works as a whole for me and - very un-ILM comment coming - I don't think I've ever paid attention to any of the titles.

Miss Modular is the best song here

for some reason this album seems like the end of something for Stereolab; it was certainly the end of the run where I thought everything they put out was brilliant (next two releases were the first disappointments I had with them). Can't pick a song.

This is the only Stereolab album I own, largely because of "Parsec".

This is tough, but I'm gonna go with "Brakhage". One of the best openers ever.

My favorite Stereolab album by a mile. When PBS You (RIP) first started, they would run the opening of "Refractions in the Plastic Pulse" in a loop between programs that almost burned me out on that song.

I'm halfway through a run-through right now, but I'm probably going to vote "Diagonals."

Isn't "Flower Called Nowhere" Pharrell Williams' favourite track ever or something? Whatever, you can hear it all over some recent Neptunes productions.

― Jeff W, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:57 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

Also, a Dilla production for Busta samples Stereolab (in a similar vein that he did with Towa Tei for Tribe):

The Automator remix of "Miss Modular" is the best thing he ever did and better than anything on this record (which admittedly I've not listened to in ages.)

Their best album! Yes! I guess I can understand being bitter when one of your favorite bands stops sounding like one of your favorite bands. But - if you just take this album on its own terms - Dots and Loops is very, very, very good at doing what it's trying to do.

I almost went with Diagonals, ended up going with Miss Modular...which I'm guessing will win?

Also: Sound-Dust deserves wayyy more respect.

"I guess I can understand being bitter when one of your favorite bands stops sounding like one of your favorite bands."

That would really be the previous album though (which was great!)

True, but it still seems to be the most common criticism of D&L?

I thought the most common criticism was that it was kind of boring.

Also: Sound-Dust deserves wayyy more respect.

― iatee, Monday, December 22, 2008 3:13 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM

True, but it still seems to be the most common criticism of D&L?

― iatee, Monday, December 22, 2008 3:17 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM

I thought the most common criticism was that it was kind of boring.

Couldn't someone say that about just about any Stereolab album that they personally didn't like?

Couldn't someone say that about just about any album that they personally didn't like?

Or impersonally for that matter.

Which is to suggest that it's not a very good criticism?

Sure, but it's very good reason not to like an album.

Probably not a reason worth sharing though.

There's a REALLY shitty tape dropout near the end of Ticker-Tape which bollockses the whole experience though.

― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, December 22, 2008 6:47 AM (2 hours ago)

I've listened to this album about a million times and I have no idea what you are talking about.

― Moodles, Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:56 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I've never been able to find a version that doesn't feature the dropout, despite trying really quite hard.

"Probably not a reason worth sharing though."

Yeah I'll let everyone who told me back in '98 know that, kay.

Maybe you should have!

Ticker-tape dropouts occur at 3:38 and 4:10 on every copy I've ever been able to find.

well, if they recorded it on ticker tape, no wonder!

Nope. I've listened to this album a thousand times and it slides off my ears every time.

I listened to it again last night, and there's not one song that makes me sit up and go Boy Howdy!

I thought the single they released about this time was possibly their best, but after that, nope never got what I got before.

"You fell, are you OK" etc..

Ticker-tape dropouts occur at 3:38 and 4:10 on every copy I've ever been able to find.

Wow, those are very subtle glitches. Maybe it'd be more obvious if I were listening on a high-end system, but on the system I have, even with decent headphones, I have to listen really carefully to even notice it.

Most of the people I know who dislike Dots and Loops are fans of the older Stereolab sound, but most of the bad things they say about it -- cold, slick, kitschy -- seem to apply way more to the albums that followed, especially Cobra, which was mostly disastrous.

What's strange is that many of the same people love Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which seems like the worst of both worlds to me. I guess it's just a question of which point in the transition you find most congenial.

(Don't get me wrong, there are some great songs on ETK, but as an album I find it almost impossible to get through. Lots of filler and a Rubber Soul-ish lack of focus.)

Yeah I agree about ETK...a few great songs, but it doesn't feel like a coherent album the way the few before and after do. Always seemed to me like a Greatest Hits album in a world where Stereolab were a worse band. Never understood its place as the canon's favorite Stereolab album.

(Don't agree about Rubber Soul, however)

xp Yeah, I've always enjoyed the new albums and cannot stand the old drony stuff.

I pretty much like everything they've done, but my favorite era is 1994-99.

ETK album and tour is where I got on board. And I like pretty much everything I've heard from them. I need to go relisten to D&L to choose a favorite track. I think of their albums as one long track most of the time. They are generally so consistent...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

there are some great songs on ETK, but as an album I find it almost impossible to get through. Lots of filler and a Rubber Soul-ish lack of focus.

OTM. Although this seems to be a rare opinion. I was sure I was off the Stereolab wagon after ETK, and wasn't initially impressed by "Miss Modular" either. Hearing "Brakhage" on the radio finally prompted me to part with my money. It still gets my vote.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Is this OOP now?! Judging by Amazon...

smh @ plastic pulse losing this

I hadn't listened to this in forever until today. It still sounds so great. And I'd forgotten the extent to which it served in part as a sonic prelude to Tortoise's TNT. Discovering Microstoria around the same time that this album was released made me a Jan St. Werner fan pretty quickly, as well.

deux et deux et deux et deux et deux oui

NO! this was the apex

― Matt P, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:57 AM (6 years ago)

man, how the hell did "Diagonals" only get 1 vote?

Miss Modular >>>>>>>> 99.9% of recorded music

Hmm, just had to listen to the whole thing again for the first time decades. Personally I like the intro track the best, more drawn to the somewhat harder electronic excursions rather than the straight dad-rock lounge material. I have to say though that overall I really love "French Disco" and think that is really the best thing Stereolab has ever done. Was recently listening to it and thinking how underrated these guys are, along with some of the other kind of experimental late=90s stuff.

*Ok, apparently "French Disco" is actually from 1993 so not really late 90's at all, and there's another version called "French Disko" that may have been released later? Idk, I'm finding some conflicting info out there...whatever, it's a good song.

brimstead otm

The drumming on this thing is off the fucking hook

― Matt P, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:46 AM (eight years ago)

dope as fukk

nerdy muso time signatures too

It's John McEntire drumming on Brakhage and Flower, right?

happy to see Dots & Loops get the retrospective review at p4k. the second part of 'Refractions in the Plastic Pulse' is one of my favorite things they ever did.

Refractions was robbed of number one

listening tonight is the first time i can really recall noticing that the parts on this may have actually been played at some point by a human being, one who was like in a band, before the production process kicked in

Humans are overrated, but there are definitely some people playing instruments on this album.

yeah i can spot em, but i just never really give em a thought, not even the drummer, who is the most humany, ironically

C'mon, other than a couple of swooshy overdubs Miss Modular might as well be Thee Headcoats.

Seriously though, Gane's very live-sounding rhythm guitar is definitive and is all over this record.

it's just something about how they get you from one bit to another. no one player or part ever seems to stick out as responsible for moving forward, but they don't sound like they're cooperating either, more like they're just very perfectly, conveniently coordinated.

aw yeah baby

music will never be better than this