Stereolab side projects, solo joints and one-offs

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
Stereolab & Nurse With Wound - Simple Headphone Mind (1997) 8
Turn On - Turn On (1997) 5
Uilab - Fires (1998) 3
Cavern of Anti-Matter - Blood-Drums (2013) 2
Schema - Schema (2000) 2
Imitation Electric Piano - Trinity Neon (2003) 1
Laetitia Sadier - Silencio (2012) 1
Laetitia Sadier - The Trip (2010) 1
Snowpony - Sea Shanties for Spaceships (2001) 0
Junior Electronics - Musostics (2012) 0
Tim Gane & Sean O'Hagan - Copacabana OST (2010) 0
Junior Electronics - Junior Electronics (2008) 0
Monade - Monstre Cosmic (2008) 0
Tim Gane & Sean O'Hagan - La Vie d’Artiste OST (2007) 0
Imitation Electric Piano - Blow It Up, Burn It Down, Kick It 'til It Bleeds (2006) 0
Snowpony - The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony (1998) 0
Mary Hansen - Hybird (2005) 0
Europa 51 - Abstractions (2003) 0
Monade - A Few Steps More (2005) 0


cock chirea, Monday, 20 January 2014 03:51 (twelve years ago)

i've only listened to a handful of these (turn on, schema, monade, laetitia's the trip). what else is it worth investigating?

cock chirea, Monday, 20 January 2014 03:52 (twelve years ago)

Simple Headphone Mind and Uilab are both great... SHM is long strange grooviness, Uilab is luminous cover versions of the Eno song

sleeve, Monday, 20 January 2014 03:55 (twelve years ago)

How is the solo Mary stuff and Schema? I never even knew about it.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 20 January 2014 05:03 (twelve years ago)

Either A Few Steps More and Trinity Neon for me

Evil Juice Box Man (Moodles), Monday, 20 January 2014 05:04 (twelve years ago)

Had no idea there was a Mary Hansen album

Evil Juice Box Man (Moodles), Monday, 20 January 2014 05:05 (twelve years ago)

guess it is more of an e.p. of unreleased material

Evil Juice Box Man (Moodles), Monday, 20 January 2014 05:07 (twelve years ago)

schema is p good iirc though i haven't heard it in full

displayed in brackets (electricsound), Monday, 20 January 2014 05:08 (twelve years ago)

UIlab bothered me, it just seemed so... caucasian? (Can I say that here?)

This is a very good jam that is essentially Stereolab packaged under another name:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V13n2Tm_vss

Not sure if I liked the rest of the album, sorta seemed like tracking demos or half-finished tracks.

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 20 January 2014 05:13 (twelve years ago)

sorta funny to think of snowpony as a stereolab side proj when gifford was around for such a relatively short time..

displayed in brackets (electricsound), Monday, 20 January 2014 05:14 (twelve years ago)

schema rules. it is basically a hovercraft spin-off (kraut/space rock action with plenty of repetition and mountains of guitar effects) only with mary oozing and cooing on top. super fun stuff.

cock chirea, Monday, 20 January 2014 05:31 (twelve years ago)

great jam, my fave from the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f3C7ExvrIA

cock chirea, Monday, 20 January 2014 05:33 (twelve years ago)

Simple! Headphone! Miiiiiiiiiiiind!

Mainly bcz I think of Snowpony as something *more* than just "Stereolab side project"

our lives, erased (Branwell Bell), Monday, 20 January 2014 12:12 (twelve years ago)

Europa 51 is pretty bad if I remember correctly. Like a jokey country-ish Stereolab that just turns into boring typical Stereolab-sounding tracks.

Big fan of the Sean O'Hagan and Tim Gane soundtracks. Never seen the films they soundtrack.

I've yet to hear the full Cavern of Antimatter album. I really need to.

I always enjoy Monade when I actually listen to them.

Gonna have to think about this...

afriendlypioneer, Monday, 20 January 2014 13:53 (twelve years ago)

Missing: first Monade album, first Imitation Electric Piano mini-LP, Splitting the Atom 7", probably others.

I own all of these except for the Snowpony albums (I don't really think of these as Stereolab side-projects), the two IEP albums that are included and the second Junior Electronics thing. Heartening in many ways that I can honestly say that Silencio and Blood-Drums, the two most recent things in the poll, are head and shoulders above everything else here (that I've heard).

Jeff W, Monday, 20 January 2014 14:28 (twelve years ago)

UIlab bothered me, it just seemed so... caucasian? (Can I say that here?)

so it was a paler shade of white, is what you're saying?

wilful brony (DJ Mencap), Monday, 20 January 2014 14:36 (twelve years ago)

Simple Headphone Mind is prolly the best thing on here but I was really really into the first Snowpony album at the time. got a bad feeling it won't hold up if I play it now

wilful brony (DJ Mencap), Monday, 20 January 2014 14:37 (twelve years ago)

Really liked the first couple of Snowpony things, but then I saw a terrible live show and went off them massively.

Turn On has moments of brilliance but isn't entirely consistent.

I'm guessing not many people have heard the Junior Electronics stuff - it's definitely worth a listen if you haven't.

For me it's between 'Fires' and 'Simple Headphone Mind'. I have probably spent more time listening to the former but the latter is so good. SHM it is.

emil.y, Monday, 20 January 2014 15:20 (twelve years ago)

Simple Headphone Mind is probably the right answer because it's ace. I might vote for Turn On just for the first three tracks, though.

Not sure Snowpony count any more than Th'Faith Healers or Billy Mahonie or, hm, wasn't Dilworth in Miss Mend too? They did a sort of anaemic (but then, aren't many of these?) and flat-vocalled Groop imitation that I nevertheless occasionally have fond memories of.

not a player-hater i just hate a lot (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 20 January 2014 16:32 (twelve years ago)

I mean, I actually really liked Snowpony, and they were a lot of fun live. But I no more think of them as a Stereolab side project than the High Llamas.

.

.

((((((((((((((((((((SCUTTLES)))))))))))))))))))))

our lives, erased (Branwell Bell), Monday, 20 January 2014 16:35 (twelve years ago)

Hey, that Schema track is great and it's on Spotify! Now to track down Mary's solo EP.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 20 January 2014 16:49 (twelve years ago)

Like, Sean O'hagan was never an actual Stereolab member officially, but he pretty much was a member of the studio group... No? What keeps him from being a member of the band?

afriendlypioneer, Monday, 20 January 2014 17:05 (twelve years ago)

pretty sure he was listed as a band member on TRNBWA

Evil Juice Box Man (Moodles), Monday, 20 January 2014 17:20 (twelve years ago)

My self-imposed rule, when I was responsible for the 'lab discog on the koly site, was to only include in the "side projects" section releases by people who were in the current Stereolab line-up at the time.

That didn't completely solve the O'Hagan problem though, for the reasons afriendlypioneer identifies. In the end though, I decided not to include The High Llamas as a side project (but if other groop members popped up on a High Llamas record, it got included in the "guest appearances" section).

Jeff W, Monday, 20 January 2014 17:28 (twelve years ago)

It seemed like he was only present during the EPs for a while there (91-95?)... this could be my faulty memory at play.

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 20 January 2014 17:48 (twelve years ago)

Surely the High Llamas 'problem' is solved by the fact that they existed before Stereolab? Certainly before O'Hagan joined, anyway. And that's why Snowpony are read as a side project - they came after.

emil.y, Monday, 20 January 2014 17:51 (twelve years ago)

Too easy to say "Simple Headphone Mind" but it's one of my fav Stereolab things anyway.

Mark G, Monday, 20 January 2014 18:44 (twelve years ago)

Voted Cavern of Anti Matter, but honestly, I haven't heard most of these.

Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 20 January 2014 18:47 (twelve years ago)

Why is Simple Headphone Mind here but not Crumb Duck?

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 20 January 2014 19:22 (twelve years ago)

Should this include Tim Gane's pre-'Lab solo work? His early efforts as Un-Kommuniti were recently reissued as a 4LP box set on Vinyl on Demand.

my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 13:29 (twelve years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Thursday, 30 January 2014 00:01 (twelve years ago)

I haven't heard most of these but Snowpony were awful so the answer isn't them. I liked some of Monade and Laetitia's solo stuff, but I really have to be in a particular mood to listen to it.

NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 30 January 2014 12:06 (twelve years ago)

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

System, Friday, 31 January 2014 00:01 (twelve years ago)

two years pass...

So the new Cavern of Anti-Matter album is pretty incredible. Anyone else hear it yet?

I also recently saw this:

FROM THE DESK OF THE HIGH LLAMAS’ SEAN O’HAGAN: TURN ON

Some time ago, 1994 or 1995, Tim Gane, Andy Ramsay and I got together with engineer Fulton Dingley in Blackwing Studios in Blackfriars to make a record which had no stated intention or sound. The idea was that no ideas were to be brought into the studio. Everything had to originate in the room with the four participants facing each other and approval had to be unanimous. It was funny and nicely odd, and sort of like a committee gathering of the Workers Revolutionary Party, circa 1974. There were plenty of rules. A bass sound could not be generated from an instrument that already been used on that track. No pure electronic tracks and no purely organic tracks. The whole project was not allowed to exceed the appointed record time, five days. No consecutive speeds. No consecutive keys. Rules and regulations. The record was released by Drag City, and we called it Turn On. Actually, the whole exercise was created to break our recording habits in our respective bands, Stereolab and the High Llamas.

We are all back in the studio in Berlin. Are we making a Turn On record? Maybe. We will let you know in a few months. Meanwhile, where did I put that rule book.

Loads more missives here:
http://www.magnetmagazine.com/category/guest-editor/

afriendlypioneer, Friday, 12 February 2016 15:19 (ten years ago)

Uncut has a track from it on this month's CD, along with a School of Seven Bells track!

Mark G, Friday, 12 February 2016 16:00 (ten years ago)

So the new Cavern of Anti-Matter album is pretty incredible. Anyone else hear it yet?

Out in a week. How did you get to hear it, afp? Promo? Or has it leaked?

Meanwhile, there's this taster mix, that starts with the track on the Uncut CD:
http://www.self-titledmag.com/2016/02/12/tom-furse-mini-mix-cavern-of-anti-matters-debut-album/

Jeff W, Friday, 12 February 2016 18:58 (ten years ago)

Yes, it did leak.

It's fantastic.

Definitely buying the album.

afriendlypioneer, Saturday, 13 February 2016 16:04 (ten years ago)

the ghost box single from last year is also on youtube, and it's very good/very stereolabby

Michael F Gill, Saturday, 13 February 2016 16:54 (ten years ago)

there's a nice dash of klaus schulze-y sequencer sorcery to some of this

reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 13 February 2016 21:20 (ten years ago)

three weeks pass...

Wow, I had like 0 expectations for this Cavern of Anti-Matter album, but this is surpassing all my wildest Düsseldorf Schule Kosmische dreams!

The track with Sonic Boom is like someone time-travelled back to 1994 and asked me what my ideal music would sound like. And somehow reproduced it in a hermetically sealed space lab hurtling through time.

It was driving me nuts where that bassline from hi-hats bring the hiss was from, but that is Moebius Plank Neumeier isn't it?

Sehr Kornisch (Branwell with an N), Friday, 11 March 2016 10:47 (nine years ago)

Yeah, I get serious Zero Set vibes from this album, especially High Hats Bring the Hiss.

First track on this album is the mind-blower for me - one of my favorites of the year.

sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 11 March 2016 11:50 (nine years ago)

Is that the one with the real Blue Milk vibe to it?

Sehr Kornisch (Branwell with an N), Friday, 11 March 2016 12:17 (nine years ago)

It's this one: https://soundcloud.com/cavern-of-anti-matter/tardis-cymbals

sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 11 March 2016 13:14 (nine years ago)

Not a fan of the tracks with vocals on this album.

Almost saw then at the Moth Club a couple of weeks ago but work intervened. Curious how it went and who the mystery guests would be.

Half-baked profundities. Self-referential smirkiness (Bob Six), Friday, 11 March 2016 13:49 (nine years ago)

Mojo sampler recently had the Harris track along with a seven bells track and the Matmos washing machine excerpt and loads of other great stuff, suddenly I'm all "You mean these things are actually worth playing?"

this month: No.

Mark G, Friday, 11 March 2016 14:44 (nine years ago)

Harris = Tardis thanks to my spelling corrector..

Mark G, Friday, 11 March 2016 14:45 (nine years ago)

just got back from seeing Cavern of Anti-Matter. no mystery guests. no vocals. most satisfying show I have seen in a very long time.

fffv, Saturday, 12 March 2016 00:18 (nine years ago)

I think it's linked in another thread so in case anyone missed this live set.

https://dieletztemetro.bandcamp.com/album/the-cavern-of-anti-matter-loop-de-loop-live-acud-05022015

Noel Emits, Saturday, 12 March 2016 00:35 (nine years ago)

…and a more recent one in HD video here:
http://concert.arte.tv/fr/cavern-anti-matter-la-route-du-rock-hiver

Jeff W, Saturday, 12 March 2016 12:53 (nine years ago)

four months pass...

if you're in or near Berlin, Cavern of Anti-Matter is playing the By The Lake festival next month. should be a cool thing.

http://bythelake.co/en/Index

fffv, Friday, 15 July 2016 18:41 (nine years ago)

one year passes...

Thoughts on the new Cavern of Anti-Matter? I like it.

afriendlypioneer, Monday, 26 March 2018 15:50 (seven years ago)

It's a little less crowd-pleasing than void beats/invocation trex, what with:
- the emphasis on drum machines and relatively little in the way of live drums;
- the pieces being painstakingly created (and in some cases spliced together) in the studio, as opposed to having been honed by the trio in a live context and then recorded (reminiscent of late Stereolab in that regard);
- some patience-testing moments when it sounds like the machines were left to their own devices.

I'd say it's about 80% successful overall, but that's a high percentage! In my top 3 for 2018 so far, for sure.

Jeff W, Monday, 26 March 2018 16:20 (seven years ago)

Thread for Cavern of Anti Matter

just to get this band out of the shadow of Stereolab

tinnitus the night (Ross), Monday, 26 March 2018 16:32 (seven years ago)


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