LM Artist Poll No. 74 · STEREOLAB · Results Thread

Maybe I can do 5 more when I get home. 15 tomorrow and 20 on Thursday. What do you prefer?

It's that option or 20 / 20 next days.

5/15/20 would be great if you ask me.

Alright! I'll try and post the remaining 5 when I get home.

Genuinely shocked by these comments. Shocked! To my mind, "K-Stars" is Stereolab, The Groop in their most essential form.

I don't actually disagree. It could be the most 'Stereolab' track on Peng!, an album that frequently sounds not altogether 'Stereolab'. But it's probably not the best example of this broader tendency. Indeed, I'd previously (clumsily) suggested it makes for a less jarring juxtaposition with the neighboring late-90s track than most of Peng! would.

Not that the late 90s is where 'real' Stereolab lies. LOL. Christ, I'm digging new holes for myself.

Also disregard 'But' in the third sentence above.

http://i.imgur.com/h1Vx4Rg.jpg
40. Tone Burst 6 votes, 135 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Transient Random Noise-Bursts... (1993)

Yes. Enfin. That's my kind of Stereolab. Melodical, simple, naïve, hypnotic. What an amazing band!

Forgot the youtube link!

https://youtu.be/tnn4HsnbTjw

Spotify playlist has been updated.

And how it all falls apart near the end. Absolutely brilliant.

http://i.imgur.com/NWw61Dr.jpg
39. Three-Dee Melodie 7 votes, 135 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
https://youtu.be/k45VWW_sYhQ

I like how the organ and guitar sound like they are ready to explode by the end of Tone Burst

There were some votes for Laissez Faire which is the ABC live version
Nah, I'm just forgetting my French grammar, Moka - as apparently did the BBC! - it was the Lo-Fi version I was voting for.

Voted for Diagonals too. Alex, I feel the air of the other planet you are on.

Xp. Three-dee melodie is sounding nice but there is no tune or let's say the tune is no good. It has no soul. I don't get most of Stereolab after Transient random noise, many tracks are just annoying and anemic. With margerine eclipse they come back for me.

http://i.imgur.com/u6EJoOz.jpg
38. Pinball 5 votes, 137 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Fluorescences EP (1996)
https://youtu.be/XtA34xPPcig

xpost

I like it, but the melodies are like a collection of background vocals, which is kind of a good way to approach their melodies in general IMO

Pinball fans really really like Pinball.

I like MAQ but it is a disappointing album after hearing TRNBWA, Lo Boob 7", French Disko 7" and the singles Wow & Flutter and Ping Pong.

I didn't vote for any of this batch. But with perhaps one exception I could've happily voted for all of them. I'm not sure if that means that y'all have good taste or that the groop are ludicrously consistent.

Hey Nag! Did you cop your handle from "Nihilist Assault Group"?

Hehe. Funny you should say that: the unexpected acronym keeps leaping out at me.

XPOST: Ah, I did vote "Pinball". Yay!

Pinball is the first of mine to place. They were on fire in 96. One perfect album and probably my favourite EP of all time. I ended up voting for three of the tracks.

I voted for a bunch of FFS tracks, but IIRC not many people rate it so I think that we're not going to see any of them. :(

Pinball my #3. The vocal melodies are astonishing, like so effortlessly memorable and buoyant, that I keep forgetting the actual lyrics aren't in English.

I just started listening to the spotify playlist and got to "Puncture in the Radak Permutation" and the part where the vododer background vocals come in is one of the best moments of any Stereolab song.

I think "Tone Burst" was the first 'Lab song I ever heard (I bought "Transient Random ..." based on some good reviews of the band, and it's the first song on the album).

"Laisser-Faire" is so great (I voted for 3/4 of the "Lo Fi" EP). And "Perversion" ... their most Velvet-y track ever? It was only a few months ago that I realized it's nearly a carbon copy of "What Goes On", I've been a fan of Stereolab and the VU since forever and never made the connection.

Tone Burst would have been a serious contender for #1 on my ballot had I voted.

I think "Tone Burst" was the first 'Lab song I ever heard

Same here

Pinball has something about it. I think it is in the singing and the harmonies. After the unsexy binary sounds in the beginning this song really evolves into a scenting, beautiful rose which tries to grow into my ear.

Man, those "Eaten Horizons" demos are absolutely killing me right now.

http://i.imgur.com/J1378bM.jpg
37. Anamorphose 6 votes, 138 points. 1 first place votes.
From: Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
https://youtu.be/ksR2AnpgPo0

I like when the horns come in on this one.

^ Word

Are there any bands that made the kraut-motorik thing with a horn ensemble prior to this one? It makes a nice pairing.

great song. I think MAQ might be my favorite Lab album, just such a great balance of their early and later sounds

xpost
Faust's "Munic B" is basically horn + motorik, but I wouldn't say they sound much like this ("Rainy Day Sunshine" is the one Lab seems to prefer)

Xp. Annoying repetitional singing on this. This is horrible. How many times does she repeat the sentence? 50 times, 60 times or more? That is so awful and unimaginative. Makes me think of a spastic who can only utter one phrase. Sorry. I am totally flabbergasted how anybody can vote for this minimalistic nothingness in view of the rich catalog of stereolab songs

haha it's another one where all the vocals are background vocals! I don't know, think of it like a Philip Glass piece

Hahahaha Mars Audiac Quintet is hit or miss for me. It's their most homogenic album I think... For example I really, really like when the horns enter but I also think the song could be cut in half and I wouldn't mind.

But glass is awful as well. Always the same shtick. The emperor without clothes.

Last track of the day! An old one too, turn up the speakers:

http://i.imgur.com/bTatmtY.jpg
36. Harmonium 5 votes, 140 points. 2 first place votes.
From: Harmonium / Farfisa 7” (1992)
https://youtu.be/-MQOrXRCQBg

xpost

I'm actually surprised you can think that and still like Stereolab. I hear bits of Music in 12 Parts all over their discography

Aaaaaaaaargh. About 30 places too low!

So, yeah, my #1. REALLY glad I switched to a ranked ballot now.

That's more like it. A nice tune to end the day. And we turn and we turn and we turn. Till the end of time.

I saw phil glass live in the 80s. Don't remember what it was. Anyway it all sounds the same. And i think it was the first time i had this impression of immaculate, sterile, fascistic beauty in music. I haven't listened to him since. And it did not harm.

Never really got Anamorphose

Well, I guess it isn't surprising you like early stuff more. It seems like the early Stereolab favored minimalism a la Velvet Underground, Neu, LaMonte Young, where later Lab sub'd for Glass melodies, Reich percussion

Are there any bands that made the kraut-motorik thing with a horn ensemble prior to this one?

https://youtu.be/CmgFBSmoLmc

oh great, another poll where we have to listen to alex in mainhattan complain after every other result, and talk endlessly about how these tracks that lots of people love are so horrible and worthless

Anamorphose was my #16, fantastic cyclic Glass-worship

Are there any bands that made the kraut-motorik thing with a horn ensemble prior to this one?

https://youtu.be/CmgFBSmoLmc

― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles)

Oh wow! That's is actually spot on.

LOLOLOLOL. Nifty.

Cut "Anamorphose" in half? It's the opposite -- it should be 15 minutes long.

I don't understand the criticism about it being repetitive. Of course it's repetitive, that's the point. And it builds beautifully to the horn parts at the end.

You can imagine most of the tracks on MAQ getting extended by another 3-4 minutes, there's no necessity in cutting off "Transona Five" or "Three Dee Melodie", so I'm not sure why they "chose" "Anamorphose" to be the long one.

"Metronomic Underground" is more repetitive than anything on MAQ, but I don't think it'll be criticized for that.