LM Artist Poll No. 74 · STEREOLAB · Results Thread

I'm excited to learn a lot in this poll, as my knowledge of the discography ends right around 1998.

There was a definite shift in the early ballots and the late ones. Originally Peng! was top 3 and Sound-Dust was nowhere to be found! Cobra and Space Age were also saved by the last ballots. They were in 11 and 12 respectively.

http://i.imgur.com/8fciNr5.jpg
04. Mars Audiac Quintet 17 votes, 558 points. 3 first place votes. Year of Release: 1994

very pretty results thread!

didn't vote (prospect of trying to parse out the 14th best vs the 51st Stereolab track defeated me), but looking forward to this

http://i.imgur.com/8mon6fb.jpg
03. Refried Ectoplasm: Switched On Vol. 2 19 votes, 660 points. 6 first place votes. Year of Release: 1995

http://i.imgur.com/ZOMbRbU.jpg
02. Transient Random Noise-Burst w/announcements 23 votes, 752 points. 4 first place votes. Year of Release: 1993

http://i.imgur.com/KFwmQ3E.jpg
01. Emperor Tomato Ketchup 26 votes, 863 points. 4 first place votes. Year of Release: 1996

Need to go for a couple of mins, I leave you with the album results. Will come back and I will only post 10 songs as an opening tease, top 50 rollout until tomorrow.

I'm a little surprised that MAQ and Refried Ectoplasm are so well-loved. Was hoping to see D&L get more love.

Top 10 results have the same albums but in different order than this poll:

The Stereolab Albums Poll

I'm a little surprised that MAQ and Refried Ectoplasm are so well-loved. Was hoping to see D&L get more love.

― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles)

The first handful of ballots positioned D&L as a top 3 album but late ballots brought it down.

Yeah, D&L was my #1
xxps

Such sensible people, those late voters.

I seem to recall MAQ was my highest-ranked 'proper' LP in the end, and Refried my #1, but probably couldn't have expected much different from this outcome.

Moka, is it possible to pace out the track reveals so we can discuss them individually for a bit?

Nice to see Sound-Dust do well. That and Margarine Eclipse were so underrated.

Emperor Tomato Ketchup deserves to be at the top. One of my five favourite albums ever.

Yes Moodles! I'll do tracks more separately. Just wanted to clear albums quickly first.

these rollout graphics are sweeeet

I think we should all chip in to a stipend to hire Moka as official ILM Ballot Poll Graphic Designer.

Transient is for me their only "complete" album that I can listen through without fatigue, but I guess that's because I'm still a rockist.

I'd like to imagine there were a few #1 votes for the later sprawling singles comps. Would seem like one of many possible perfectly rational choices.

Tracks results coming up. I added album covers to this ones. Sometimes they work, sometimes they dont :p

http://i.imgur.com/vF64wbc.jpg
60. Pop Quiz 4 votes, 100 points. 0 first place votes.
From:Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center EP, 1995.
https://youtu.be/KAqy-JpoBO0

Blimey! Lucky I switched to a ranked ballot. My #2. Robbed, etc, etc.

I had never heard this EP prior to this poll and I was pleasantly surprised. The opening three tracks are all great.

http://i.imgur.com/WLhtX6Y.jpg
59. Changer 4 votes, 106 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Stunning Debut Album 7”, 1991.
https://youtu.be/7O9mwPMd7i0

This is where it all starts.

http://i.imgur.com/ExPZ3L9.jpg
58. Avant Garde MOR 4 votes, 108 points. 1 first place vote.
From: Space Age Batchelor Pad Music, 1993.
https://youtu.be/OrcaCYTErTg

I feel bad about not acknowledging SABPM in any way on my ballot. I knew I would.

That's one of the many holes I have in my Groopological knowledge, going to have to redress that!

So, there are a couple of ties in the countdown. I'll follow crut's method on the depeche mode poll: ties are broken first by number of #1 votes, then by number of total votes. If they have the same votes and points then a tie is mentioned, otherwise that will be the method of ranking them.

http://i.imgur.com/1mVeinv.jpg
57. Puncture in the Radax Permutation 5 votes, 109 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, 1999.
https://youtu.be/KA6vh2wVfQM

Yeah, I did that on the Fall ballot too, accidentally or so I thought. (Xpost)

http://i.imgur.com/Q8ob6g3.jpg
56. K-Stars 5 votes, 109 points. 1 first place vote.
From: Peng!, 1992.
https://youtu.be/QzFiCRw1XAw

I love this one (everything on this album, actually). It sounds like Young Marble Giants would in the 90's, a bit of shoegaze influence in there... could be partly responsible for setting that Morr label micropop a decade earlier.

Slow down, Moka! Jesus.

Yes @ #57! You were blessed if you heard Mary sing this live. She only did it once or twice, I think.

Hahaha, sorry! I have to leave to work in 30 minutes and I want to cover all the ground possible. I promise tomorrow results will rollout very slowly.

Possibly the Peng! track least likely to be mistaken for an entirely band when juxtaposed with #57. :)

entirely DIFFERENT band

http://i.imgur.com/GVTUkCC.jpg
55. Peng! 33 4 votes, 110 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Peng!, 1992.
https://youtu.be/6993BdVL_0k

'incredible things are happening in this poll' was another alt title I was considering.

http://i.imgur.com/ydxjVXk.jpg
54. Spark Plug 5 votes, 111 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup, 1996.
https://youtu.be/Girx3PL5o-g

http://i.imgur.com/RHYgvhy.jpg
53. Nihilist Assault Group 6 votes, 111 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Mars Audiac Quintet / Wow & Flutter EP (1994)
https://youtu.be/QqdxiW7A2fY

I really should've voted in this but couldn't get myself together

(MAQ too low)

lol M.O.R. was my #1 and here it is at #58

I have to go so I leave you with the final results of the day. A tie, actually.

Apologies for the hasty rollout today. Tomorrow I'll be rolling them out with 20 mins at minimum in between.

http://i.imgur.com/vZLrmJC.jpg
TIE 51. OLV 26 5 votes, 112 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
https://youtu.be/5Zm5H-116mQ

http://i.imgur.com/7GpCvMd.jpg
TIE 51. New Ortophony 5 votes, 112 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
https://youtu.be/808qJizotKA

Gee, I might have stayed on Team "New Orthophony" if I realised it had broader support. As mentioned on the other thread, such a vote would have been very firmly for the far superior unedited (Aluminum Tunes) version. (Haha, okay, the version in the link in other words.)

I'm considering the first release as the one to mention in almost every track but yes, the new ortophony unedited v. is awesome!

17/20 brittle didnt make it

Jenny Ondioline
John Cage Bubblegum
Ping Pong
Our Trinitone Blast
Les Yper-Sound
Metronomic Underground
Golden Ball
Tone Burst
Spark Plug
The Black Arts
Lo Boob Oscillator
Visionary Road Maps
French Disko
Farfisa
Changer
Super Electric
Mountain
Excursions Into "Oh, A-Oh"
Wow and Flutter
Brakhage

Unranked ballot:

Pack Yr Romantic Mind
Jenny Ondioline
Ping Pong
Miss Modular
Fuses
The Free Design
Caleidoscopic Gaze
Percolator
The Noise of Carpet
Tomorrow Is Already Here
Harmonium
Lo Boob Oscillator
French Disko
International Colouring Contest
Brakhage
Diagonals
Refractions in the Plastic Pulse
Prisoner of Mars
Parsec
Mellotron

1. Miss Modular
2. Double Rocker
3. The Black Arts
4. Come and Play in the Milky Night
5. The Extension Trip
6. Check and Double Check
7. International Colouring Contest
8. Des Etoiles Electronique
9. John Cage Bubblegum
10. The Free Design
11. Infinity Girl
12. How to Play Your Internal Organs Overnight
13. Doubt
14. Pack Yr Romantic Mind
15. Spacemoth
16. Diagonals
17. Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (mellow)
18. Cybele's Reverie
19. Fluorescences
20. Brigitte

1. Sound Dust
2. Dots and Loops
3. Cobra
4. Mars Audiac Quintet
5. Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements

'One Small Step' and 'L'Enfer des formes' seconded. Seems a full half of my selections were outside the sixty, with a big cluster near 100:

Mellotron (That Silver Apples-ish rhythm, shared with 'Harmonium', is massively under-appreciated.)
One Small Step
Sadistic
Kyberneticka Babicka (Third most popular post-Sound Dust track, it turns out.)
People Do It All the Time
Cadriopo
Allures
L'Enfer des formes
Nothing to Do with Me
Farfisa

I made my ballot before everyone so that I wouldn't cheat but after seeing the final table I almost wanted to rig the poll by voting for post-00s Stereolab so that it would have more representation in the poll. Interlock, Babicka... Whisper pitch if anyone had voted for it.

Margerine Eclipse songs! Need to be, cosmic country noir

I listened to Marge a couple of times in recent days. 'Cosmic Country Noir' could've have displaced something else from my ballot I think, in a different week. I wish I liked the music of 'Feel and Triple' as much. A hybrid containing the latter's lyrics would probably make me weep pretty reliably.

great poll, glad i voted!

Ranked

1. “Jenny Ondioline” (40 points)
2. “The Noise of Carpet” (36)
3. “Perversion” (33)
4. “Ru Tenone,” Turn On (30)
5. “We're Not Adult Oriented” (28)

Unranked

“Ode to a Keyring,” Monade (20)
“Infinity Girl” (20)
“Jaunty Monty and the Bubbles of Silence” (20)
“Exploding Head Movie” (20)
“John Cage Bubblegum” (20)
“Low Fi” (20)
“Laisser-Faire” (20)
“Transona Five” (20)
“Bop Scotch” (20)
“Neon Beanbag” (20)

1. Refractions in the Plastic Pulse
2. Cybele’s Reverie
3. The Free Design
4. Fluorescences
5. OLV 26
6. Come and Play in the Milky Night
7. Pop Quiz
8. Laisser-Faire
9. Motoroller Scalatron
10. With Friends Like These
11. International Colouring Contest
12. Heavy Denim
13. Lo Boob Oscillator
14. Kyberneticka Babicka
15. K-Stars
16. The Light That Will Cease to Fail
17. Naught More Terrific Than Man
18. Three-Dee Melodie
19. Narco Martenot
20. I Feel the Air (Of Another Planet)

Was I the only Klang Tone voter?

Amazing poll Moka, thanks!

Biggest surprise: Pack Yr Romantic Mind at #4 with five #1's.

There are a lot of great songs in the top ten ... and somehow I didn't vote for any of them except for "John Cage Bubblegum". I don't have a sensible reason for leaving JO off my ballot, I guess it was because I'd already voted for two songs from that album and wanted to spread my votes around more. I'm also a big fan of live 'Lab, I saw them live a few times, collected a lot of live recordings, "ABC Music", etc. and JO was never a regular part of their live set. You can't hold that against the studio version but it made JO less "visible" to me over the years.

I've always been a bit meh on "French Disko", yeah the clip from the Word is brilliant and captures the song in all its droney/pogo essence, but "John Cage Bubblegum" and "The Seeming and the Meaning" do the exact same thing but way way better.

Songs:

1. Super Electric
2. Tempter
3. Changer
4. Anamorphose
5. Transona Five
6. Animal or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason)
7. John Cage Bubblegum
8. Laissez Faire
9. The Seeming and the Meaning
10. Stomach Worm
11. Avant Garde MOR
12. We're Not Adult Orientated
13. Low Fi
14. Come and Play in the Milky Night
15. Captain Easychord
16. Golden Ball
17. Tomorrow is Already Here
18. Les Bon Bon Des Raisons
19. Varoom
20. Crest

Albums:
1. Mars Audiac Quintet
2. Lo-Fi
3. Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On 2)
4. Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements
5. The Groop Played Space Age Bachelor Pad Music

Tracks
01. John Cage Bubblegum
02. Caleidoscopic Gaze
03. Motoroller Scalatron
04. The Flower Called Nowhere
05. Super-Electric
06. One Small Step
07. University Microfilms International
08. Puncture in the Radax Permutation
09. Suggestion Diabolique
10. “…sudden stars”
11. Laissez-Faire
12. Interlock
13. Ping Pong
14. With Friends Like These
15. Fluorescences
16. Heavy Denim
17. La Spirale
18. Self Portrait with “Electric Brain"
19. I Feel The Air (of Another Planet)
20. Diagonals

Albums & EPs:
01. Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night
02. Sound-Dust
03. Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Vol.2)
04. Instant 0 in the Universe
05. Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center

Just before going to sleep last night, I lay in the dark and listened to the entirety of Refried Ectoplasm really flippin' loud. That's so so so their best album. And as much space as as my growed-up, 21st century brain-self can clear for their later, more sophisticated experiments & inclinations, I don't think they ever surpassed (or even matched) their early genius for tone & propulsion. Every sound on that album is perfect, perfect not only in isolation, but in synthesis with every other. French fucking Disko.

I played ETC loudly today on the way into work, now I have realised my "Fiery Yellow" vote should have been for "Anonymous Collective", because that is the track I meant.

I saw the top 100, I guess it wouldn't have made much difference anyway. FY at 75, AC at 68..

Also, how many Stereolab track titles have anything to do with the lyrics? I was beginning to think it was "International Colouring Competition" only, but up came "des etoiles electroniques" and the title is right there in the song!

SONGS RANKED:

K-Stars
"Animal or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason...)"
Metronomic Underground
Mountain
Super Falling Star
Super Electric
Les Yper-Sound
Diagonals
Puncture in the Radax Permutation
Tempter
French Disko
International Coloring Contest
Outer Accelerator
Peng! 33
The Seeming and the Meaning
Brittle
Des Étoiles Électroniques
Cybele's Reverie
Miss Modular
People Do It All the Time

ALBUMS RANKED:

Peng!
Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2)
Dots and Loops
Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Switched On

Love Stereolab but haven't delved into their catalogue enough to have run up a ballot. Now that it's over I'm looking forward to spinning the Spotify playlist all day at work. Thanks, Moka and all y'all voters!

Songs:

1 Pack Yr Romantic Mind
2 Brakhage
3 Cybele's Reverie
4 Long Life Love
5 Metronomic Underground
6 Ping Pong
7 Nihilist Assault Group
8 Our Trinitone Blast
9 Fluorescences
10 One Small Step
11 The Seeming and the Meaning
12 Spacemoth
13 Rainbo Conversation
14 Percolator
15 Moodles
16 Suggestion Diabolique
17 Orgiastic
18 Check and Double Check
19 Gus the Mynah Bird
20 The Flower Called Nowhere

Albums:

1 Sound-Dust
2 Emperor Tomato Ketchup
3 Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements
4 Dots and Loops
5 Peng!

Ah, go on then...

1 Lo Boob Oscillator
2 French Disko
3 Fiery Yellow
4 Jenny Ondioline
5 Klang Tone
6 Fluorescences
7 Emperor Tomato Ketchup
8 Tone Burst (Country)
9 Ping Pong
10 Wow And Flutter
11 International Colouring Contest
12 Farfisa
13 Pack Yr Romantic Mind
14 I'm Going Out Of My Way
15 Harmonium
16 Animal Or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason...)
17 Golden Ball
18 Cybele's Reverie
19 The Noise Of Carpet
20 Soop Groove #1

Albums:

1 Refried Ectoplasm
2 Transient Noise Bursts
3 Emperor Tomato Ketchup
4 Oscillons from the Anti-Sun
5 Mars Audiac Quintet

I am glad "pack yr romantic mind" did so well.

SONGS
Pack Yr Romantic Mind
The Light That Will Cease To Fall
Need To Be
High Expectation
Surrealchemist
Avant Garde M.O.R.
Contact
Au Grand Jour
Doubt
Super Falling Star
Exploding Head Movie
Equivalences
We’re Not Adult Orientated
The Seeming and the Meaning
Enivrez-vous
Super-Electric
Ping Pong
Tone Burst
Contronatura
With Friends Like These

ALBUMS
Switched On
Peng!
Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements
The Groop Played Space Age Bachelor Pad Music

Margerine Eclipse

For a while there up until ballot 18 Pack was #1 Jenny #2 and Fluorescences #3. If we only had received 18 ballots those would have been the top 3.

Thanks Moka!

My ranked ballot:
1 Anamophose
2 Jenny Ondioline
3 Motoroller Scalatron
4 I'm Going Out Of My Way (Really guys?)
5 Tomorrow Is Already Here
6 Changer
7 Eloge D'Eros
8 Peng! 33
9 Crest
10 transona five
11 Golden Ball
12 the groop play chord x
13 transport sans bouger
14 The Light That Will Cease To Fail
15 Au Grand Jour (the 3:41 fast version)
16 Lo Boob Oscillator
17 Nihilist Assault Group
18 Perversion
19 You Little Shits
20 OLV 26

Releases Ranked:
1 Super 45
2 Mars Audiac Quintet
3 Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements
4 Emperor Tomato Ketchup
5 The Groop Played Space Age Batchelor Pad Music

thank you moka! i hadn't listened to the lab in years but this has me excited about them all over again.

can't believe i didn't vote for "revox" or "john cage bubblegum". or "sadistic". or "surrealchemist". i got too caught up being all open-minded & democratic. in retrospect should have voted a straight peng! / refried ecto ticket. all other ballots are wrong.

I was also one of the #1's for 'Pack Yr Romantic Mind.' Such a gorgeous tune.

i think 'pack yr romantic mind' was the first song of theirs that really grabbed me ('transient' was my intro)

non-placers i voted for:

09 Lock-Groove Lullaby
10 Anonymous Collective
14 Blue Milk
15 Surrealchemist
20 Fuses

I voted for a lot of low-flyers — maybe the only Chemical Chords partisan here? Looks like at least one other person voted for it. Great poll, even if the heavy weighting toward the mid-90s is a bit predictable (must confess that though I voted for select songs I'm a bit burnt out on ETK, MAQ and Refried Ectoplasm); the biggest surprise is probably that anything from Cobra (the closing track of a very long album, no less) made it into the top 20.

Tracks (unranked)

Miss Modular
Contronatura
Fluorescences
Allures
Brigitte
Jenny Ondioline
Pack Yr Romantic Mind
Neon Beanbag
Daisy Clickclack
Vorticol Phonethèque
International Colouring Contest
U.H.F. - M.F.P.
Slow Fast Hazel
Caleidoscope Gaze
The Emergency Kisses
Iron Man
One Note Samba/Surfboard
Check and Double Check
Nought More Terrific Than Man
Eloge D’Eros

Albums (ranked)

Sound-Dust
Chemical Chords
Dots and Loops
Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night
Aluminum Tunes

I've got a lot of Stereolab on my ipod but I never know where to start so this poll (which I didn't take part in) was a godsend. I simply made a playlist of the top 15 and I'm good to go. There seems to be a fair bit of overlap between those tracks and Serene Velocity but also some other goodies not on that comp. Thanks, ILM and Moka!

Serene Velocity's tracklisting has a lot of non-album versions of the songs, I think?

Jenny Ondioline, French Disko and Wow & Flutter are the versions from singles. Other than that there's just Percolator, which is a bit longer.

Firmly coming around to the notion that Margarine Eclipse got shafted here. Been listening to it a lot and man, what a superb album! Their best of the 2000s and I kinda wish I'd voted for it now.

"Dear Marge" is crushing me beneath its emotional weight. It might be the most unashamedly beautiful song they ever recorded. WHY DID I NOT VOTE.

Totally snowed under with work at the moment and making my way through these results at a snail's pace, but:

Gee, I might have stayed on Team "New Orthophony" if I realised it had broader support. As mentioned on the other thread, such a vote would have been very firmly for the far superior unedited (Aluminum Tunes) version

I'd never heard this longer version of New Orthophony before and agree it's great.

forgot to vote for the gold chains parti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e310Daluio8

you know what's GREAT? Play "Nihilist Assault Group" from Mars Audiac Quintet and "Nihilist Assault Group (Parts 1, 2, 3)" from Oscillons from the Anti-Sun (which is actually parts 3, 4, 5 and is mislabeled) back to back bcz they were originally supposed to be one single Jenny Odioliney suite.

Been on a Lab deep dive this week and have just woken up to how great Sound-Dust is.

"Double Rocker", my god

Yessss, Sound-Dust is so good

I also have a lot of weird memories mixed up with it because I'll always think of it as their 9/11 album.