Stereolab- Oscillons from the Anti-Sun

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Yes, I know it's not out yet, but I figure some of the ILM regulars might have review copies and/or very strong opinions about the included material. I'm mostly curious as to how it stacks up against previous Switched On volumes (though curiously enough, this seems to be the first without "Switched On" anywhere in the name or packaging), and whether their videos are any good at all. Boomkat's release page is the only place I can find any clips, and while they're gorgeous, they're a) each about thirty seconds long and b) only three of the 38 tracks...

Telephonething, Friday, 22 April 2005 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link

I see: The new box set, right?

http://www.stereolab.co.uk/discography/?no=140

When does this come out, and anyone know the publicist to contact? I see Laetitia's side project Monade is coming to First Avenue May 13...

http://www.stereolab.co.uk/tourdates/

Pete Scholtes, Friday, 22 April 2005 20:11 (nineteen years ago) link

I think I have to save strong opinions for a review, but it's not really a Switched On -- it seems more like some started doing another Switched On and then also wanted to make a primer and about a quarter of a poorly-selected Greatest Hits and then the whole thing bulged out into a three-disc pileup.

nabiscothingy, Friday, 22 April 2005 20:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Comes out next Tuesday as far as I know. And, yeah, it's bloated and recklessly assembled.

Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 22 April 2005 20:22 (nineteen years ago) link

I think the whole of the Fluorescences EP is on this. Since it's probably the best single thing they've ever done, it'll be worth picking up.

I am iffy on the sequencing but it's cheaper than hunting down all those EPs & singles.

Rand D. Butterstein, Friday, 22 April 2005 20:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Argh, that's right, Monade is coming along here too (there's a bar around here that Stereolab's sorta the house band for, long story). Must look into that. Album's good but is essentially a less freaky S'lab.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 22 April 2005 20:48 (nineteen years ago) link

the 'switched-on' series mostly compiles non-album singles; this box compiles all the CD EPs, which were usually (but not always) based around album singles. it's not really supposed to be a greatest hits compilation, it's just a strict assemblage of the EPs.

the thing is, so many of these EPs were perfect as EPs... they saved some of their best tunes for these, and their sense of pacing on 20 minute pop EPs often made a better case for them than the albums. also each EP was sort of a little sibling / reflection of the adjacent album -- I'm a little wary of how they'll sound all mashed together on three long discs.

I agree my favorite Stereolab release ever is the Fluorescences EP, they nailed it on that one. I also thought the Captain Easychord EP trumped Sound Dust, 'Long Life Love' would have been the best song on it but it's more powerful as part of a mini-album.

milton parker (Jon L), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:10 (nineteen years ago) link

It'd feel much more usefully like an EP comp if they either (a) divvied them up as single entities, or (b) cut out stuff like double versions of Ping Pong, which pretty much just interfere with a fan's listening through the non-album material -- which is what I mean about hearing fine rarities with an abortive singles-string littered throughout. The Switched On discs did wind up doing this here and there, particularly the third one; dropping formalism and sorting this one out that way be a help.

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:23 (nineteen years ago) link

none of you are under any obligation to answer this, but if i bought one album that came out after emperor tomato ketchup - the last album i bought by them - what would it be? i have a feeling i may have missed something. i liked most everything previous to da emperor.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:24 (nineteen years ago) link

In order to keep both Nabisco and I happy, I will suggest Margarine Eclipse. As opposed to something else, which would tick me off, and something else again, which would tick him off. ;-)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:26 (nineteen years ago) link

But wait, Ned: Dots and Loops would make me and Jaymc happy! Plus I was listening to it last week and it was sounding possibly even better than it did to me when it arrived.

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:28 (nineteen years ago) link

INVOKE NOT THESE DEMONS OF HORROR.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:29 (nineteen years ago) link

that one's my favorite album overall since ETK as well

milton parker (Jon L), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:29 (nineteen years ago) link

(Margerine Eclipse, I mean)

milton parker (Jon L), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:29 (nineteen years ago) link

so, that's three votes for margerine eclipse? okay, that's cool. i don't wanna derail the thread.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:31 (nineteen years ago) link

(NB after actually stopping to source out where everything on here came from, I'm not sure it's even guaranteed-complete as an EP comp!)

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 22 April 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link

"what would it be?"

Four votes for Margarine Eclipse. Sure it's super slick, but it's one of the most solid albums they've done. From beginning to end there isn't a bad song. Dots & Loops is great at the beginning, but gets all formless and boring at times after the first three songs.

bliss kid, Friday, 22 April 2005 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

it doesn't have anything from "lo fi" on it, which was a pretty good ep . . .

locus solus, Friday, 22 April 2005 22:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Anyone have a detailed list of what's on the DVD?

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:59 (nineteen years ago) link

'formless'?!?

Josh (Josh), Friday, 22 April 2005 23:31 (nineteen years ago) link

"Lo Fi" never seems eligible to be compiled on Switched Ons, presumably as it was not limited-edition enough. Too Pure might still keep it in print to this day?!?

This is perhaps more urgently needed than a Switched On, at least to those of us who haven't obsessively collected the Elektra-related singles and promos. But it does seem an awful lot of disks. And what is an oscillon?

Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:04 (nineteen years ago) link

DVD:

UK PROMOS:

- Jenny Ondioline
- Ping Pong
- Wow and Flutter
- Cybele's Reverie
- Fluorescences
- Miss Modular
- The Free Design

US Promo:

- The Noise of Carpet


UK TV PERFORMANCES:

- French Disko - The Word
- Cybele's Reverie - Later With Jools Holland
- Les Yper Sound - Later With Jools Holland


plus STICKERS!!!!!

pher (pher), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:22 (nineteen years ago) link

wow, has anyone seen the promo for "jenny ondioline"? is it the whole song?

rajeev (rajeev), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:36 (nineteen years ago) link

i am glad to see that there is at least one person on this bitch that doesn't hate dots and loops

ronny longjohns (ronny longjohns), Saturday, 23 April 2005 02:17 (nineteen years ago) link

er, I like sound dust more than margerine eclipse. but only because of the mary parts which I miss on ME.

kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 23 April 2005 02:19 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah.....i am SO going to buy this

Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Saturday, 23 April 2005 03:00 (nineteen years ago) link

"Lo-Fi" is arguably the peak of Stereolab. Take the best 20 minutes out of any of their albums, and I don't think it can top "Lo-Fi". Too bad it's not on the comp.

And "Margerine Eclipse" kinda sucks.

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 23 April 2005 03:05 (nineteen years ago) link

the only thing i hated was 'dots and loops'. that said, nothing of theirs has ever struck me as much as 'transient random noise bursts' which was, of course, the first thing of theirs i heard.

mookieproof (mookieproof), Saturday, 23 April 2005 03:09 (nineteen years ago) link

'dots and loops' is actually my favorite stereolab record, along with 'transient random noise bursts.' i can't believe all the hate!

'sound-dust' was the one where they lost me.

rajeev (rajeev), Saturday, 23 April 2005 04:26 (nineteen years ago) link

i expect ned to pop in with something about melting yr brain, which is fine and something 'dots' doesn't really try for, but i hear it as totally sympathetic to the drone impulses of some of their earlier records, which makes me understand less why people are unable to put the one and the others together. (then i remember it being all 'beats' and 'polyrhythms' and whatever and am less surprised.)

it occured to me just now - i would have to go back and listen to see if this makes any sense out of what they actually sound like - that maybe the disconnect i've felt with the post-dots records is due to their songs having become more polarized between samey, on the one hand, and overarticulated, on the other. which could be bad because on the one hand, the samey (internally samey, i mean) songs are then prone to sounding samey compared to one another, and the overarticulated ones prone to sounding awkward or stiff. i would have to give it some more thought, though.

('dots' isn't just my favorite stereolab record but one of my favorite records, of all.)

Josh (Josh), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I like Sound-dust, Cobra phases, and Dots and loops more than Margerine Eclipse, which has grown on me in the last two months or so, admittedly. (I like them better than anything that came before ETK too, but I'm content to battle one consensus at a time)

tremendoid (tremendoid), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:15 (nineteen years ago) link

i feel like i'd appreciate the later stuff much more if i didn't already love the older stuff. they played themselves into a corner. the later albums are nice enough, but if i want that sound i'll just put on 'dots.'

though i think the first half of 'cobra and phases group' is ace, and the 'sound-dust' songs on 'ABC music' sounded way more impressive there.

rajeev (rajeev), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Dots and Loops isn't bad so much as unremarkable. Stereolab at their best (Transient Random...) tapped into a utopian, continental nostalgia and brilliantly managed to rip off a thousand different things while transcending all of them. It's easy enough to say they plagerized this and that Neu! beat but listening to the original source doesn't really scratch the same itch does it? Dots and Loops was the first album that seemed rooted in the present and it lost some of that otherworldly familiarity because of it. The album sounds just a little too clean and fussy and showed too much of a concern with the music of their contemporaries (Mouse on Mars and Tortoise primarily) for my taste.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:38 (nineteen years ago) link

that's very astute, walter, that way of putting it i mean (differently from something like 'john mcentire ruined this record', which seems peevish and inaccurate to me). i wonder if at this point (i certainly wasn't so warm to 'dots' earlier on when i owned it, but it wasn't the sense of contemporaneity that i took from it - i probably couldn't get through to hear it - so much as it was the foofy lounge mannerisms that put me off or whatever else you might care to characterize its backward-looking aspects as) the music there (-because- i've taken more note of its contemporaneity) strikes me as being of the past in something like the way that the music on 'transient random' does. even though i know and can feel the differences between the different pasts evoked / deployed / appropriated / etc. (for instance because the 'transient' past has so much more to do with a rock-oriented history that was more central to my development as a listener, whereas the 'dots' past is more marginal to that development and more recently acquired), i'm kind of indifferent just because stereolab has ended up, historically (for me) ---

i ran out of steam there, i guess, but i figure it's better to leave it that way and see if anyone can tell me what i wanted to say but couldn't.

Josh (Josh), Saturday, 23 April 2005 06:27 (nineteen years ago) link

I wonder if it's time to revive Stereolab's cool, long lost? I mean, if we're going to have a 90s revival, let's make sure it's about Stereolab and not Oasis, right? In Japan there's already a mini-90s revival going on, so maybe we should start ours right here!

Momus (Momus), Saturday, 23 April 2005 07:06 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost -- It might also be an issue of contrast. You mention "lounge mannerisms" but for me "Transient..." really evokes the feeling of lounging around in red plasitc furniture on the Riviera listening to your Dieter Rams hi-fi. It's the May '68 lyrics and droney guitars that take it beyond the level of loungy foof. Dots and Loops on the other hand leaves us with retro lounge + post rock neo lounge + digital Cologne lounge and the end result is a bit limp and lacks the tension that made earlier Stereolab interesting.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 23 April 2005 07:28 (nineteen years ago) link

And I say this as someone who (at the time D&L came out) was a big fan of Tortoise, Mouse on Mars and Stereolab but found D&L to be somehow less than the sum of these parts.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 23 April 2005 07:29 (nineteen years ago) link

hmm. i don't think much of 'lounge' when i listen to 'transient'. i think i know what more of the words are on 'dots' than on 'transient', though hardly enough to be able to tell which one feels more, say, 68ey. probably 'transient' just because the anti-modern-life stuff i can pick out from 'dots' tends more to come through like studied, arty existential weariness (so, like, cause by something more vague about society and modern life), or like when they're all 'we need so many things to keep our lives going', it seems like they're talking about some weird jetsons situation instead of, like, me.

i have stopped listening to tortoise but listen to more mouse on mars now; it's hard for me to hear much of the former in 'dots and loops' and the signs of the latter are pretty localized.


hmm, tension.

Josh (Josh), Saturday, 23 April 2005 07:53 (nineteen years ago) link

The album sounds just a little too clean and fussy

Spot on. There is far less for me to sink my teeth into on D&L, and while it may seem peevish to blame McEntire, to my mind it is also accurate, more particularly because it's the MoM songs that I much prefer on said album. Also, contrasting the mention about Sound-Loop songs sounding better on ABC, D&L songs always just *sound* better to me live or live-in-studio when Mr. M. is nowhere to be found. Something about what he and the band did -- on that album, for that time -- resulted in, indeed, a clean and fussy dead zone that is not evident, or at least not *as* evident, elsewhere.

Now that said can I just note the return of Josh to music talk here is one of the cheeriest things so far this year? :-)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 23 April 2005 08:22 (nineteen years ago) link

i think i'll always love D&L most, becasue it was the first album i bought, and that time (97 is it?) MoM Tortoise and Stereolab were the three axes of my musical life, it just seemed liek the prfect coming together. I really liked the sloppiness and its jumbling nature, but it was the fist stereolab i had properly listened to, so it wasnt in contrast to anything else. I think ETK is a better album though.
And thinking about it I think the tracks I prefer on D&L ae the MoM ones rather than McEntire. I think Cobra.... is the album where that sort of wilful/perverse experimentation started to grate, the ditching of the tight pop format. althoguh there was one great track on that album too, cant remember the name.

ambrose (ambrose), Saturday, 23 April 2005 11:11 (nineteen years ago) link

wha? surely Cobra was a return to guitar pop, with a hell of a lot less experimentation than D&L has. i'd never describe D&L as having a tight pop format! (i was going to illustrate with song titles and then remembered that Stereolab song titles are pretty much interchangable so i never bothered learning which applied to which tracks. i wonder how many stereolab fans could identify 'italian shoes continuum' or 'household names' or 'transona five' or 'mountain' or etc etc)

zappi (joni), Saturday, 23 April 2005 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link

ahem. anyway, £12.99 + postage for 3 CDs + 1 DVD seems a pretty good bargain

zappi (joni), Saturday, 23 April 2005 12:21 (nineteen years ago) link

not entirely related but maybe of interest: the latest issue of dutch design magazine dot dot dot has two articles about stereolab cover design by rick poyner & robert garnett. there's a website here, but the articles aren't on line.

locus solus, Saturday, 23 April 2005 14:24 (nineteen years ago) link

The 'fussiness' percieved by previous Stereolab devotees was revelatory for me, I equate(d) the bubbling and popping and order and coolness(as in fresh/airiness, not hip) with life and possibility, probably the opposite of those coming at it from an appreciation of lo-fi or more generally convulsive, 'guitarry' sounds(I've only more recently developed a taste for postpunk/indie crunch and even then only to a point-I get to feeling trapped and hot and clogged and yuck, like being high when you don't want to be on a hot ass day). It's probably telling that my 'induction' into rock listening was SP's Mellon Collie, where I gravitated toward the quieter cleaner selections, then OK Computer, then Dots and Loops. Quite by accident I fell hard for the most mannered albums to date of each band, and lucky for them cos that's what I was looking for - perhaps an extension of my hip-hop 'upbringing'; no matter how hard the beats you could rely on there being the requisite 'breathing space' for both utilitarian and aesthetic reasons, and it's hard to give up. I don't know how that fits into this discussion, just wanted to present the other side in some form.

tremendoid (tremendoid), Saturday, 23 April 2005 18:58 (nineteen years ago) link

when I say 'by accident' I mean I didn't avoid their other work, I just happened to pick those up first by serendipity, as their other albums probably wouldn't have scratched my itch and I'd be on a whole different musical trajectory, which would be bad cos I like me.

tremendoid (tremendoid), Saturday, 23 April 2005 19:05 (nineteen years ago) link

if that's all it costs, that is a bargain regardless of the track order. you might have to do a little parsing but really, there are some great, great songs here.

if you miss Mary, 'Long Life Love' is my favorite song that she sang the lead on.

milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, 23 April 2005 21:07 (nineteen years ago) link

OK, I would have gotten this for the DVD alone, for $15.99, and I get three audio CDs to go with them filled with B-sides. (I'm not going to argue the "but but but they're SEPARATED!" argument. Resequence them yourself if that bothers you. They never segued into each other on the original releases anyway)

Seeing the Live With Jools Holland performance of "Les Yper Sound" with special guests Sean O'Hagan on keys and high on the pedestal of modular synths in the back.. SONIC BOOM!

HOLEE SHIT!

donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 05:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Does Aluminum Tunes still come in some sort of unfavorable packaging?

poortheatre (poortheatre), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 05:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes, worth it for the storming performance of French Disko on The Word.

harveyw (harveyw), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 07:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I bought this just to see the videos, pretty much (as the local record shoppe was out of Cure reissues, and, well, I had to buy *something*), and I liked them all. Also glad to have The Noise of Carpet in a digital versiona rather than crappy cassette dub from a billion years ago.

BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:21 (nineteen years ago) link

It was £13 at Fopp! Boy, they move fast with their pricing policy. Still, I got Sound Of Water for £3 and Mulholland Drive and Barry Lyndon for a fiver each. That effectively means the Stereolab was free.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 28 April 2005 13:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Perhaps I was wrong. I think I was wrong.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 28 April 2005 13:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I dunno about the title, actually: how many millions of people are going to wind up frustratedly googling "oscillations?" (A word one could pretty reasonably expect to appear in a Stereolab title?)

Another thing I'm finding funny about this: I specifically didn't buy all these EPs, even at the peak of my Stereolab fandom -- I remember hearing most of it, but the Switched On volumes had pretty much trained me to wait on purchasing. This should theoretically be the big payoff moment on a whole lot of late-90s telling-myself-I'll-own-"Pinball"-soon-enough -- and while it isn't, not entirely, I'm happy not to have those EPs on the shelf to give me mixed emotions about owning this one.

nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 28 April 2005 19:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Well, this just saves me from needing to back up my Stereolab DHF CD-EPs before I sell them off now. It's not as if they would have gotten me that much more money beforehand anyway (then again, they be lotza ebay suckaz these days, so who knows.)

donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 28 April 2005 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I dunno about the title, actually: how many millions of people are going to wind up frustratedly googling "oscillations?" (A word one could pretty reasonably expect to appear in a Stereolab title?)

Yep, I did that already. I don't know about "millions" though. Maybe thousands.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 28 April 2005 21:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh no, "Oscillons" makes it. A lovely word.

(If you do Google Oscillations From The Anti-Sun you get 19 hits*, including the BBC and Drag City. Buffoons! * - now 20.)

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 28 April 2005 21:52 (nineteen years ago) link

sister ray(?) had it down as 'Ant-Sun' in their recent email. which was a new twist.

ordered mine yesterday (along with the 99 track fall sessions thing - couldn't they have found just one more track?). was £14 from amazon but saves me £4.70 on a travelcard into town. suppose i could've gone on the bus but...

koogs (koogs), Friday, 29 April 2005 10:18 (nineteen years ago) link

Dad, what's an Oscillon?

http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-osc1.htm

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 29 April 2005 10:29 (nineteen years ago) link

You could bloody walk, Koogy.

I listened to disc one last night and thought to myself that I could do without some of the lengthier B-sides. So I'm glad it was cheap.

Also I am increasingly intolerant of flat singing.

I don't know what happened to my love of things my brother-in-law says, 'sound bad on purpose'.

I am surprised by joy to find that the box contains STICKERS of all the original record covers. I'm going to have the hippest kagoule in Berkshire. Mate.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 29 April 2005 14:04 (nineteen years ago) link

but time is money. shoe leather is money too.

and what would a b-sides collection be without the b-sides?

koogs (koogs), Friday, 29 April 2005 14:13 (nineteen years ago) link

along with the 99 track fall sessions thing - couldn't they have found just one more track?

Got 99 Fall Tracks
But "Winter" ain't one.

(Though actually it is, isn't it.)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 29 April 2005 14:14 (nineteen years ago) link

A-sides?

I'd forgotten about your shoe problem.

The daleks are back tomorrow.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 29 April 2005 14:36 (nineteen years ago) link

So is this set worth $22.99 for a casual Stereolab fan? I've been in the mood for some new Stereolab lately and this set is mighty tempting.

Also, are there any in-store places that are selling it for cheaper than $23? I saw it for that at Best Buy, but I haven't gone anywhere else yet.

Christian, Friday, 29 April 2005 15:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes, I noticed some of the singing on the live tv appearances was a bit set-yer-teeth-on-edge. I don't remember them being like that when I've seen them live.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 29 April 2005 15:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I'll probably pick this up eventually, for some of the same reasons as Nabisco enumerated (I've heard Fluorescences but don't own it, haven't heard the "Miss Modular" b-sides, etc.) -- but also wondering if I can find it cheaper. (It's $23 at Tower, too.)

jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 29 April 2005 15:24 (nineteen years ago) link

I am surprised by joy to find that the box contains STICKERS of all the original record covers. I'm going to have the hippest kagoule in Berkshire. Mate.

Quote of the day! You've just made me embarrass myself in a deathly quiet office.

I've got a dull promo copy but might have to buy the real t'ing just for the stickers innit.

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 29 April 2005 15:29 (nineteen years ago) link

and what would a b-sides collection be without the b-sides?

The Sterolab Sticker Collection!

walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 29 April 2005 16:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Actually, I probably wouldn't blink at the price but Donut said he got it for $15.99! (Where?)

jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 29 April 2005 16:06 (nineteen years ago) link

the reviews cometh

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/s/stereolab/oscillons-from-the-anti-sun.shtml

invisible sun, Friday, 29 April 2005 16:08 (nineteen years ago) link

jaymc: Easy Street in Seattle.

Sonic Boom has it cheaper: $14.99..

Go to http://www.sonicboomrecords.com and click on the online store.

donut debonair (donut), Friday, 29 April 2005 16:46 (nineteen years ago) link

For those of you who aren't buying it because of the sequencing...it's easy to put it in Itunes and make a playlist of the original sequencing, and then when you listen to the CDs enjoy it in "shuffle" order. The packaging for this box is pretty cool, but the stickers are almost worth the list price alone.

Christian, Friday, 29 April 2005 20:02 (nineteen years ago) link

What would the original sequencing be?

Yes, I suppose I could find out for myself. Fair point.

I was wrong to diss the B-sides, except for Fruition.

I know more of this stuff than I thought I would.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 2 May 2005 09:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Newbury Comics in New England has it for $17.99

Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 2 May 2005 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link

I finally got it yesterday (16.98) and so far have only watched the videos. They're not as good as I thought they would be but they have their charm. I like the live performances though. I wonder if there is enough live footage out there to eventually do a live DVD?

walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 2 May 2005 16:24 (nineteen years ago) link

The box sure is hard to open

Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Monday, 2 May 2005 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link

It's REMASTERED.

sooper scooper, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:18 (nineteen years ago) link

it is hard to open! that sticky plastic

ronny longjohns (ronny longjohns), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 04:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Are you guys serious?

I have more difficulty getting certain DVDs off their platform (or some CDs even.. like the AC/DC remasters) more than I can open this box.

donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 05:31 (nineteen years ago) link

came yesterday. watched all the videos this morning (wasn't there a 15 minute film they did, a long form version of Cybele's Reverie video or something? have never seen it). the 'Ba Ba Ba' bits made me sad. and the whole thing made me dig out ETK.

packaging is nice (and not hard to open at all, as long as you have fingers). dvd titles / menu nice too.

koogs (koogs), Thursday, 5 May 2005 10:33 (nineteen years ago) link

Mine was hard to open to. Some must be wedged more tightly than others.

Watching the live videos made me feel sad about Mary too (assuming that's what you mean by the 'Ba Ba Ba' bits.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 5 May 2005 15:09 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought it was ridiculously easy to open, like the golden age of pokey vinyl evoked within its... erm... grooves.

Hardcore early morning viewing, Koogy. Biggie props, bro! Balamorey for anoraks!

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 5 May 2005 15:38 (nineteen years ago) link

I am listening to the second disc. this is the first stereolab I have ever heard, having dismissed them out-of-hand previously as 90s. they are (were?) very good.

cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 8 May 2005 08:21 (nineteen years ago) link

re: opening the box.

Slide them out sideways, don't pull them.

Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Sunday, 8 May 2005 23:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Slide them out sideways? There must be two different versions of the packaging. Mine is a kind of clamshell box which is put together very tightly and has a really shiny and almost sticky lamination that makes the two halves of the box kind of stick together.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Sunday, 8 May 2005 23:59 (nineteen years ago) link

i agree. mine opens like a clam shell and is extremly tough to open. i'm ripping them for the iPod and putting the DVD in a DVD case so i don't have to get into the box again after today, unless i decide to play with the stickers.

biznotic, Monday, 9 May 2005 00:00 (nineteen years ago) link

that's how mine is too and it was hard to open.

this is quite a gift to fans i think. i'm not a huge stereolab fan (i have ETK and D&L), but i bought this without thinking twice about it.

xpost...

tricky (disco stu), Monday, 9 May 2005 00:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I think the packaging specifications must've got screwed up on their way across the Atlantic. Maybe it's an imperial/metric thing. It's a doddle to open over here. But we do have a different climate.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 9 May 2005 08:34 (nineteen years ago) link

As Buddy Rich never said to Stereolab: "You try ONE clam on me tonight!"

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 9 May 2005 08:40 (nineteen years ago) link

I have lsitened to it all. It makes me wish I hadn't sold the albums I had back in the block party era. I like Les Yper Yper Sound.

As for the packaging, my biggest worry is that the discs will fall out and roll away down a hill.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 9 May 2005 08:58 (nineteen years ago) link

solution - move to east anglia

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 9 May 2005 08:59 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...
I think the "Ping Pong" single version and the 'unreleased' album version are the wrong way round.

mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

For someone who doesn't own any of the Stereolab EPs, is this worth getting?

Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Monday, 4 July 2005 04:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Sure for the stickers and dvd alone for 17 bucks well worth it, plus a box that is a bitch to open.

svend (svend), Monday, 4 July 2005 04:37 (eighteen years ago) link

SOLD

Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Monday, 4 July 2005 04:42 (eighteen years ago) link

It's v. grand, Gear -- get it.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 July 2005 04:54 (eighteen years ago) link

the box really is a bitch isn't it...

That One Guy (That One Guy), Monday, 4 July 2005 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link

You guys must have a tough box.

Mine's very easy and always has been.

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 4 July 2005 15:39 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

i listened to this today, boy Soop Groove #1 is so hypnotic!

and "Oscillations From The Anti-Sun" now has 551 htis on google. talk about lack of attention to detail.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 20:59 (fifteen years ago) link

six months pass...

wuz one of the tracks on this labeled wrong? Golden Ball or French Disko or another wasn't the version listed on the tracklisting and was the album version instead?

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 21:19 (fourteen years ago) link

oh it was "Ping Pong" not really an unreleased version, did they ever fix that on later copies?

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 6 August 2009 00:49 (fourteen years ago) link


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