The future of Stereolab

email from drag city

Laetitia also has a song on a 4 way split 12" that we're on (srry for spam) that comes out in the fall i think? track is great.

looks like "Not Music" is indeed the Chemical Chords II thing they had mentioned a while back. http://pitchfork.com/news/38978-new-stereolab-music-on-the-way/

And that is fully confirmed now via this promo mailout:

Not Music is Stereolab’s twelfth album and is released during the band’s self - imposed hiatus from recording and touring.

The tracks that make up Not Music were recorded in early 2007 - half of the recordings from the session would be released in August 2008 as Chemical Chords – Stereolab’s eleventh album!

About the recordings –

Tim Gane started messing with “a series of about seventy tiny drum loops” on top of improvised chord sequences using piano and vibraphone. “Building them up from there – later slowing the tracks down or speeding them up – a totally new way of doing songs for us…”

With typical prolificacy, the band laboured over the summer at their studio, Instant Zero (in Bordeaux, France), helping transform these blueprints into 32 luminous new songs, with keyboardist/technician Joe Watson manning the mixing desk.

Not Music will be released via Drag City November, 16, 2010.

cool, looking forward to this. the 'Lab may be on hiatus but there's plenty of music to enjoy. The Laetitia solo album is a gem.

heyyy, both of these records (the trip and not music) are awesome.

What are they like?

not music is obv. pretty similar to chemical chords since the songs come from the same sessions/era. some nice horn arrangements, cool bass lines. the highlight for me might be the 10-minute emperor machine mix of "silver sands" which out-kraftwerks kraftwerk. sadier disc doesn't sound like a radical departure from stereolab/monade. less manic/busy, more space in the arrangements. great nico-esque version of "summertime."

i need to check the sadier. in my dl queue waiting to be unzipped.

not-music isn't anything special in imho, but this isn't shocking as it's from the chemchords session and that album also left me cold. it's like their hearts weren't in it, you know?

"The future of Stereolab? Stereolab [i]is</is> the future, etc."

i know what you mean, but i seem to be a bigger fan of 21st century 'Lab than a lot of people. chemchords/not music isn't where i'd point a stereolab newbie or anything, but i still dig the sound. xp

sound dust is my favorite stereolab album by a huge margin

― iatee, Thursday, 13 May 2010 02:46 (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This.

Chemical Chords is nothing short of wall-to-wall genius but I cannot penetrate Not Music. I'll keep trying, but the point is I've not had to work at anything post Mars Audiac Quintet.

I feel like if sound dust had been released as some band's first record instead of 'stereolab not making the music the fans wanted more of', more people would have realized how genius it is

Sound-Dust is indeed incredible. It's like they had a second crack at Cobra and got it right.

Trawling previous threads, I found a long sequence in the Chem Chords thread in which that album sent me from boredom to orgasm in three days. Perhaps I should persevere with this new thing.

Sound-Dust is indeed incredible. It's like they had a second crack at Cobra and got it right.

So wrong! (I like Cobra much more than Sound-Dust.)

"the highlight for me might be the 10-minute emperor machine mix of "silver sands" "

Agree with this...is it just me or is this album more atonal than usual? I wasn't paying close attention during the walk to work this morning so that might be wrong.

nice Vitamin Water commercial guys

What does Tim Gane do with his time now?

Revel in the idea that Alyssa Milano has possibly listened to his music.

Did another soundtrack with Sean O'Hagan. Also produced the last High Llamas album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hXFJ-56jk0

Or was it mixed?

Did another soundtrack with Sean O'Hagan.

outer bongolia 2 imo

Did another soundtrack with Sean O'Hagan

good lord are these what pass for "pretty" people in France now?

http://ugsmag.com/2013/04/teseolab-tes-tim-gane-shoot-shoot/

so glad to know Tim Gane is actually alive and doing shit, i'm kinda into this

I'm ready for a whole album like this

Cool track, terrible mc.

That's the lamest band name I've heard in a good while.

Is that david cross?

Love it when that Focus sample comes in.

Cavern of Anti-Matter were great at ATP.

wait a second, did Tim Gane team up with Whiney?!?

Cavern of Anti-Matter album is out apparently: http://www.grautagrec.com/releases/006/gt006.html

oh man this sounds very cool, ordered!

Yeah, finally managed to grab a copy of this from Rough Trade on Sunday (after they sold out of their first shipment within about a week). Great to hear it on vinyl blasting through my hi-fi after having to make do with the stream for several months. Don't forget to nominate it and/or vote for it in the EOY poll, folks!

Yeah, it's rad.

Should appeal to the fans of the less loungey side of the band.

I like this ok, but man, doesn't Gane ever get tired of the Neu! formula that he always builds from?

shhh :)

Those are the most Tim Gane songtitles ever! Excited to take a listen to this.

It's hard to believe that Margerine Eclipse is a decade old this month. I popped it on the other day and was struck at how good it was. I think that they had something to prove with it, and succeeded admirably. In retrospect, they probably should have called it a day after that.

yeah the funky reprise of "dear marge" that closes the album out would have been a perfect way to draw the curtains

True, though the record right after that had moments

I think the Chemical Chords/Not Music twofer was a pretty nice exit, nothing to be ashamed of at least. Margerine Eclipse was probably their best 21st century album, though, just by a hair.

I just could not get into Chemical Chords- I just remember every track fading out abruptly. Not Music has some moments but really feels like leftovers when you add remixes to the equation...but truthfully I haven't listened to it all that much.

There's plenty of good stuff on all their releases from Margerine onward, although none of it quite reaches the heights of the albums that came before.

Isn't there supposed to be one last album's worth of tracks or B-sides or something that they had talked about releasing? Whatever happened to that?

I remember really liking Fab Four Suture at the time. I should listen to it again.

I think that's what Not Music was-- all stuff that didn't make it onto Chemical Chords.

Yeah I played Margerine Eclipse a few weeks back and enjoyed it a lot. Vonal Declosion is probably my favourite album opener of theirs. That one and Sound Dust are crazy underrated and up there with their best for me. Think I'm a bit of an uncool Stereolab fan really, I'd take those two albums over any of the first three. Also Dots & Loops is my second favourite album and don't a lot of people think that's when they started to lose it?

dots & loops is when i tuned in! in retrospect transient random-noise bursts is my favorite but i'm a big fan of the mcentire era

Cool. I know there's fans that think they started making the same album around that point but I love those albums. I should really give Cobra and Phases another chance at some point. Being such a big fan of the albums either side I would probably like it more than I remember.

Should point out Emperor Tomato Ketchup is my favourite album of theirs by quite some distance.