Stereolab: Classic or Dud

i sort of felt like that was the "real" sterolab!

I feel like D&L was part of a wave in indie rock at the time where established figures/groups all felt like it was their artistic duty to engage with electronic music - whether because they were bored, or they were worried about staying "current", or they wanted to jump a bandwagon, or were sure this blending of styles was the "future of music" or what. I'm thinking of things like JSBX's "ACME", Mogwai's "Fear Satan Remixes" record, etc.

the thing is, these records suck and it wasn't a good idea.

I liked how they would take things like the smooth horns in Miss Modular and translate them into weird, slightly awkward Moog leads live.

Good tip!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JZhFE5uszA

am I alone in remembering cobra sucking and everyone hating it? maybe that was colored by a pitchfork review or something.

it does have the ugliest color scheme on the cover

Everything about Cobra rules, the cover included, so... Must have been a dumb review from a dumb website.

Yes the pitchfork review is an atrocity, which still can be found online. Cobra is not their best imo due to the muddy production at times, not a spot on some of their other work. But it does have puncture and emergency kisses tho...

You're all wrong. They actually peaked with their first album 'PENG!'

http://www.nme.com/reviews/album/reviews-nme-1392

Another shite review

I agree that Dots & Loops was a huge thing, it bemused me at the time. Crossing over genres and attracting fans from all sides previously left cold to Stereolab. Saw it around me, and in the press. (lots of people who loved D&L jumped ship after Cobra, and weren't on board to begin with before that. I can see why, sonically, but it was an outlier, because it was so popular, even for Stereolab)

I see the P4K review is by Brent D. Nuff said. It's bollocks.

You're all wrong. They actually peaked with their first album 'PENG!'

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, November 17, 2017 12:25 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Think it's been well established that there is no "peak Stereolab", apart from people finding certain albums their best albums. The radical consistency, or their consistent radical, rules. It's what makes them so great imo.

(that wasn't a dig at you Moka, if that's how it came across, just saying <3 )

I was definitely underwhelmed by Cobra because it felt like the first time that they weren't aggressively pushing forward with their sound. It was a bit unfocused and overlong like many CDs at the time. But really, it has lots of great tracks, maybe just needed to cut some filler.

That's interesting, because for me Cobra was the first time they really delivered the jazz, a direction they'd always hinted at, something that sounded as a promise in all of their previous records, but never came into fruition until then.

I feel like there are several pretty jazzy songs on D&L and not much on Cobra besides "Fuses" and maybe "Velvet Water".

Stereolab peaked with "Hallogallo" (sorry).

They did rule live. I don’t know if they always did this, but often their sound guy would have a Moog Prodigy (I think?) that he would filter the entire band through during their freak out moments.

damn that's awesome.

i saw em on the cobra tour, they were fabulous. they ended with the last track on cobra and the house turned the discoball on for it. totally wonderful classic live concert moment for me.

my personal favorite are the ones i bought first, MAQ and cobra. but the groop have a rich tapestry of records, it really is a damn solid discography.

The time that stands out to me is ETK tour during "Percolator". When the songs winds up to the loud climactic part, it suddenly sounded like the whole mix was going through some insane analogue synth distortion. It was completely nuts!

i was not crazy about dots and loops at the time but i revisited it a few years ago and it's really damn solid, "miss modular" especially has a breathtaking arrangement.

I don't think the Prodigy had external inputs fwiw

Hahaha dont worry LBI I was joking I do love Peng! But I’m a Stereolab stan and I believe they’re the most consistent band ever.

Which means all Stereolab is peak Stereolab.

they played "the seeming and the meaning" when i saw them, that was really cool. maybe they play that one a lot?

yeah I find it strange that people can like the band and passionately hate so much of their discography. it's all great.

I think their last couple of albums were not very good but overall they had an amazing run that produced a ton of music I still listen to with great pleasure

anyone ever hear the Pack Yr Romantic Mind that featured the George Harrison sample?

i totally get it, they were a noisier and rawer band. a lot of people don't like the slickness or the flutes.. and i feel like their heavily reduced use of the distorted sister ray organ was the demarcation point. in fact, on MAQ you still have the organ but it's mostly much cleaner. ETK, the distortion is back but it's not a wall anymore, it's more of a textural/action-element.. metronomic underground notwithstanding.

re: liking the early stuff, not liking the later stuff

Their compositions got trickier and fussier and more cerebral, the drop in quality was more due to that than textural changes imo

man, it's all pretty good. i don't really see that big a difference between their early and later stuff. love me some "Peng!" the shoegaze and drone rock stuff, the "What Goes On" style motorik garage rock early stuff, the later stuff, the moogy stuff, the Clockwork Orangey stuff. it was always Clockwork Orangey stuff.

i first encountered Stereolab with "Cobra" at a Best Buy, the retro brown and orange cover seducing me like a snake charmer blowing bubbles underwater. "Dots and Loops" followed next, one time i played it on a rainy day in Florida, driving around w my grandmother, slightly high on robotussin from a cold i was suffering, in town for a crazy wedding that included my Juggalo cousins from Mass.

i still find it weird Monade opened for Stereolab, that was the tour I saw them on (Fab Four Suture).

i wish I had clear enough memories of the stereolab shows I saw (and I saw several). they were all good, I remember that.

Which means all Stereolab is peak Stereolab.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, November 17, 2017 2:37 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks to this thread i'm listening to mars audiac quintet and random transient noisebursts and the music and the memories are actually quite overpowering

GOLDEN BALL my god. john cale, eat your heart out.

the fake skip in that got me so good when I first played it

and then her voice comes in clear! *bows down*

it is sublime

I was so glad i was able to see them the one time. there's so much to explore, there isn't a single Stereolab album that i feel like doesn't deserve further listening. 'Cobra and Phases...' was i think considered a disappointment but yeah i think the PF review did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to that reputation. when i first heard it i was surprised at how not-bad it was. the disingenuousness of that review (and Brent D's entire career in music writing) is pretty obvious now, something like that wouldn't fly or be as influential today.

I thought it was the "0" from the NME that really hurt Cobra's rep at the time. I read an interview somewhere from the Sound-Dust era where Laetitia was talking about it, why anyone would bother or care that much to give it a zero

i'm still cool with the travistan zero tho

It was always the zero from the NME that pushed it to the back of the queue when I was delving into the Stereolab catalogue as a skint student, as silly as that was given that I’m sure SWells wrote the review and it was clearly a stunt review. The other thing is I really didn’t like the artwork. Haven’t listened to it in years but now I may.

So, I've been looking for an archive with videos/rare Lab songs ever since the Merlin Warp copyright strike last year. Considering I only got into them in 2016, there isn't much I had time to find, so if any of you know anything, could you please let me know?
P.S. Don't know how to deal with the fact that I'm too young to have ever seen any live Lab performances

the live project

😁

Oh wow, many thanks to you for the live project!
Also, any advice on finding fellow Lab fans irl? It's hard to do as a non-Brit and a high school student...

this has made my night

Listen, I am desperately trying to relate here, and I finally found someone else who listens to this milk to the ears.
Sure, it may seem funny, but it's also great to have finally found this thread, so I might as well ask you guys to educate me:
What are your thoughts on Aluminium Tunes?