The future of Stereolab

Apologies if this has already come up, but was looking into Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga, Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy)'s new thing In Fabric yesterday, since he's pulled in such great collaborators for his previous films (respectively: a mishmash of Broadcast/Ghost Box's Roj and Nurse With Wound, Broadcast, and Cat's Eyes), and In Fabric's original score will be a Cavern of Anti-Matter release!

I got all three in the mail last night and I have to say, i'm more than a little disappointed. Switched On sounds pretty bad. Inside cuts on both sides are unlistenable, High Expectations vocal sounds terrible, lots of sibilance all over. The album doesn't sound that dynamic anyway, but this pressing is no improvement on my other copy. Also, the 'Limited Edition' tag was clearly only a marketing ploy, as these albums are absolutely everywhere in mass quantities. I ended up paying much, much more to get these from Bleep than I would have paid at my local shop. Aluminum Tunes sounded OK, but I only played 2 of the 3 records. Didn't play Vol. 2 at all so can't comment. Maybe my copy of Switched On just needs to be cleaned properly, but it mostly sounded terrible. Why hasn't anyone from the band come out and endorsed these represses? I feel like the fans are getting duped on this shit.

Yikes! I haven't heard Switched On yet. Aluminum Tunes sounds good to me. Refried Ectoplasm is fairly good, although a bit on the harsh side. Haven't heard any obvious distortion on either.

Oh no that is terrible news

I got all three a few days ago but haven’t listened... I have an original Refried, I will compare, but it’s really Switched On I was most excited about

Searching around to see if others have run into the same issue (I'm in the middle of rewiring my whole audio setup and haven't had a chance to check the records), I am just now learning about the apparent propensity PVC sleeves have for damaging vinyl over the long term, so that's going to be a fun expedition over the next week or so...

I noticed a few skips on the inner grooves of side one of ‘Switched On’, wasn’t sure if it was just my copy. Haven’t cleaned it.

On a related note, I think i'm going to pull the trigger on an Okki Nokki soon. I love Switched On so much. This poor pressing is really disappointing to me.

are the others sounding ok to you?

Switched On is my favourite Stereolab release and Au Grand Jour* one my my favourite all-time tracks

I've only played discs 1 and 2 of Aluminum Tunes (in addition to both sides of Switched On), but they sounded good. I believe there was IGD on one side of the Aluminum Tunes, but it wasn't as bad as Switched On. I don't have the OG Aluminum Tunes, but I do have the OG for Refried Ectoplasm, and I'll compare the OG to the clear remaster tonight if I have time.

I have an OG ‘Aluminum Tunes’ but no remaster to compare it to. Got my copy fairly cheap as i was a bit scratched in places. Had considered replacing it with th new one but playing it now and it tracks surprisingly well through the scratches (so far) and generally sounds really good.

I got a bunch of emails about their releases on bandcamp

https://stereolab.bandcamp.com/

I miss my dots and loops cassette I made from cd for my walkman - best sound ever

http://www.koly.com/stereolab/bootswitch.php

I'm pleased to see this is still on the web

does anyone know where to get cd's/lp's anyway? i'm stuck

I picked up the Switched On CD boxset on the weekend which I'm quite pleased about. From the local record store, which I'm also quite pleased about. I already own multiple copies of the first two but never owned Aluminium Tunes so that's all I've listened to so far. Sounds great. As a package it's as basic as can be but no complaints.

There's just so much on Aluminum Tunes. It's kind of hard to fathom how much they were cranking out at their peak.

True. The whole box only covers 6 years of material. And at the same time released like 7 albums (which are all brilliant). Quite extraordinary.

The packaging on these re-issues is I guess the same as before but man is it ever good

On the CDs the artwork is all included in a foldy-out thing but at least for Refried Ectoplasm the layout and materials are quite inferior to the original issue.

Apologies if this has already come up, but was looking into Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga, Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy)'s new thing In Fabric yesterday, since he's pulled in such great collaborators for his previous films (respectively: a mishmash of Broadcast/Ghost Box's Roj and Nurse With Wound, Broadcast, and Cat's Eyes), and In Fabric's original score will be a Cavern of Anti-Matter release!

― You guys are caterpillar (Telephone thing), Wednesday, October 3, 2018 11:24 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nice

I only purchased Refried. It sounds ok to my ears. Packaging looks cool but is a bit weird, no vinyl folder so to speak. It will fall apart if it’s not in a sleeve. Looking at past reissues it has always been intended to look this way though.

Oscillons is my fave Stereolab comp, also kinda shows paths they could have went down but did not, great stuff with mary on there as well

y'all saw this, right? Whatever it is, it's coming in two weeks.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BowYapnDVlJ/?taken-by=duophonic_uhf_disks

Intriguing

True. The whole box only covers 6 years of material. And at the same time released like 7 albums (which are all brilliant). Quite extraordinary.

agreed, but knowing how much they were knicking from other artists kinda blunts it a bit for me

DS-44 is a promo 7" by Cavern of Anti-Matter. Two tracks from the Strickland film soundtrack. Good luck finding one of the 287 copies. (The full OST will be released idc though.)

yeah, i would not have a hope in hell for any new stereolab material ever

Did anyone get the promo poster, stickers and bag? I am so pissed at ordergin this through Bleep and missing out on all the extras. I'd like to buy / trade for the bonus material if possible. Let me know.

How are you feeling about the sound quality of RE and AT? Still on the fence about whether I should get Switched On and any of the stuff coming out in November.

I liked those 2 better than Switched On. New vinyl sometimes needs to be washed and I have not cleaned the vinyl yet, but I was not happy with the sound quality on Vol 1. I’m really curious why none of the band members have endorsed these. I haven’t seen it if they have.

Could they release them without the bands approval? Tim and Laetitia own a 68% share of the company.

I’m really curious why none of the band members have endorsed these. I haven’t seen it if they have.

It’s a Cavern of antimatter gig at fabric:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpEm4SPDZzm/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=2nsj96linqtk

Holy shit, it's crazy to see the same people still posting there that were posting back in like 2000.

Could say the same about this place! Me = guilty on both counts :)

Hey eatandoph, that link is great, but is there a thread there in particular that includes discussion from management about the quality of the pressing and the bands opinion / approval of them? I'm just curious how your reply is a response to my question. You've just linked to a generic forum board and not a thread or post that addresses my question. If you've already read those comments, perhaps you could summarize them.

Given the initial batch of re-issues are on the bands own label and being promoted by their manager then that seems like implicit approval at the very least.

The upcoming Too Pure reissues are remastered by the same people and are also clear vinyl so if they’re cash ins they’re at least being done sympathetically. I’d expect it’s more likely that rather than license the material from Beggars for their own editions Duophonic have worked them instead.

xp there's two quotes from Pike that I see regarding the reissues:

"Yep, Calyx remastered. Beggars reissues. Couple slight artwork amendements – address and publishing from memory."

"Switched On will remain as the original as we only have the rights to 6 of the tracks. We licensed the Super Electric EP for physical only. Stunning Debut Album and the Super 45 EP will be up as EPs and they will be the remastered versions."

Ok. I read those as well, but they didn’t seem to address my question. I’ll read further on my own. Thanks though.

got the reissues finally; playing Refried Ectoplasm now and I don't have any of the noise others have reported so perhaps I'm lucky; and that means not all pressings are identical. I did wipe it with a carbon brush though before playing. that usually doesn't make that huge a difference though and I'd assume others did something similar.

I think it was Switched On that had the distortion

Hey eatandoph, that link is great, but is there a thread there in particular that includes discussion from management about the quality of the pressing and the bands opinion / approval of them? I'm just curious how your reply is a response to my question. You've just linked to a generic forum board and not a thread or post that addresses my question. If you've already read those comments, perhaps you could summarize them.

I've gotten the reissues and haven't listened to them all that analytically. There's a little noise in some passages but nothing all that intrusive. My impression was that the new Switched On was preferable to my old CD (livelier, for lack of a better word). With the other two it was more of a toss-up; the old CDs always sounded good to me. Stereolab offered new (old) product and I shelled out! Though besides a Switched On Vol. 4 I'd prefer re-pressings of the single/EPs that were collected on Oscillons (the re-sequencing of which I've complained about elsewhere here).

all three of mine sound great, no weird noises, so perhaps I got lucky.

Aluminium Tunes smells amazing! what did they do here? It's like sandelwood incense or something.

hoping they do Dots and Loops, Transient, Ketchup, and Margarine. Those are the only ones I feel like I really need (I have tne 1972 of MAD, which is alright though nothing revelatory)

dots and loops would be amazing

Cobra and Phases with the restored side-length version of "Blue Milk" please

Aluminium Tunes smells amazing! what did they do here? It's like sandelwood incense or something.
Screen printing ink – apparently the smell wears off after a while.

that's sad. i'll have to smell it up while I have the chance.

My children gave me the CD boxset for my birthday so now I have two. And I couldn't be happier!

From their FB page a little while ago.

Stereolab will undertake an extensive reissue campaign covering albums from 1993's Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements through to 2004's Margerine Eclipse. All 7 albums will be reissued throughout 2019.

Keep ‘em peeled for news of the live return of Stereolab.