??
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 08:55 (fifteen years ago) link
mission fucking impossible
― Giorgio Moderator (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 22 December 2008 08:55 (fifteen years ago) link
voted The Flower Called Nowhere for the 6/8 harpsichord
― Giorgio Moderator (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 22 December 2008 08:57 (fifteen years ago) link
FUCKING DOTS & LOOPS
O M Y GODBEST STEREOLAB ALBUM EVER
― Bat Penatar (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Monday, 22 December 2008 08:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Right now I'm thinking Diagonals, but you know (Rainbow Conversation).
x-post yesses
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 08:59 (fifteen years ago) link
i want the mouse on mars people who were involved with this to come back to the stereolab people who were here and make the babies that i will adopt.
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 09:02 (fifteen years ago) link
The previous two were the best.
― Mark G, Monday, 22 December 2008 09:44 (fifteen years ago) link
The next two were the best.
― Jeff W, Monday, 22 December 2008 09:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Isn't "Flower Called Nowhere" Pharrell Williams' favourite track ever or something? Whatever, you can hear it all over some recent Neptunes productions.
― Jeff W, Monday, 22 December 2008 09:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Rainbo Converstion people
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:14 (fifteen years ago) link
keep your eyes on the fucking prize
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Shiiiiiit I now want to hear this IMMEDIATELY
― please_stanton_dont_burt_em (DJ Mencap), Monday, 22 December 2008 10:38 (fifteen years ago) link
I hope everyone reading this in the next day or so is flailing back and forth between every track on this album, because yes everything here is that good.
x-post i am listening to it right now and for god's sake it is still great.
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:41 (fifteen years ago) link
I put Contronatura on a cassette comp I used to listen to all the time when I got trashed so that is the one I have fondest memories of maybe
― please_stanton_dont_burt_em (DJ Mencap), Monday, 22 December 2008 10:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Contronatura is fantastic
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:45 (fifteen years ago) link
MY DEAREST FRIEND YOU GAN ?????
The drumming on this thing is off the fucking hook
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:46 (fifteen years ago) link
refractions in the plastic pulse should be ftw, but was this anyone else's fav song on this perfect album?
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, this is where it started to all go a bit wrong.
― You only like him coz he's sexually appalling (Masonic Boom), Monday, 22 December 2008 10:53 (fifteen years ago) link
NO! this was the apex
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:57 (fifteen years ago) link
it's the drums and the MoM involvement i think i don't kn ow whatever, it is great.
SO much better than emperor tomato ketchup as much as i LOVE that thingy.
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I mean RAINBO (FUCKING) CONVERSATION
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 10:59 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't agree w/ Kate but I knew someone was gonna say that sooner or later
― please_stanton_dont_burt_em (DJ Mencap), Monday, 22 December 2008 11:00 (fifteen years ago) link
lol i would rate this like > transient > peng > abc sessions, dunno about the rest. ALL i know is love stereolab so much and i hope they make my baby and/or inform him/her about the world to come so i can rest assured, maybe show them a programme or two.
― Matt P, Monday, 22 December 2008 11:08 (fifteen years ago) link
I was lukewarm on this album when it came out, but it has aged amazingly well. I like it just as much as ETK, if not a little bit more. That said, I'll always stand by defence of the hat-trick of TRNBWA - Mars Audiac Quintet - Refried Ectoplasm comp as being the pinnacle of their career. I'll take it all though, really, all the way up to the new one. They've had a remarkable dearth of dud moments for a band that has been around for so long and released so many records. Fuck a Cobra and Phases, but that's about it.
As for the matter at hand - there's plenty to choose from, but here they score biggest right off the bat: "Brakhage." Those skittering drum fills & organ riffs seal the deal.
― Pain don't hurt. (Pillbox), Monday, 22 December 2008 11:23 (fifteen years ago) link
― Matt P, Monday, December 22, 2008 9:53 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
YES
― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 22 December 2008 12:41 (fifteen years ago) link
Miss Modular is incredible, Flower Called Nowhere is orgasmic etc etc but Refractions is the magnum fucking opus.
Reluctant to spooge all over the thread but I do believe this is my favourite album of all time.
(except Prisoner of Mars which is skippable)
― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 22 December 2008 12:42 (fifteen years ago) link
In fact, ahem, I can only listen to this album as an entire piece (except Prisoner of Mars sometimes) because once it starts I cannot back away. Many times I've rushed to stop one of the songs playing on random because I can't be dragged in at that time.
― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 22 December 2008 12:43 (fifteen years ago) link
I will spooge all over the thread with u AA
― Sven Hassel Shutthefuckup (Matt P), Monday, 22 December 2008 12:45 (fifteen years ago) link
^_____^
― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 22 December 2008 12:46 (fifteen years ago) link
There's a REALLY shitty tape dropout near the end of Ticker-Tape which bollockses the whole experience though.
― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 22 December 2008 12:47 (fifteen years ago) link
?????????
― Sven Hassel Shutthefuckup (Matt P), Monday, 22 December 2008 12:48 (fifteen years ago) link
This album rules, obv. I can't decide.
― total mormon cockblock extravaganza (jaymc), Monday, 22 December 2008 14:19 (fifteen years ago) link
― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, December 22, 2008 6:47 AM (2 hours ago)
I've listened to this album about a million times and I have no idea what you are talking about.
― Moodles, Monday, 22 December 2008 14:56 (fifteen years ago) link
"Parsec" is the one that was used in the VW Beetle commercial, right?
― ^likes black girls (HI DERE), Monday, 22 December 2008 14:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Surprised at the "Refractions" love, as it's the only song on the album I consistently skip (though "Ticker-tape of the Unconscious" occasionally gives me an itchy trigger finger).
Ended up picking "Miss Modular", because it's pretty much perfect, but just about every other track is a damn close second, especially "Rainbo Conversation" and "Contronatura". One of the greatest albums of the '90s, IMHO, and head and shoulders above every other 'Lab release.
― Charlie Rose Nylund, Monday, 22 December 2008 15:09 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^^ OTM. The beginning of a long slide of mediocrity.
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Monday, 22 December 2008 15:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Now we just need Ned to weigh in, and the Anglophile drone fans will have made their point.
― total mormon cockblock extravaganza (jaymc), Monday, 22 December 2008 16:35 (fifteen years ago) link
This album works as a whole for me and - very un-ILM comment coming - I don't think I've ever paid attention to any of the titles.
― Daniel Giraffe, Monday, 22 December 2008 16:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Miss Modular is the best song here
― zeus, Monday, 22 December 2008 16:45 (fifteen years ago) link
for some reason this album seems like the end of something for Stereolab; it was certainly the end of the run where I thought everything they put out was brilliant (next two releases were the first disappointments I had with them). Can't pick a song.
― akm, Monday, 22 December 2008 17:03 (fifteen years ago) link
This is the only Stereolab album I own, largely because of "Parsec".
― ^likes black girls (HI DERE), Monday, 22 December 2008 17:14 (fifteen years ago) link
This is tough, but I'm gonna go with "Brakhage". One of the best openers ever.
― maybe i'll let you touch it for a dollar or more (The Brainwasher), Monday, 22 December 2008 17:39 (fifteen years ago) link
My favorite Stereolab album by a mile. When PBS You (RIP) first started, they would run the opening of "Refractions in the Plastic Pulse" in a loop between programs that almost burned me out on that song.
I'm halfway through a run-through right now, but I'm probably going to vote "Diagonals."
― WmC, Monday, 22 December 2008 18:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Isn't "Flower Called Nowhere" Pharrell Williams' favourite track ever or something? Whatever, you can hear it all over some recent Neptunes productions.― Jeff W, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:57 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark
― Jeff W, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:57 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark
Also, a Dilla production for Busta samples Stereolab (in a similar vein that he did with Towa Tei for Tribe):
― Giorgio Moderator (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 22 December 2008 18:39 (fifteen years ago) link
The Automator remix of "Miss Modular" is the best thing he ever did and better than anything on this record (which admittedly I've not listened to in ages.)
― Alex in SF, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Their best album! Yes! I guess I can understand being bitter when one of your favorite bands stops sounding like one of your favorite bands. But - if you just take this album on its own terms - Dots and Loops is very, very, very good at doing what it's trying to do.
I almost went with Diagonals, ended up going with Miss Modular...which I'm guessing will win?
Also: Sound-Dust deserves wayyy more respect.
― iatee, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:13 (fifteen years ago) link
"I guess I can understand being bitter when one of your favorite bands stops sounding like one of your favorite bands."
That would really be the previous album though (which was great!)
― Alex in SF, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:13 (fifteen years ago) link
True, but it still seems to be the most common criticism of D&L?
― iatee, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:17 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought the most common criticism was that it was kind of boring.
― Alex in SF, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Also: Sound-Dust deserves wayyy more respect.― iatee, Monday, December 22, 2008 3:13 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark
― iatee, Monday, December 22, 2008 3:13 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark
OTM
True, but it still seems to be the most common criticism of D&L?― iatee, Monday, December 22, 2008 3:17 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark
― iatee, Monday, December 22, 2008 3:17 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark
― Giorgio Moderator (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 22 December 2008 20:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Couldn't someone say that about just about any Stereolab album that they personally didn't like?
― iatee, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Couldn't someone say that about just about any album that they personally didn't like?
― Alex in SF, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Or impersonally for that matter.
― Alex in SF, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Which is to suggest that it's not a very good criticism?
― iatee, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Sure, but it's very good reason not to like an album.
― Alex in SF, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Probably not a reason worth sharing though.
― iatee, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:47 (fifteen years ago) link
― Moodles, Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:56 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
I've never been able to find a version that doesn't feature the dropout, despite trying really quite hard.
― nabisco inferno (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 22 December 2008 20:48 (fifteen years ago) link
"Probably not a reason worth sharing though."
Yeah I'll let everyone who told me back in '98 know that, kay.
― Alex in SF, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Maybe you should have!
― iatee, Monday, 22 December 2008 20:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Ticker-tape dropouts occur at 3:38 and 4:10 on every copy I've ever been able to find.
― sonderangerbots and loops (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 01:48 (fifteen years ago) link
well, if they recorded it on ticker tape, no wonder!
― Mark G, Tuesday, 23 December 2008 08:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Nope. I've listened to this album a thousand times and it slides off my ears every time.
― I Am Bored Of This Screen Name (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 11:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I listened to it again last night, and there's not one song that makes me sit up and go Boy Howdy!
― I Am Bored Of This Screen Name (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 11:21 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought the single they released about this time was possibly their best, but after that, nope never got what I got before.
"You fell, are you OK" etc..
― Mark G, Tuesday, 23 December 2008 11:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Wow, those are very subtle glitches. Maybe it'd be more obvious if I were listening on a high-end system, but on the system I have, even with decent headphones, I have to listen really carefully to even notice it.
Most of the people I know who dislike Dots and Loops are fans of the older Stereolab sound, but most of the bad things they say about it -- cold, slick, kitschy -- seem to apply way more to the albums that followed, especially Cobra, which was mostly disastrous.
What's strange is that many of the same people love Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which seems like the worst of both worlds to me. I guess it's just a question of which point in the transition you find most congenial.
(Don't get me wrong, there are some great songs on ETK, but as an album I find it almost impossible to get through. Lots of filler and a Rubber Soul-ish lack of focus.)
― Charlie Rose Nylund, Tuesday, 23 December 2008 19:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah I agree about ETK...a few great songs, but it doesn't feel like a coherent album the way the few before and after do. Always seemed to me like a Greatest Hits album in a world where Stereolab were a worse band. Never understood its place as the canon's favorite Stereolab album.
(Don't agree about Rubber Soul, however)
― iatee, Tuesday, 23 December 2008 20:32 (fifteen years ago) link
xp Yeah, I've always enjoyed the new albums and cannot stand the old drony stuff.
― Pope Bend + Dick XVI (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 21:08 (fifteen years ago) link
I pretty much like everything they've done, but my favorite era is 1994-99.
― total mormon cockblock extravaganza (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 21:12 (fifteen years ago) link
ETK album and tour is where I got on board. And I like pretty much everything I've heard from them. I need to go relisten to D&L to choose a favorite track. I think of their albums as one long track most of the time. They are generally so consistent...
― Nate Carson, Tuesday, 23 December 2008 21:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Friday, 2 January 2009 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
there are some great songs on ETK, but as an album I find it almost impossible to get through. Lots of filler and a Rubber Soul-ish lack of focus.
OTM. Although this seems to be a rare opinion. I was sure I was off the Stereolab wagon after ETK, and wasn't initially impressed by "Miss Modular" either. Hearing "Brakhage" on the radio finally prompted me to part with my money. It still gets my vote.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 2 January 2009 03:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Saturday, 3 January 2009 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Is this OOP now?! Judging by Amazon...
― Matt Groening is MY Cousin (Leee), Tuesday, 31 December 2013 01:26 (ten years ago) link
smh @ plastic pulse losing this
― J. Sam, Tuesday, 31 December 2013 02:23 (ten years ago) link
I hadn't listened to this in forever until today. It still sounds so great. And I'd forgotten the extent to which it served in part as a sonic prelude to Tortoise's TNT. Discovering Microstoria around the same time that this album was released made me a Jan St. Werner fan pretty quickly, as well.
― Oh, Delicious! (Old Lunch), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:15 (nine years ago) link
deux et deux et deux et deux et deux oui
― Van Horn Street, Friday, 19 June 2015 16:40 (eight years ago) link
― Matt P, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:57 AM (6 years ago)
― j., Tuesday, 14 July 2015 16:43 (eight years ago) link
man, how the hell did "Diagonals" only get 1 vote?
― flappy bird, Monday, 18 April 2016 22:13 (seven years ago) link
Miss Modular >>>>>>>> 99.9% of recorded music
― lute bro (brimstead), Monday, 18 April 2016 23:25 (seven years ago) link
Hmm, just had to listen to the whole thing again for the first time decades. Personally I like the intro track the best, more drawn to the somewhat harder electronic excursions rather than the straight dad-rock lounge material. I have to say though that overall I really love "French Disco" and think that is really the best thing Stereolab has ever done. Was recently listening to it and thinking how underrated these guys are, along with some of the other kind of experimental late=90s stuff.
― viborg, Tuesday, 19 April 2016 00:30 (seven years ago) link
*Ok, apparently "French Disco" is actually from 1993 so not really late 90's at all, and there's another version called "French Disko" that may have been released later? Idk, I'm finding some conflicting info out there...whatever, it's a good song.
― viborg, Tuesday, 19 April 2016 00:37 (seven years ago) link
brimstead otm
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 19 April 2016 00:43 (seven years ago) link
― Matt P, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:46 AM (eight years ago)
dope as fukk
nerdy muso time signatures too
― j., Monday, 24 July 2017 02:25 (six years ago) link
It's John McEntire drumming on Brakhage and Flower, right?
― Moodles, Monday, 24 July 2017 02:39 (six years ago) link
happy to see Dots & Loops get the retrospective review at p4k. the second part of 'Refractions in the Plastic Pulse' is one of my favorite things they ever did.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 05:32 (six years ago) link
Refractions was robbed of number one
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 05:46 (six years ago) link
listening tonight is the first time i can really recall noticing that the parts on this may have actually been played at some point by a human being, one who was like in a band, before the production process kicked in
― j., Friday, 14 June 2019 04:14 (four years ago) link
Humans are overrated, but there are definitely some people playing instruments on this album.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Friday, 14 June 2019 05:03 (four years ago) link
yeah i can spot em, but i just never really give em a thought, not even the drummer, who is the most humany, ironically
― j., Friday, 14 June 2019 05:13 (four years ago) link
C'mon, other than a couple of swooshy overdubs Miss Modular might as well be Thee Headcoats.
― everything, Friday, 14 June 2019 06:19 (four years ago) link
Seriously though, Gane's very live-sounding rhythm guitar is definitive and is all over this record.
― everything, Friday, 14 June 2019 06:28 (four years ago) link
it's just something about how they get you from one bit to another. no one player or part ever seems to stick out as responsible for moving forward, but they don't sound like they're cooperating either, more like they're just very perfectly, conveniently coordinated.
― j., Friday, 14 June 2019 06:49 (four years ago) link
aw yeah baby
― j., Friday, 13 September 2019 06:10 (four years ago) link
music will never be better than this
― j., Saturday, 14 September 2019 23:19 (four years ago) link