The future of Stereolab

xp Songs on eps and singles already count as officially released though.

But all the same I'm sure there is a mine of unreleased material in the stereolab vault.

cannot believe the Low-Fi EP has not been compiled on a CD collection yet, a real high point for the band imo.

Yes the Low-Fi Ep is amazing, blows my mind it was recorded in 1992... mmm need to submit to the ep thread...

Due to popular demand:

Oddities part 1 - http://www.divshare.com/download/11278093-b2c
Oddities part 2 - http://www.divshare.com/download/11278167-301

Oh wise and good soul.

:D

Gerald, thanks for this! I'm four songs into Vol. 2 and that Brigitte Fontaine is hitting the spot.

xpost Gerald McBoing-Boing you have made my day.

Man, that looks like a great little comp. I tried dl but divshare never coughed up the files just started countdown again. Anyone else have the same problem?

yes, do it twice. same thing happened to me, but they did download.

weird, the 'try again' links were different this time around but it worked! thanks.

Wow, thanks!

So - what do y'all think of this stuff? For me, some of it is unlike anything else I listen to and more experimental than their LPs and therefore has a special place in my heart.

(this stuff = the oddities I posted)

Thanks Gerald. Do you happen to have an mp3 version off this single? Both songs are up on youtube and they are quite different to anything I've heard from them.

http://www.discogs.com/Stereolab-Solar-Throw-Away/release/662709

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Y2s-7Qny4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJW68Bh7-o

I don't, I lost interest around 2001 and therefore stopped my compilation at that point.

the two tracks from that 2006 tour single are probably my favourite stereolab tracks since ETK

I love this! The St Elmo's Fire cover was a surprise. The Godz cover is great, too.
Great to have it all, in one place, no less.

Moka, those two tracks are great!

SCUTTLE

Anyone care to reup the compilation somewhere else? Divshare showing unavailable until June 3rd due to number of downloads...

aw!

*cough* *cough*

thanks very much!

wow, lovely eno cover.

Is there anything he can't do?

Thanks, this is a nice collection of stuff, even though it underscores the fact that the quality of their music fell off a cliff starting with "Dots and Loops". Looking back I can't even understand why I liked D&L at the time -- I guess I forced myself to like it because it was Stereolab. They totally unraveled when all their music started sounding cute and quirky (thx for nothing John McEntire!). They could still bring it when they played live but their records sounded so flimsy.

"Lo-Fi" might be better than any Stereolab album save for "Mars Audiac Quintet" (and even that album is a bit overlong whereas "Lo-Fi" is 25 minutes of perfection).

I've had ABC on a mix-tape for YEARS but it was only pretty recently I finally found out where it came from, because I never saw it in Stereolab discographies anywhere and it wasn't on any of the Switched On comps.

They totally unraveled when all their music started sounding cute and quirky (thx for nothing John McEntire!).

So glad that people are coming around on this...

My theory was that they were one of those bands that improved their musicianship and got to the point where they could play the music they always wished they could. And lost what they had to a greater extent.

Their later stuff was an improvement, I would add. (I got that 6 (or was it 8) 7" singles set of stuff)

I quite like the last 2 albums but I lost interest for several years when Dots & Loops came out.

honestly, i've enjoyed all of their records -- some more than others, sure, but I never saw a crazy drop off in quality. I got into them around Dots and Loops though, so I might be coming at it from a different perspective.

I would add that I don't think I've given that period anywhere near a fair chance, I've barely listened to a lot of it.

Yeah Dots & Loops is where I got off the bus, I never even had a copy until this year.

I would also like to be quick to place blame on Sean O'Hagan for those string arrangements, turgid and distracting nonsense.

Yeah, I thought it was him, but then he did some great stuff with them previous to D&L.

St Elmo's Fire was a collab with Ui inc. everyone's favourite indie-racial blogger and former ilxor Sasha Frere-Jones iirc

(well, fairly sure I do rc as I remember buying the thing and playing it a bunch, but as to who did what, I couldn't possibly tell you)

The first two Switched Ons I probably like more than any of Stereolab's albums proper, so looking forward to this bundle of goodies - thanks!

I liked the O'Hagan stringy stuff on MAQ and to a lesser extent ETK.

Felt very disappointed in D&L at the time and wanted to blame the collaborators, but since I had newly fallen in love with both Tortoise and Mouse on Mars it was kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong.

They totally unraveled when all their music started sounding cute and quirky (thx for nothing John McEntire!)

yeah D&L was the "departure point" for me as well - the comment upthread about the improvement in musicianship resulting in a subsequent abandonment of most of the things that made them special/interesting is very on point imho. Listening to this collection, a lot of it is on that edge where they clearly became enamoured of technique and technology and complex compositions. some of the actual SOUNDS and tricks used are still great and engaging, and its nice to hear them flex their muscles with genuine bossa and samba rhythms, for example - but tunefulness and hooks went out the window. they lost a basic pop component, and traded it for a certain inscrutability. they still had all the same signposts (krautrock, experimental electronic music, brazillian jazz, etc.) but they became arranged in such a mannered and cluttered way no actual light could shine through. I'm not saying they needed to stick to playing one chord for 20 minutes, but their melodic sense definitely nosedived.

yeah that is probably otm ... still enjoy their "sound" though, throughout all of the records.

and I don't blame O'Hagen really (altho that High Llamas crap is terrible), he had previously done some quality stuff for them

xp

buncha High Llamas haterz here, eh? I might like them better than Stereolab!

heretic.

The 1997 Peel session is kind of interesting - it's never been properly collected, but it has a lot of the Dots & Loops songs without the Dots & Loops production.

Also this is really good - not sure what it actually is, maybe demos.

shakey, I'm surprised that a (fellow) beach boys + stereolab fan could hate the high llamas so much!

Well, I got "Gideon Gaye" thinking I'd love it...

Um, no.

A feeling of "HOW MUCH LONGER IS THISGOING ON FOR HELP!!!"

thats their weakest album fwiw and it all of it can come off as quirky or whatever at first but theres some fine psychedelia in there

YEah, I gathered as much but there was a sense of "oh you have to get this, you like the Beach Boys, and Stereolab don't you?" from the weeklies, it put them too far back in my mind...