The future of Stereolab

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.

Sound-Dust is a favorite of mine, although I like all their early stuff too. Margerine not so much with the exception of a few tracks.

Sparkle Motion:

When Chemical Chords came out, they said they had 2 more albums in the can. One was the second half of material that they recorded for Chemical Chords, which became Not Music, but they also supposedly had a collection of outakes and b-sides from the last decade that they were planning to release as a similar collection to Switched On, Refried Ectoplasm, Alluminum Tunes, etc.

Sound-Dust is incredible. Properly got me back into them after becoming disillusioned with them around the time of Dots & Loops.

i think i liked not music more than anything they did since aluminium tunes

thanks Moodles. I'd gladly take another volume of Switched On. I do believe I have a couple of tour 7"s that didn't make it onto long-playing release I've ever seen.

All said I'd love to see them get back together as soon as their batteries are recharged.

I suspect it ain't happening, but who knows?

Laetitia's last solo album Silencio was really solid.

Generally pro-Chemical Chords/Not Music anyway, but their live sound on that last tour was tremendous. Liked seeing them as much then as back in the beginning.

I'd gladly take another volume of Switched On.
[...]
I suspect it ain't happening, but who knows?

Tim, from a recent Q&A with Record Collector magazine:

Is there anything still unreleased?
"For Stereolab, nothing really, though some of the more obscure stuff will be compiled on a future Switched On. Enough for a double LP. We’ll also soon begin remastering all of the Stereolab LPs, in order, from the original two-track tapes, and try to have a limited-run box set, finances permitting, as well as issuing them separately. We’ll also try to have a separate disc of the four-track demos to all the songs on a particular LP, placed in order, and with a mini facsimile sleeve. Some have been lost or damaged, but they’ll be replaced by something suitable from the same period."

Only for Stereolab could "nothing really" unreleased = a double LP of unreleased material.

Well no, he's saying it's obscure stuff not unreleased stuff. So limited editions, b-sides etc.

This whole remastering and demo plan is intriguing. I forsee myself re-buying lots of Stereolab stuff if this plan actually happens. When was that interview from? Was there any indication of when any of this stuff would be released?

I used to have this dream of owning all the Stereolab albums on vinyl. I bought vinyl copies of a couple albums, Peng! and Dots and Loops, and was shocked to find that the sound quality on them was terrible. I wonder if these remasters will include higher quality vinyl releases.

I love "Chemical Chords" on Chemical Chords. It sounds a lot like the sequel to The High Llamas' sublime "Glide Time."

Generally pro-Chemical Chords/Not Music anyway, but their live sound on that last tour was tremendous. Liked seeing them as much then as back in the beginning.

Yeah, it was by then I think the band had also figured out how to gel in the absence of Mary. The first tour after that seemed so hesitant, but by the final tour things had fully clicked. Glad they bowed out that way.

Been thinking about the band a lot lately, partially due to cleaning up my digital music collection. (Have the first disc of what I guess was a three CDR live collection of tracks via the old fan list; need to ask Mackro about that.) Also, the venue that I ended up most associating them with, the Detroit Bar down here in OC, has been sold and will close soon. Stereolab played the opening night back in 2000 or so and ended up performing there every tour after that, so I saw them around four, five times there over the last decade. Good memories, including seeing Andy Ramsay sitting down at a meal at Taco Mesa two blocks away before the show. (Kinda love how Andy became the secret favorite of a lot of people over the years; he really was a hell of an anchor and a deft overall performer with them.)

I bought vinyl copies of a couple albums, Peng! and Dots and Loops, and was shocked to find that the sound quality on them was terrible.

Yep, I took my copy of Switched On back to the store the same day I bought it.