The future of Stereolab

yeah I'm not even sure my mouth could form the words "I'm not in the mood to listen to stereolab right now". It would be like trying to speak some unpronounceable hp lovecraft word. Ditto the phrase "that stereolab song was extended too long", just not possible. Gonna pull the trigger on buying soem of these next week, transient and mars at the very least, can not fuckin wait. Very happy to see the good reviews & reports.

yeah I'm not even sure my mouth could form the words "I'm not in the mood to listen to stereolab right now"

I'm a big fan but I can definitely think of a few hypothetical situations in which listening to Stereolab would be torture. I get migraines, and the very idea of listening to this band while suffering from a headache is almost enough to give me one right now

also if it popped up on college radio while driving home from a funeral or something, I dunno

Now I'm wondering if they played fast and loose with the 2018 reissues, are any of those tracks longer than previously issued?

I don't think there are any real differences on these, I'm not even sure that they did a full remastering job similar to the 2 new ones. It seems like a lot more effort went into these in terms of packaging, sound, and extras. The only "bonuses" I'm aware of on last years reissues are Tim's liner notes for Peng! and Space-Age Bachelor Pad.

Peng! deserves better

Man really agree on Peng!
Tyler's write-up on the Pitch is really nice.

Now I'm wondering if they played fast and loose with the 2018 reissues, are any of those tracks longer than previously issued?

I don't think there are any real differences on these, I'm not even sure that they did a full remastering job similar to the 2 new ones.

For Peng and Space Age Batchelor, their manager Pikey said on Twitter "It’s a Beggars / Too Pure release and was remastered (not from tapes)" unlike the newer Transient and MAQ ones (and the rest coming later this year).

Glad these are out on CD as well... very tempted to spring for the vinyl, though. Love the MAQ sleeve very much.

My "Transient" and MAQ CDs just arrived ($11.99 for each set from Deep Discount! www.deepdiscount.com), and so far, "Transient" sounds INCREDIBLE. I always considered that album to be the "least best" sounding recording (when considering the recordings/mixes themselves, not the songs). The remastered mix of "Pack Yr Romantic Mind" is absolutely stunning.

The liner notes are great, too! Apparently the original version of "Pack Yr Romantic Mind" used a long sample of a shehnai (reed instrument) from George Harrison's "Wonderwall Music" album, but they couldn't get permission to use it. The working title of "Tone Burst" was "Captain Beefheart" because of Tim's obsession with the "sound and the recording" of the Beefheart track "Kandy Korn." "Crest" was originally called "Staccato Susan" as a nod to Band of Susans (!) who inspired that track. Regarding the alternate mix of "Analogue Rock" on the disc of bonus tracks, he wrote: "I think this works better overall than the LP version." - I strongly agree! I never warmed to those vocal effects on the album version. However, their live renditions of "Analogue Rock" blow all the recordings away.

Bought TRNBWA last night on vinyl and it sounds exceptional. These sets really are a bargain.

I didn't realize the Daphne & Celeste track was a Beefheart cover until I saw that note, and sure enough, halfway through is a riff Tim quotes in his guitar solo.

Even the Steve Hoffman forum have given these vinyl reissues the thumbs up; 'super quiet' they say, that's a good thing from them obvs.

Longer tracks is a weird one.. did y'all know this before you purchased?

I never saw them live and they're in Manchester next month, so this might have to The One.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/arts/music/stereolab-reunion.html

Love the Spinal Tap reference from Laetitia at the end, pity the journo missed it ...

just opened my coly of MAQ last night nd yes it sounds great but ...

is there black vinyl available?

clear vinyl is not cool :(

The regular version is black vinyl. I think it's basically the same minus obi strip and scratch cards.

Clear vinyl usually has the best sound quality as this is what vinyl is by default. It's dyed black after the fact, which was handy in the old days when vinyl was recycled as it hid its origins.

boldface added:

All vinyl records are made of PVC, which is naturally colorless. To turn this clear material into a solid color titanium dioxide and other additives are mixed in. To make the standard black vinyl color, black carbon is often added, which strengthens the PVC mix. To make any other color, dyes are used instead of black carbon. These dyes do not strengthen the vinyl in the same way as black carbon, but the difference is negligible unless mistakes are made in the production process.

A few exceptions exist: Clear vinyl, picture discs and glow-in-the-dark pressings are more susceptible to poor playback. Very few additives can be mixed into clear vinyl without jeopardizing the opacity, which means there is a potential for worse sound quality, albeit this drop is often imperceptible to the common listener.

so yeah, kind of, with caveats

https://blog.discogs.com/en/true-colors-black-or-colored-vinyl/

i don’t really care about sound quality, i care about quick and accurate visual cueing in dark rooms, and clear vinyl makes that difficult

I thought the black vinyl also had scratch cards.

Nope. But there are more opportunities still to come. Each of the clear vinyl editions of the Elektra reissues will have a scratch card. 2500 clear vinyl x 7 reissues = 17500 scratch cards in total.

Aren’t there only 50 winning cards in total though?

This thread got me to dig out my favourite 'lab album (Mars Audiac Quintet) this morning. Christ, Stereolab were great from Transient... up to Emperor Tomato Ketchup. I like some of the stuff from Dots and Loops onwards, but nowhere near as much.

is there some kind of Stereolab Monopoly game happening?

Yes, some copies of the reissue have a scratch card where you can Super Size any meal deal for free.

based on the web site it seems like the prize will be a pair of their new designer jeans

I'm still waiting on a Transient clear, from Picadilly Records, ordered ages ago.

I'm in the US, so maybe not relevant, but I ordered early on the day they were announced, and just received my records 2 days ago. Got an email saying they were delayed but no reason why.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/arts/music/stereolab-reunion.html

So the tracklists are the same across the different versions of these Transient and MAQ reissues, right? It's just physical bells & whistles that are different? I'm always paranoid I'm gonna miss out on sweet bonus tracks.

tracklists are the same for the albums (with minor differences noted upthread, mostly extended versions) but there's an extra disc of demos & alternates for each of those:

https://www.discogs.com/Stereolab-Mars-Audiac-Quintet/release/13597140

https://www.discogs.com/Stereolab-Transient-Random-Noise-Bursts-With-Announcements/release/13568005

But the tracks are all identical no matter which reissue you buy

yes, sorry, I misread "version" there

I'm in the US, so maybe not relevant, but I ordered early on the day they were announced, and just received my records 2 days ago. Got an email saying they were delayed but no reason why.

xp thanks sleeve and moodles!

Should "Lock-Groove Lullaby" end with a lock groove? I've never had an actual record of the album before!

So it sounds like there was a screw-up somewhere and more orders were taken than there were obi strips created in the first place.
Not quite. Pikey sez: "25 of the original obi strips became damaged and then destroyed."
Because he doesn't know which numbers they were you get one of a new, super limited edition of 25, lucky you.

Like so:
https://muut.com/u/stereolab/s3/:stereolab:GEuN:img_0492.jpg.jpg

my Transient CD is delayed (by the rando I bought it from on Amazon) and I really want it!

Interesting mix inspired by Stereolab

https://www.mixcloud.com/MindDaze/290/

Because he doesn't know which numbers they were you get one of a new, super limited edition of 25, lucky you.

Finally purchased & dropped the needle on the Transient vinyl last night and can't say enough to echo all the other praise for the remastering job, it really does sound phenomenal. A major improvement over the CD I've been listening to for the least 2 decades, audible even on my less-than-hi-fi living room setup.

woo hoo I won a scratch card! anyone know what the odds are on those?

My local guitar shop has half turned into a vinyl shop. they've got MAQ and Transient Random Noise Outbursts in the window, £25 each. Now waiting for payday.

For those of you who want to get that sweet Tim Gane tone.

Tim’s @stereolabgroop ‘s pedal board - it’ll sound better than it looks. Thanks @chaseblissaudio / Effekt Boutique / @westside_uk pic.twitter.com/T6mhWHVacy

— Stereolab (@stereolabgroop) May 23, 2019

I got a winning scratch card too.

Any idea what a winning card gets you?

https://stereolab.ochre.store/

all winners will receive a limited edition 12" EP

Sweet! Congrats!

further updates:

got the Switched On volumes 1 & 3 today, #1 is black vinyl #3 is clear, no scratch cards or numbers but they still have a sticker and custom PVC outer jacket. still the new remasters, just new pressings it seems.

looking at Discogs it seems the scratch cards were only included in the Transient and MAQ reissues?

Switched On (#1) sounds FANTASTIC, it's probably the one I know the best and "Doubt" in particular has lots of revealed detail

"Contact" sounds goddamn majestic, best I've ever heard

I bought a Too Pure LP version more than a decade ago and it sounded so bad I returned it, these are a joy to hear