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Started by Mesh, May 15, 2003, 05:18:24 PM

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Pedro


Mesh


Dirk

At wave level, everything exists as a contradiction. Everything is existing in more than one stage/place at any given moment. Everything must move/vibrate and constantly change to exist. Everything, including buildings, mountains, oceans and thoughts.

Sigur Rós

Quote from: Dirk

Yeah , me too. Great stuff!

godardian

Quote from: Mesh

Is this any kind of departure at all? My favorite Stereolab is still:




...but it seems that the later-nineties stuff really got same-y, so much so that the albums started feeling interchangeable and I stopped buying them.
Any compelling reason to pick this one up??[/i]
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

Mesh

Quote from: godardian
Quote from: Mesh

Is this any kind of departure at all? My favorite Stereolab is still:



...but it seems that the later-nineties stuff really got same-y, so much so that the albums started feeling interchangeable and I stopped buying them.
Any compelling reason to pick this one up??[/i]

I have to tell you, I pretty much flatly disagree with the general consensus about late-era Stereolab albums.  They stopped "progressing," I guess, somewhere around 1997-8, but too high a premium is placed on artistic evolution.  They progressed for half a decade before Emperor Tomato Ketchup came along, then became iconoclasts (for lack of a better term—and really, that's just a nice-connotation way of saying their sound hasnt' evolved a great deal in the last 6 years).  But they were by no means out of good music at that point.

A.  Emperor Tomato Ketchup is their absolute high-water mark, IMO.  If you are only ever gonna own one Stereolab album, for God's sake, make it that one.

B.  Dots and Loops is their lowest, most laid-back recording.  It's also one of their most accomplished.  Grows more gorgeous by leaps and bounds upon repeat listenings.

C.  Cobra and Phases Group...:  This is where most people (fans and otherwise) truly lost Stereolab's scent.  A shame, in my opinion.  Sure, some of these pieces are long and many sound interchangeable, but there are scattered moments of brilliance on this record.  The John McEntire/Jim O'Rourke influence is pronounced and welcome....and...

D.  Sound-Dust:  The other pinnacle of the later Stereolab catalog.  Just simply gorgeous, through and through.  Songs just up and change pattern halfway through.  O'Rourke's production is centerstage; every instrument sounds mature, every idea works.  Calling this repetition of previous achievement is just intellectually dishonest: Stereolab are Terry Riley-esque in their reliance on repetition. They use it as a jumping off point, not as a crutch.  Stereolab's only ever really done one thing, if you think about it.  Sound-Dust (most likely their final album—Mary Hansen, R.I.P.) displays them doing that one thing as well as they ever have.  Their  most underrated album by a boatload.

godardian

I guess I technically agree with you- especially about "evolution" being overrated- but maybe Stereolab's thing doesn't feel essential enough to me to be buying records on which they do it over again, regardless of how well (and I know they do it well- one of the best live shows I've ever seen).

Edit:

P.S.  I really do enjoy parts of Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops (how cool is it to name a song after Stan Brakhage, and one that somehow SOUNDS just like one of his films??), but they did get lost in the shuffle for me at exactly that C-point you mention above...
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

Mesh

Quote from: godardianI guess I technically agree with you- especially about "evolution" being overrated- but maybe Stereolab's thing doesn't feel essential enough to me to be buying records on which they do it over again.....

Buy Sound-Dust used if you see it, and just download some stuff from Cobra & Phases Group, then.  Fulfill your late-era Stereolab requirement that way....

:)

Mesh

Quote from: mogwaiJust wondering, did Stereolab split up after one their band members died?

To my knowledge, the future of Stereolab is still uncertain.  They did, however, release a two-disc BBC Radio sessions compilation this year, a few months after the tragic loss of Mary.

Mesh


Sleuth

Quote from: Mesh

Finally.

8)
I like to hug dogs

Pedro

some of the best punk ive heard in a long time...


THEN!
Quote from: tremolosloth
Quote from: Mesh

Finally.

8)

Sleuth

Oh also

[PICTURE OF THE CD COVER FOR NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL - IN THE AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA]
I like to hug dogs

Pedro


Almost nothing can beat Steely Dan.

Dirk

At wave level, everything exists as a contradiction. Everything is existing in more than one stage/place at any given moment. Everything must move/vibrate and constantly change to exist. Everything, including buildings, mountains, oceans and thoughts.