r/stereolab

i have had “Variation One” on repeat the past few days, and it’s slowly become one of my favourite Stereolab instrumentals. It’s such a simple piece on the surface, but there’s something about the way it builds its atmosphere that keeps pulling me back.

it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to go anywhere in particular and my god it just settles into this hypnotic groove that you can get completely lost in on loop for me.

i think it’s one of those tracks that quietly shows what Stereolab do better than almost anyone else, taking a handful of repeating ideas and making them feel rich, warm, and strangely emotional.

i’m curious where everyone else ranks it among their instrumental work. is it a hidden gem for you, i am fairly certain some of you maybe haven’t heard the moog soundtrack (please do it’s fucking incredible)

also are there other instrumentals in their catalogue that you think deserve more love? if you do please suggest, I need more of these.

Great book.

Also it was surprising to find the lyrics for an entire Stereolab song in there.

It's one of my favorites, but seems to be a little lacking in any online info on it. One of my curiosities is what's the meaning of this song? Genius says it's about the narrator's sister killing her, which seems okay, but I don't think that's official. So is there any known story to it?

I've run across mentions of Stereolab in r/ambientmusic for as long as I've been subbed there, and I probably tried to listen to Dots and Loops a few times without it clicking. Then, I ran across the performance of "French Disko" on The Word, which I listened to several times because I tend to get into bands based on what they do live, and discovered from there that they tick a combination of my boxes that rarely all get ticked at once:

– motorik drumming – on my first listen of some songs, I exclaimed, "Neu!"

– little loops of hooky melody layered with fuzzy, fuzzy droning

– pulsing bass

– vocals as sound. I generally like radical politics more than the next person, but let's face it—given her level of intelligibility, Laetitia might as well be singing in Kobaïan (though thankfully without Christian Vander's crypto-fascism).

They are definitely original, but at the same time it's also clear that they've absorbed things from not only Neu! but also Faust (they quote "Meadow Meal" in a song title), Can, and, maybe oddly, Wire. One video comment I read said that "They're great listeners to music," which I think makes a lot of sense.

All I've listened to so far is Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements and Refried Ectoplasm, and I prefer the latter (although I'll admit that I haven't tried "Animal or Vegetable?" yet). My favorite songs on it shift around among "Mountain," "Revox," and "John Cage Bubblegum." Given that, where should I go next to get more like this, and where do I go to get songs that are adjacent but different? Also, is there a live album or just bits and pieces of live stuff on YouTube? I get the feeling that their sound is too thick to come off well without some really intentional live recording—you can't really hear the synth on the recording from The Word until the very end.

Fantastic show last night! Nearly the shortest day of the year: dark, rain and wind – I don't know what possessed them to schedule a winter Wednesday Wellington gig. So good though, really noisy, chaotic in a good way. Highlights for me were Trippin With The Birds, Peng!33, and all the stuff from Instant Holograms sounded as good as everything else. Some really good noisy freakout sections that seem like they're falling apart, synthesizers running away, and then they brought it all back together. What a band!

Is there some fan wiki or list somewhere which can help me listen to the groop's entire non-album-track discography outside of the compilation albums, say, as listed on RYM?

FWIW, I've listened to and thoroughly enjoyed all of the Switched On volumes as well as Oscillons From the Anti-Sun.

Thanks! :D