Yeah, I'm not Max, but whatever. I won't do anymore than this because I don't want these threads to flood the front page anymore than they already are.

Ping-Pong

Man.
Not much love for Stereolab these days, huh?

I tend to think more in terms of albums, so I'd have to go with the opening "Metronomic Underground" from Emperor Tomato Ketchup. I love how the groove gets moving quickly as it builds from a simple electronic scratching rhythm and drums, bass line and background vocals ... to something much more industrial sounding, as more and more electronics, organ drones, guitar sounds and then voices are added with metronomic precision. The sound layering is brilliant, with that building intensity only broken by the soothing vocals, whose prettiness is betrayed by the oddly sinister lyrics,

crazy, sturdy, a torpedo
crazy, brutal, a torpedo

who knows does not speak
who speaks does not know
keep the mouth closed
rounding the sharpness
untie the tangles
to be vacuous
to be infinite
leap into the void

with the first two lines repeated by one of the female voices and the rest tied to a counter melody by the other female voice, with the male voice used as another melody instrument in the background. So many instruments and sounds are gracefully introduced to the mix but then retired to make way for another as the song marches on, building in intensity and becoming almost addictive. You are slowly engulfed by the sound without realizing it, as though it's a narcotic. Finally, after almost 8 minutes of this dreamworld, it comes to a conclusion. It's almost welcome by this time, but you still miss it when it's over.

One of my all time favorite albums and easily one of the best of the 90s. Vintage Farsifa and Vox organs, Moog synthesizers, late 60s bachelor pad mod sounds of Burt Bacharach combined with krautrockers Neu! and Can as well as some Ornette Coleman like avant-garde sax. Lovely vocals by Laetitia Sadier about an array of ism's, including humanism and Marxism, sometimes in English and other times in French. This is modern pop at its finest by a band that can rock too. Pearl Jam even covered the driving, guitar dominated "The Noise of Carpet". Beautiful production throughout, about half done in London with Paul Tipler and half in Chicago with John McEntire (Tortoise).

Do you know of any other people on this board who at least have a casual interest in them?

suck

I told you to send me some albums. I've heard two... but theres a lot more I could listen to.

Well tell me which ones you've heard and which you like better and maybe that will be a start.

Stereolab are CRAP.

If I had made a thread about how shitty Stereolab was, you'd be saying just the opposite.

Does owning all of their ablums plus a large number of their Eps count as casual interest?

They are actually one of my fav bands of all time. I just gone done listening to Mars Audiac Quintet.

Don't know if I can pick a fav song... much too many to choose from... maybe:

Probably the combo of "The Emergency Kisses" + "Come And Play In The Milky Night".

Oh... and I still relly love the first song I ever heard by them: "Les Yper Yper Sound" (the version from the Cybele ep).

Oh and... "Les etoiles electronics"... and "K Stars"

the list goes on & on.