Stereolab

Product Details

* Audio CD (March 10, 1998)
* Original Release Date: 2000
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Too Pure / Beggars
* ASIN: B000006AZD
* Average Customer Review: based on 10 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,552 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #108,373 in Music

Track Listings
1. Super Falling Star
2. Orgiastic
3. Peng 33
4. K-Stars
5. Perversion
6. You Little Shits
7. Sleming and the Meaning
8. Mellotron
9. Enivrez-Vous
10. Stomach Worm
11. Surrealchemist
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Radio On!, August 8, 2005
Reviewer: Chet Fakir (DC) - See all my reviews
Grooving like '70s krautrock meets the Velvet Underground in a cafe in Paris, this debut album by Stereolab is one of their best. Droning and lo-fi, yet beautifully and joyfully dreamy. It's a must have for the casual and/or dedicated fan, and wouldn't be a bad CD to start with if you're new to Stereolab. The funny thing is that this was the last album by them I bought having gotten every other release in their catalog and it's become one of my favorites. It's got a charm and emotional resonance all it's own. What a strong debut album!

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1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Audio Quality on CD is terrible., October 18, 2004
Reviewer: Chester Munchintonsonton - See all my reviews
OK, I own about 8 Stereolab CDs. Whenever I listen to this one, I have to jack up the volume in order to hear it properly. I can't believe I am the only one who has noticed this.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Awesome Debut!, May 8, 2004
Reviewer: kaban43 "kaban43" (Somewhere over the rainbow.) - See all my reviews
When Stereolab hit the scene in the early 1990's, the music world had been taken over by three billion Nirvana wanna-bes... interesting music took a backseat as alternative became mainstream and in the crossover lost a lot of its urgency and power.

PENG!, Stereolab's debut album was like a breath of fresh air when released and it hinted at what was to come.. today it still rocks, rolls, and moves. There was and is nothing like it.

Guitars, Farfisa, Moog, drums, drum machines and vocals combine in an almost wall-of-sound aural soundscape. Clanging guitars, Nico-esque vocal deliveries, sonic distorted keyboards, repetitive licks which revolve layer upon layer of trancelike sound, beautiful soft songs, fast pop workouts, and interesting lyrics are all some of the reasons I love this LP!

Please get this record - or borrow a copy from a friend. Put on "Super Falling Star" first and tell me what you think... I have a feeling I know what you will think - It's great!

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Almost makes me wanna learn French!, March 28, 2004
Reviewer: Allan Ostermann "allan" (Portland, or United States) - See all my reviews
This is about the 7 year anniversary since I bought this album.

I know the term "Island Favorite's" has been been beaten to the ground, but if I were stuck in Grenada with nothing but some a solar powered Boombox and some Coppertone, this CD would be in the player.

This album undulates into one continuous pulsating moog, er, mood. I love "Perversion", with its trippy melody extending on forever. It reminds me of something by The Velvet Underground, like "What Goes On"; that repetitive driving instrumental sound.

Gosh, I wish they never turned toward the atonal beep, beep, beep; and just maintained this full sound (let's leave that to Eno). Oh, well. I've still got Transient Random.., those collections with the identical cover image as Peng (but different colors); Hooked on Stereolab, and other early stuff.

Thanks, guys, for making my island a little more groooovy. Think I'll dig some Spacemen 3 out of the sand. show less

Product Details

* Audio CD (April 9, 1996)
* Original Release Date: April 9, 1996
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Elektra / Wea
* Catalog Number: 61840
* ASIN: B000002HK2
* Other Editions: LP Record
* Average Customer Review: based on 30 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,328 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #22,388 in Music

Listen to Samples
To hear a song sample, click on "Listen" by that sample. Visit our audio help page for more information.

1. Metronomic show more Underground Listen Listen
2. Cybele's Reverie Listen Listen
3. Percolator Listen Listen
4. Les Yper-Sound Listen Listen
5. Spark Plug Listen Listen
6. OLV 26 Listen Listen
7. The Noise Of Carpet Listen Listen
8. Tomorrow Is Already Here Listen Listen
9. Emperor Tomato Ketchup Listen Listen
10. Monstre Sacre Listen Listen
11. Motoroller Scalatron Listen Listen
12. Slow Fast Hazel Listen Listen
13. Anonymous Collective Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
You want retro? Get a load of their equipment, from the vintage Farfisa and Vox organs to the ever-lovable Moog synthesizers. You want futurist? It's the sound of not-so-well-oiled machinery, churning and sputtering into space age bachelor pad heaven and postindustrial hell. You want pure pop? Dig how they mine mod sounds of the '60s, from Burt Bacharach to Françoise Hardy, and pull melodies straight out of a bubblegum wrapper. You want avant garde? Check the blatant liftings from '70s krautrockers Neu! and Can, plus their appropriations of Philip Glass's disjointed wordplay and Ornette Coleman's jagged alto sax.

You want meaning? These are songs loaded with optimism, progressivism, humanism, and dashes of Marxism. You want nonsense? There's plenty of "la-la-la's" to lead us into oblivion, and head vocalist Laetitia Sadier sings half the time in French.

You want a groove band? Tracks like "Metronomic Underground" and "Les Yper-Sound" cast a funk trance heavier than voodoo and at least as danceable as any neo-hippie tripe. You want a band that rocks? Try "The Noise of Carpet" for its rug-burning guitar and acceleration drum whacks. Yesterday, tomorrow, now: Stereolab's the one. --Roni Sarig
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Odd-Timed Rhythms + Enigmatic Blend of Retro and Futurist, August 10, 2003
Reviewer: Samhot (Star Land) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
My oh my - how does one even begin to describe music like this? Complex yet accessible. Impenetrable yet engrossing. Avant-garde yet melodic and engaging. Stereolab are known for taking elements of the past and transmutating them into something fresh, futuristic and utterly indescribable. For starters, imagine hearing the Avant-funk of Can, the eerie keyboard textures of The Doors (and/or other 60s psychedelic bands), the baffling odd-timed rhythms of Gabriel-era Genesis, angelic and precious vocal harmonies that can smack of The Beach Boys, and while we're at it, how about we add in sprinkles of Chamber music, Dream pop, 20th Century classical, Jazz, Alternative rock, Baroque pop and primal amounts of synthesizer ambience floating around. And last but not least - a good dosage of catchy pop music. Throw all of these in one gigantic blender, and the result would come out to about only a teaspoonful of the enigmatic sonic beverage/shake known as Stereolab.

Just take a glance at some of the other reviews below, and you'll find countless other artists that this band seems to remind listeners of; it's a mysterious cornucopia that sounds so familiar, yet so fresh and new at the same time. The description in the above paragraph doesn't even seem to reach the half of it. This is music so vast and aurally intangible, sonically speaking, it'll probably take centuries for anyone to come up with a label in exactitude. What'll also get your head spinning is how accessible, infectious and engaging this music is, despite including musical elements that are clearly for the acquired, not to mention that you can find some ethereal, sensual female voices singing lyrics in French and English. It's a strange, enigmatic form of pop music that somehow works. Futuristic pop? Maybe.

This music is probably best listened to on headphones, or on a good stereo system, as there are layers and layers of sonic and textural complexity, which may be missed otherwise. "Metronomic Underground" and "Cybele's Reverie" are perfect examples of this. The former featuring a steady, repetitive (or more appropriate - ambient) groove reminiscent of Can (and you could swear you hear what sounds akin to Damo Suzuki's voice in the background on the chorus), while multiple synthesizer textures continually build and overlap one another until reaching an intense climax, while the latter features some understated synthesized vocal-bleeps fronted by tasty, sugar-coated female vocals sung in French. Hard to resist those sweet bilingual vocals created by Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen. "Percolater" grooves in what seems like a 5/8 rhythm, but you'll be wondering how it could be so funky, tasty and catchy, and "Les Yper-Sound" is so embarrassingly addicting (in a good way), you may just find yourself singing along to what seem like cheesy, child-like lyrics, simply because the voice(s) uttering these words are so sensual and seductive.

Elsewhere, "The Noise of Carpet" would nearly have you convinced that you were listening to Sonic Youth with those edgy guitars, while "Tomorrow Is Already Here" features an apparent 5/4 rhythm, which is catchy and infectious, and those vocals are oh-so sweet and innocent -- so much so that it hurts to listen to them at times. The lyrics are somewhat political in nature. The title track is just downright sexy, as it features the differing, but inexplicably harmonious union of Mary and Laetitia's vocals fronting a highly addictive and danceable groove. Skipping along, "Monstre Sacre" changes up the pace as a slow, Floydesque track, featuring atmospheric, sensual orchestrated sweeps, and closing out the album is "Anonymous Collective," a track that seems appropriate to play around Christmas time.

Sounds of the past, present and future indeed. Stereolab's music is just as confusing as it is accessible, and vice versa. Want to challenge your preconceptions of what pop music is? Do you have a taste for the unusual? Have a taste for painfully infectious, addicting ear candy? Start exploring the music of Stereolab. show less

Product Details

* Audio CD (April 26, 2005)
* Number of Discs: 2
* Format: Box set
* Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
* Label: Too Pure / Beggars
* ASIN: B0007YMRWS
* Average Customer Review: based on 15 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,255 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: show more #29,738 in Music

Listen to Samples
To hear a song sample, click on "Listen" by that sample. Visit our audio help page for more information.
Disc: 1
1. Fluorescences Listen Listen
2. Allures Listen Listen
3. Fruition Listen Listen
4. Wow and Flutter Listen Listen
5. With Friends Like These Listen Listen
6. Pinball Listen Listen
See all 12 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2
1. Jenny Ondioline Listen Listen
2. Young Lungs Listen Listen
3. Escape Pod [From the World of Medical Observations] Listen Listen
4. Moodles Listen Listen
5. You Used to Call Me Sadness Listen Listen
6. Captain Easychord Listen Listen
See all 12 tracks on this disc
Disc: 3
1. The Noise of Carpet Listen Listen
2. The Free Design Listen Listen
3. Les Yper Yper Sound Listen Listen
4. Pain Et Spectacles Listen Listen
5. Ping Pong Listen Listen
6. Long Life Love Listen Listen
See all 11 tracks on this disc
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
When you're a prolific band that also happens to be mighty friendly to your obsessive compulsive collector fan base, you wind up releasing a lot of singles and EPs with material that's otherwise unavailable on your albums. And here, for the price of a Japanese pressing of the Fluorescences EP on an auction site alone, you get Stereolab's eight Elektra EPs, from 1993's Jenny Ondioline to 2001's Captain Easychord. The "groop"'s collaborative EPs ( Crumb Duck, Uilab) are not included, but there is a DVD with rarely-seen videos and television performances. This box set serves far more than a plug-the-gaps exercise for trainspotters; as with the singles collections Switched-On volumes one, two and three (did we not mention this band is prolific?), it's an intriguing retrospective of the band in their mature years. And unlike those comps, this set often highlights the band's more lengthy, experimental songs. "Les Yper Yper Sound," for instance, John McEntire's distorted, delightfully repetitious reworking of "Yper Sound" from Emperor Tomato Ketchup, is spine-tinglingly awesome. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description
This box set contains three CDs with 35 songs, 28 of which are previously unreleased in the US, plus a DVD with rare videos and UK TV performances, all for a low list price. The CD tracks were culled from eight EPs previously only available as imports. Seven of these had matching videos that are featured on the DVD. The first pressing includes a limited edition sticker set featuring early EP album art. "...this Anglo-Franco-Australian partnership whips up Velvet Underground buzz, Krautrock groove, easy listening lightness, and vintage French pop sweetness into an instantly identifiable frappe"--Rolling Stone.
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First tag: Compras alternativo (Leonardo Galvao on Dec 15, 2005)
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Now, I am just a little bit annoyed. . ., April 26, 2005
Reviewer: David C. Anderson "fenrisbooks" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
but that won't prevent me for giving this compilation 5 stars. It does bug me when bands seem to "reward" the loyal fans who have been paying import fees and scouring the internet for rare singles by releasing them (finally) in the US. Couldn't they have just released them in the US in the first place and saved me the headache and cash"? No matter. Stereolab could do anything and, being the kind of fan that I am, I'd run out and buy a few copies. Still, this compilation is the kind of thing that even the most casual of Stereolab listener (or people who don't even own a stereolab cd) should own. Now, I'll be buying it for the DVD with videos and tv appearances, since I know I'll be delighted with the video work of such an influential and unique band. I've seen a few on fuzzy tapes, and they are some of the more colorful and inventive videos made in the 90s (think more along the lines of sixties experimental films rather than true "videos") and the band always sounds spectacular in their tv appearances. But the singles are really what makes this cd such a treat. This compilation is every cd or single that the band has ever released - some only sold at the live shows - and is pretty comprehensive (it does seem to be missing the material from the 7" free witch and no bra queen) but it does chart the evolution of the band over the last 10 years or so. It includes a spectacular 10 minute version of Nihilist Assault Group - found on the Wow and Flutter single and, most recent, the songs canned candies and moodles from the Captain Easychord single. Still, there's plenty more that could have bumped this up to 4 or 5 discs - there are plenty of live performances, singles, peel sessions, and video floating around. It definitely leaves room for an even more spectacular follow-up to this collection. Enjoy! show less

Product Details

* Audio CD (August 9, 1994)
* Original Release Date: August 9, 1994
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Elektra / Wea
* Catalog Number: 61669
* ASIN: B000002HG2
* Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette
* Average Customer Review: based on 25 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,476 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #40,031 in Music

Listen to Samples
To hear a song sample, click on "Listen" by that sample. Visit our audio help page for more show more information.

1. Three-Dee Melodie Listen Listen
2. Wow And Flutter Listen Listen
3. Transona Five Listen Listen
4. Des Etoiles Electroniques Listen Listen
5. Ping Pong Listen Listen
6. Anamorphose Listen Listen
7. Three Longers Later Listen Listen
8. Nihilist Assault Group Listen Listen
9. International Colouring Contest Listen Listen
10. The Stars Our Destination Listen Listen
11. Transporte Sans Bouger Listen Listen
12. L'Enfer Des Formes Listen Listen
13. Outer Accelerator Listen Listen
14. New Orthophony Listen Listen
15. Fiery Yellow Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Think of a sober B-52s taking their inspiration from Brian Eno and the German synth pioneers of the '70s, and you'll have a sense of this English sextet's sound. --Jeff Bateman

Product Description
Japanese Budget Reissue Containing Bonus Tracks. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
papa, please pass some fishsticks, June 6, 2003
Reviewer: S. R Robertson "crap basket" (Oh Henry?) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
The repetitiveness does get a little old after a while (like on certain sections of Transiet) but the music made by Stereolab is beautiful in its fusion of lush keyboards, distorted guitars, clean vocals, and out of control noises; it all clashes into a psychadelic array of psycho-space-samba music or something like that; a good album to drop to. Also, despite the fact that alot of the songs have similar tempos and rhythms, the unorthodox and usually lovely tones covered here (espescially on numbers like "International Colouring Contest") keeps the songs varied and entertaining. Each Stereolab album is a little different, but they all seem to posess that trippy, futuristic space exploration sound. If you want something a bit more all over the place and consistent, get Sound-Dust....it's almost like the Mr. Bungle of Stereolab's catalog, shifting between different tempos and genres (jazz, techno, piano folk, ambience, and their usual sound whatever you wanna call it)a couple times per song. Anyway, notch this down as a good album to trip to.

"I'm so full of ideas, and here's a good one..." show less