DOTS AND LOOPS

The metamorphosis and maturation of Stereolab is complete! The vocal weaves! The acoustic guitar strums! The drumming and sophisticated rhythm constructs! The flamboyant bass play! The horns! The Motown rhythm guitar play! And they've even constructed two epic length songs! And, of course, the ever-present Farfisa and social-political messages of Lætitia Sadler.

1. "Brakhage" (5:13) a clear demonstration of the maturization that has occured within the band's compositions, production, and levels of instrumental mastery. (9/10)

2. "Miss Modular" (4:29) it's like four or five songs going on in one--all at the same time: quirky keyboard offerings, funky groove from the rhythm section, catchy acoustic guitar strum-fest, funky-futuristc horn arrangement, and then two separate vocal lines! Amazing! (10/10)

3. "The Flower Called Nowhere" (4:55) the spacey opening turns full-French soundtrack before strumming acoustic guitars and Farfisa keys bounce together with the drums and gorgeous, sophisticated multi-layered vocals permeate this masterpiece. (10/10)

4. "Diagonals" (5:15) a bit of a trip hoppy, acid jazz sound and beat open this one as horns and xylophone add to the rhythm track. The bass almost feels on its own!--until the rhythm guitars/Farfisa come in. Lætitia enters, singing in French, before Mary's multivoiced background vocals work into the weave with their own lyrics accenting and off- setting those of Ms. Sadler. Brilliant construct if lacking a bit of accessibility due to the sophistication of the weave, low-engaging melodies, and lyrics in a foreign language. (8.75/10)

5. "Prisoner of Mars" (4:03) Tom-tom play, percussives, sustained organ chords, and wonderful bass line provide the foundation for Lætitia to sing two of the most gorgeous melody lines in the Stereolab repertoire--the first in English, the second in French. Amazing! Brilliant! (10/10)

6. "Rainbo Conversation" (4:46) probably the most accessible, catchiest earworm of a song on this album full of catchy, brain-haunting melodies and rhythms. Even has a section for impassioned instrumentals and some amazing drumming! (10/10) As proggy of a song as you can get ? until ?

7. "Refractions in the Plastic Pulse" (17:32) like a slow stroll through an endless French park: Versailles, Bois de Bologne, Fontainbleau, Chambord, Les Vosges--take your pick--it's gorgeous, peaceful, soul-recharging. The first shift occurs at 3:28 when everything tightens up and is slowly squeezed down a drain until it comes out the other side at 4:35 as an upbeat trip-hoppy jaunt--perhaps on a horse or in an ATV. The lyric remains the same, just speeded up and embellished with other layers differently. In the eighth minute a radio-telegraph-sounding high trail of sound enters while the other tracks fade away, leaving a very spacey display of heavily effected synth burbble-waves to provide the new foundation for Lætitia and Mary's wonderful weaves--now clear, front and center from the former and murky-background from the latter (still in French. Gorgeous!). The synth play is very Pink Floyd/Richard Wright-ish. At the end of the twelfth minute we enter another transitional passage in which some very electro-computer-pop percussive noises are generated and sequenced for the new foundation. Berlin School (TD, Klause Schulze)-like down to the synth sounds chosen to carry the new chord sequence. At 14:15, full bass n drums rhythm section enters and violin-like synth in the lead while Farfisa bounces slowly from measure to measure, chord to chord, while L & M rejoin, returning to their original lyric in a slowed down, violin- mirrored, medium-paced fashion to the song's end. This final section is my favorite. (31/35)

8. "Parsec" (5:34) a straight on TripHop jam that sounds like it came straight off of EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL's Walking Wounded. Awesome! (9.25/10)

9. "Ticker-Tape of the Unconscious" (4:46) a very cool, very French soundtrack sounding groove in which the lyrics of the lead vocal are tucked within the music by a muting effect--this while the supporting "background vocal" track is clear, open, and in the fore! Ingenious! (9.5/10)

10. "Contronatura" (9:04) another Frenchified acid jazz sounding construct over which both Mary and Lætitia sing their separate tracks in dreamy/sexy voices. Great bass play that must have been an inspiration for Norwegian duo KOOP. From 4:00 to 5:40 the rhythm tracks drop away leaving only the squirts and spurts from the computer keyboard, but then the song recommences with a totally pop-rock groove and smoothed out paired vocal track--all the while the computer keyboard continues to spit out all kinds of sounds in line with the "this is the future" lyric the girls are singing. Brilliant! (18/20)

The key difference from the previous year's excellent Emperor Tomato Ketchup and this offering is the band's mastery of disciplined multi-layering--both in vocals and in their foundational instrumental/sound weaves.

A/five stars; a masterpiece of progressive rock music and one of the most refined pop-oriented Math Rock albums with vocals ever made. In my humble opinion, this is one of the all-time great albums of music; it sits at #4 on my own personal list of 600 Favorite Albums of All-time having stood firm within the Top 5 since it came into my life around Y2K.

(Originally written in 2022)

It seems like I am starting to make a trend of sorts where I review albums with a very similar sound, Yoshimi, Long Season, and now Dots and Loops. A trifecta of sorts of more dreamy psych rock with mixes of experimentation it's sort of funny to review three albums from three of the biggest continents, America, Europe, and Asia. Kinda unique how things manage to work out like that. Anyways, I was recommended to check this album out, so thanks.

So, about Stereolab. They are an English French band formed in the 90s with Tim Gane (Guitar, keyboards), and Lætitia Sadier (lead vocals, keyboard, guitar, percussion), both of whom were involved in the 80s pop group, McCarthy. Members throughout the band's history would come and go, some of which were from bands before, sort of and sort of not making Stereolab a supergroup. The band is considered to be one of the early post-rock bands, mostly from the first wave of post-rock, before the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and modern-day Swans took the world by storm. They, Slint, Talk Talk, and Cul De Sac are considered to be forefathers in post-rock in a way, and while I could argue bands like Faust or Neu (or any krautrock group in general if you really think about it), generally speaking, the late 80s through early 90s is when post-rock was born, and bands like Stereolab are rather popular in small internet circles for this reason alone. However, do I like this record? Yeah, but not entirely.

The album begins with Brakhage, and this is when we have to get familiar with this sound right from the get-go, because the entire album is very closely similar to this one song. It is very easy to listen to, and when I say that I do not mean it's bad, I just say that in general, it is probably one of the most pop-sounding post songs to be conceived. The guitars are lush, the vocals are smooth, and the general vibe of this song is very soft and fuzzy. You can feel that this song is meant to be comfortable in a good way. It is relaxing, never too complex, and very easy to settle into. Not a bad start to the album, though I wish they did experiment a bit more.

Miss Modular, the next track on the album, is sort of the same. It is very easy to listen to and get a hang of, and while I like the song, this shows one of the faults this album has. Every song here doesn't change all that much, they do add new elements to slightly spice things up, but they never experiment with their sound. Each song feels the same, with no new emotions or thoughts and feelings, almost cookie-cutter-like. It feels weird to never see this, especially for an album that is very artsy and is considered one of the early examples of a genre that loves to bend and experiment with each passing song. I cannot say I entirely dislike it. I feel like they knew what they wanted to achieve, and with that, they have achieved their main goal of creating a very easy listening experience, so I do applaud them for that, however, their main goal should have a little more weight. It frustrates me to hear talent not being utilized to create something that could bend and shape rock or pop music, but instead never actually try to be unique or different.

This is an example of the 17-minute long song, Refractions in the Plastic Pulse. When I think of 17-minute songs I think of some big names that are very experimental, very groundbreaking, or very sonically enriched. Stuff like In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly or Ocean Cloud by Marillion comes to mind in which both songs try new stuff throughout, experimenting with the band's sounds to create a new sonic experience like never before in music. That is why I generally call 15+ minute songs epics because they break the mold, they try new things that previous songs might've not had the chance to do before in the album. Here with this song though it all just continues what the album did before, the only difference is that it has elongated itself into the double digits. Due to this reason, I felt immensely disappointed with this one track. It feels almost cheap to not have a long song that has at least some kind of new sound or something along those notes. It is clear they still can create good music with songs before and after this, with Diagonals being my favorite example with it adding horns to the mix. If this track did stuff like that and tried new things more often then I would say it's a great track, but as it stands it doesn't stand well in the face of so many other long tracks.

The rest of the album is again still very solid. Lush and harmonic sounds galore here. However, I have to say I find it odd this album is so popular with its very apparent and needless flaws. Quite frankly, the reception garnered feels undeserved. I do not hate this album, but it doesn't do much for me to love it. I'd say skip this one since for the first wave of post-rock there are much better, much more ground molding and much more diverse albums out there than this one.