My favorite movie, band, album or book are decisions I do not take lightly. A change in any of these is to be given lengthy consideration, to be taken as seriously as if I realized my sexual preference had changed or I had suddenly found religion. I can recall the moment when I realized Stereolab had become my most recent favorite band. And that has remained unchanged for two decades.
That still seems especially strange to me, as I used to hate the band. I found them pretentious and was dismissive of their music for not “rawking”. Then again, I also used to dislike Cocteau Twins for the same reason. Basically, I was an idiot.
My conversion to becoming a fan began in 2004 with album Margerine Eclipse, their first since the death of Mary Hansen, one of the founders and vocalists in the band. The evolution of their sound with this set coincided with a considerable broadening of my tastes, resulting in a nexus where I could start appreciating them. This was a work with solid melodies but delivered through truly brain-jarring production. Sounds seemed to frequently pop out of nowhere, leaving me feeling exhilarated by the ambush of brief snippets of synth noise. I only learned later a unique attribute of the album I couldn’t pinpoint is it was recorded in binaural stereo, meaning everything is only entirely in one channel or the other, without anything in the “virtual center” between them.
But what made me a fan for life was the next year’s collection Oscillons from the Anti-Sun. This is three full compact discs combining eight of the group’s (or, to use their fanbase’s lingo, “groop”) EPs alongside some additional tracks. There is also a DVD of all their videos up until that point, as well as some TV appearances. Unfortunately, no liner notes accompany the set, but stickers of the EP covers round out the package, all enclosed in a clamshell case. Since this was only $25 at the time, it was one of the rare sets that was equal parts quality, quantity and value.
Usually, buying your music in bulk at discount prices isn’t a very satisfying experience, but this box set is an embarrassment of riches. Since all the EPs bar one had as a track a single from a particular album, this is partly a hits collection. That Stereolab’s B-sides were often on par with, or sometimes exceeding, their album work, it astonished me the songs here which were originally on releases with such a limited potential audience. Consider “Canned Candies”, an incredibly solid tune, yet even the tossed-off title implies it is a discard.
Many reviews I have read of this set take issue with the tracklisting. Instead of putting the tracks in chronological order, the CDs are more like three long albums. Alternatively, I think the set could be considered an exceptionally long mixtape—a 206 minute one, to be precise. Take that, 90-minute cassette tapes.
The very first song is “Flourescences”, one of the best songs in the groop’s oeuvre, yet curiously only originally on the EP of the same title. The very last is “Soop Groove #1”, the weakest track on the set and from the same EP. It doesn’t help that, at just over thirteen minutes, it is also the longest.
Despite the material here being released previously between 1993 and 2001, it is difficult to tell which tracks are from which period. Some tracks of especially unusual styles were from some EPs where their appearance would have been more jarring in their original presentation than how they are worked into the sequence here. Consider “Fruition”, a sparse and moody track I can only describe as audio noir. It feels like being up at 3 am after having lived a life of questionable choices up until that point. I would have thought it was among the later material, yet it accompanied “Jenny Ondioline” from that 1993 EP.
Outliers like this are some of the most interesting tracks here. The droning “Escape Pod” sounds like The Velvet Underground, if they had had access to synthesizers. “French Disko” is shockingly heavy, even more than the loudest tracks from their early years as a shoegaze band. It is telling it was used in the violent action movie Gunpowder Milkshake.
On the other hand, there are tracks that feel very much part of the groop’s catalog, with some of these tracks even feeling like extensions of, or alternate takes on, album tracks. “Nihilist Assault Group” gets three additional parts beyond the three that were on Wow and Flutter, taking the track in interesting new directions, particularly a middle part with long, drawn-out frequencies which I found to be curiously mediative. There needs to be a word like “squinting” but for hearing, because doing that to “Moogie Wonderland” reveals it shares a great deal of DNA with “Wow and Flutter”. Similarly, the end of “Les Aimies Des Memes” sounds a bit like “The Free Design”, so it is no surprise it was on the EP for that single.
One defining characteristic of Stereolab’s work which eluded me when I first dove into this set is their strong Socialist messaging. I am a bit embarrassed it took me so long to pick up on those themes, as I normally obsess over lyrics. Admittedly, many of these songs are partially or entirely in French, and I do not speak the language. Regardless of their political orientation, I can completely identify with lyrics like those in “With Friends Like These”: “All this violence is puzzling / hate is in need of censoring / ban hate and violence / for our convenience.” Other songs have vaguely creepy lines, and I like not knowing exactly what they are supposed about. “Flourescences”, for example, poses the question “Why do I swim in blood?” “Long Live Love” has the curious “She’d beat a drum and sing for new flesh”.
Starting with this box set and the one album I already had, I spent years casually exploring the full extent of their catalog. That can be a daunting challenge, given the sheer volume of material they have released. But I was in no rush. Fortunately, I also was in no rush to see them perform live, as that didn’t happen until 2019, after a nearly decade-long hiatus. As they were not appearing locally, I took the opportunity for this to be my first trip to Seattle, so that was a bonus.
After 20 years of Stereolab being my favorite band, I still find myself pondering why they are. Before them, it was The Velvet Underground, and The Beatles before that. But both of those groups were pioneers, while Stereolab essentially mines the past and reassembles elements of various musical sub-genres into their own kind of collage. They may not be the originators, but they are more like kids running around the arts and crafts room at school, happily putting together various well-used materials into new combinations. When the results mean a track as stellar as “Pain Et Spectacles” can be tossed-off as a B-side, this has to be a band which can create great works in this manner for as long as possible. In fact, they just released a new album this year, and I am hoping there are many more to come.