Customer Reviews

Aluminum Tunes

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

About 18 months after buying this collection, I've realizedthat Aluminum Tunes is an absolute masterpiece. The packaging is oddly minimal for such a collection and beautifully printed, and the album and song names are as responsible for their collective mystique as the music itself. Disc one begins with a series of string-laden ballads, originally released to compliment an art exhibit, and continues with several songs from their "mars audiac" era. "Pop Quiz", "The Extension Trip", "You Used to Call me Sadness", and others are actually waltzes; "Space Moment", "Iron Man" and "Ulan Bator" are droning songs; "One Small Step" is very accessible.

Disc two begins with something akin to their newer, wilder material with "One note Samba/Surfboard", with the song's latter section the true attraction. Several fairly nondescript tracks build towards the stringy "Seeperbold", the anthemic "Check and Double Check" and "Munich Madness", my personal favorite. This one is classic Stereolab, as a largely capable pop-rocker becomes a jazzy drone for no apparent reason. The album's closer is the album's, and maybe this band's, lyrical highlight in its appaling lack of sense: Sadier sings a dreamy song above Mary Hansen's bubblegum background vocals about the virgin mary's nine-month transformation into christ, detailing her physical metamorphosis ("month one mary grows a mustasche, in the second she grows a beard). That right there is worth your $ alone.

This is yet another consistent release from one of my very favourite bands- Stereolab. The sheer amount of material they have out is astounding, and even more astounding is that it is all, for the most part, very good. Being prolific and consistent is quite a feat. And they've done it again with the third collection of rarities and b-sides, Aluminum Tunes. I loved this album at first sight, with the weird blue cardboard packaging. It's great, even if the cd's don't stay in too well. Kicking off the album is the collection of six songs for the Amorphous Body Study Center. It is very well done, and I wish I could have seen the art exhibit. My favorite is How To Play Your Internal Organs Overnight, a string-drenched Stereolab classic. The second half of the disk is nice as well, containing an even more beautiful, longer version of New Orthophony. Other favorites are One Small Step and You Used To Call Me Sadness(although inferior to the horn-driven version on Flourescences). The second disk starts off with a cover of Jobim's One Note Samba, which is wonderful, revealing the light-hearted side of Stereolab. In the same track is another cover, Surfboard. It was great on Esquivel's "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music," but Stereolab somehow makes it even better. For me, the highlight of this collection is the last half of the second cd. You have the melancholy Seeperbold, the upbeat numbers, Check and Double Check and Munich Madness, and the masterful Metronomic Underground remix by Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ). And finally is the catchy (and very lyrically interesting) The Incredible He Woman. This compilation is a good sampler for the different, but all similar, styles of Stereolab, from droning Krautrock to jazzy space pop. This variety is good, but as a previous reviewer said, there are some jarring song transitions. There are a few clunckers sprinkled throughout, of which Klang Tone is the worst. It's really quite painful to listen to, with a loud irritating lack of melody. But the few bad eggs are far outnumbered by usual Stereolab genius. By the way, the samples on the track listing at the top of the page are really screwed up. I think someone switched the disks accidentally. And the track listing for disk one in the actual cd case is a little hard to follow as well. After the Amorphous Body Center songs, the list moves to the right and then back to the left for the final four tracks. At first glance, you want to read all down the left and then move over to the right. For the longest time I had the wrong titles with songs. I was surprised that there was a song called Speedy Car, but on a later track that I thought was Iron Man, the words "a speedy car out of nowhere" were repeated over and over. Then I noticed You Used To Call Me Sadness was on Flourescences, so when I first listened to that record, I heard what I thought was Ulan Bator. I was very confused, but after consulting the case again, I solved the mystery. I still hear people who have those songs mixed up. I hope I could help. Anyway, it's a great starter and a must for any 'lab fan.

CD
If you are a fan of Stereolab, regardless of which phase of their career, you will want to own this. This 2-disc set includes the "Amorphous Body Study Centre" EP in addition to almost 20 other non-album tracks. Oddities, remixes, and guest appearances by the beautiful flute of Herbie Mann on "One Note Samba". Stereolab blends their influences into their own unique sound better than any band I've ever heard. I have only been into them a few years, and I've never fallen in love with a band this quickly. Beautiful, groovy, thoughtful, complex, and never boring.

Stereolab have been as hard a band to dislike, as it is to easily categorise their music. This a double Cd collection of singles, 7 inches, Ep's are largely tracks missing from their regular studio albums. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this is merely an exercise to compile an album of below-par material, but you'd actually be wrong. There's something in here for everyone. Newcomers (like me) will find this a great starting point for the band, before seeking out individual studio albums ("Theme from Get Carter" will be instantly recognisable to most), and the Enthusiasts will revel in the largely unavailable material to flesh out their collection (Wagon Christ's mix of "Metronomic Underground" for example). There are a bewildering array of quality Stereolab albums out there to buy, and first time purchasers (like myself) may not know where to begin, but a Double Cd album with 25 tracks of essential material is as fantastic a place as any to start, and shows a band at creative peak form, that will undoubtedly fuel the desire to seek out more of their astonishing work. Utterly highly recommended.

Okay, I'll admit it. Three hours of music that most folks see as somewhere between muzak and a mild schizophrenic episode is tough for even a fanatic like me to handle. But after two really good listens, I was hooked as I have been with every other piece of work they've done. After totally being sucked into a "Dots and Loops" addiction/frenzy, I was hoping to see more of the continual progression of my fav-o-rite group of Marxists. Then I found out it was a B-side compilation (didn't do my homework--saw "upcoming Stereolab release", "advance order", Pavlovian responses kicked in). No matter! This trip through their work from '94 to '97 gave me all I could hope for...a meandering maze of vivid sound imagery that makes you want to slap on the headphones, turn out the lights, and lay on the floor. So I'm telling you, like I tell everyone, spend the $23!!! It is worth every penny. In fact, spend another $12 and get "Dots" too. You will find that even traffic on the 405 is pleasant with "One Note Samba" bouncing inside your car.

With the release of "Aluminum Tunes", Stereolab display not only their raw talent in terms of experimentalism but also the few tracks that really sets them apart from several artists in a world dominated by monotony. This release compiles a great many Stereolab tracks from various singles and projects over the years. Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane's song writing is enviable if anything. Their ability to create something recognisable and yet different every time is truly admirable.

This release presents what are some of Stereolab's greatest work. Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen's vocals wind well through a forest of percussion, analogue synths and guitars - as they do on any album. "Aluminum Tunes" also contains an exquisite remake of an Antonio Carlos Jobim classic, "One Note Samba", as also heard on the 1996 compilation "Red Hot + Rio.

Is this a Stereolab retrospective? Maybe. I see it more as excerpts from a career that is continually moving towards progression almost effortlessly. This recording proves that Stereolab can move in and out of any and all types of music, regardless of the genre's existance.

This double album was my introduction to stereolab, and since then I have seen them in concert and bought other cds, but this still remains their best work in my opinion. both cds fit well together and provide an atmosphere of music that I have never seen duplicated. For all interested, this cd is highly recommended. You will be gladly surprised.

So, anyone noticed Volvo using the Aluminum Tunes version of "New Orthophony" in their commercials? How about a song from "Dots and Loops" in a Volkwagen beetle commercial? Hmmmm....looks like Stereolab arent the staunch Marxists that we thought. I knew they were perfectly capable capitalists!! :-) Anyway, I am eagerly awaiting the new work from the Groop and enjoyed the huge sample of stuff on Aluminum Tunes. New Stereolab people, please buy "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" first. Aluminum is more for collectors. Aluminums' "New Orthophony", however, is probably the most beautiful song they've made.

band. If you haven't kept up with Stereolab's prolific releases (9 albums since 1991, not to mention a couple of dozen EPs and side projects), 'Aluminum Tunes" may not be the best place to start: with 25 tracks and almost three hours of playing time, you have to be a serious Stereolab fanatic to take it all in one dose. Fortunately, Stereolab is a band which inspires serious fanaticism, and there's enough material on 'Aluminum Tunes' to keep everyone happy -- even the uninitiated. Hardcore Stereolabheads will swoon over the first half-dozen tracks on disk one, which have been reissued from the impossible-to-find 'soundtrack' from the Amorphous Body Study Center, a collaborative art installation the groop did with artist Charles Long (featured in the Whitney Biennial a few years back) -- it's not as much fun to listen to without the bubble-gum clay sculptures which accompanied the installation, but it's a good example of Stereolab at their most entrancingly obtuse. There's also the reissue of the groop's delightfully trippy cover of "One Note Samba" (from the "Red, Hot and Rio" compilation), where Laetitia Sadier goes Astrud Gilberto one better with so-cool-it's-hot vocal delivery. And the Wagon Christ remix of "Metronomic Underground" (from the Lab's 'breakthrough' 1996 album, "Emperor Tomato Ketchup") shows just how much the groop's fertility and inventiveness is ripe for deconstruction. Listened to alongside the rest of a consistently brilliant ouevre, "Aluminum Tunes" shows Stereolab as one of the most seminal bands of the '90s -- and if you don't believe it, wait and see what you're listening to in the next millenium and see then if Stereolab didn't beat you to the punch.

Very ably straddling the line betweem between past and future, Stereolab release a double cd compiltation of recent singles which show as much reverence as innovation. Striking as much a 4AD feel as Krautrock feel they delve headlong into a new wave dance style without a sense of cliche. The sense of continuity with Dots and Loops comes from a copious selection of remixes. Despite a sense of overload (the double cd may be a bit much for novices), there is incredible sense of cohesion which strings the tracks together. Good luck keeping the tracks straight and the packaging though unique threatens the condition of the cds themselves. Indispensible and classic! Closed minded grudge types need not apply! Far too many keyboards for the guitar obssessed, though I find the guitar touches to be just as important as the dj touches. We won't even mentioned the simply divine turns from Laetitia! Essential for the Stereolab fan.