Stereolab - Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night (1999)

Stereolab's follow-up to Dots and Loops two years later (an unprecedented gap in their discography) not only bore its longest title to date, but was also the longest player of all their full length albums, totaling 75 minutes of music. Produced by John McEntire and Jim O'Rourke, Cobra and Phases... continues Stereolab's fixation with jazz-oriented lounge-infused chamber pop sound, that already reared its head on Dots, but without the predominant electronic tinkering which defined that record. The album is very mellow in its textures and presents a far more introverted sensibility than before. Although there's a bit more electric guitar heard on this record, its textural and contrapuntal approach in lieu of riffs and heavy chords, as well as mostly clean sound nonetheless keeps the album as far away from the rock idiom as was the previous album.

Half of the songs sound like a sort of a fusion between pseudo-avant-jazz and lounge. "Fuses" opens the album with a seemingly chaotic amalgam of loaded drums (provided on this track by McEntire), synth gurgles and brass skronks and with angular vibraphone melody aided by wordless female voices. The odd choice for the single was "Free Design", with its syncopated groove and loungy fusion textures, with an instrumental coda where the brass section quotes "The Dancing Queen" by ABBA. "Blips Drips and Strips" combines lounge with Dave Brubeck styled odd-metered jazz and Reich-inspired vibraphones. It sounds clever, but its lightweight and kitschy feel makes it sound little like the band that once recorded "Laissez-Faire" or "The Noise of Carpet". This lifeless pseudo-jazz piece is far from Stereolab's best efforts in bending multiple genres into a post-modern smorgasbord. Aside their somewhat feeble attempts at emulating jazz flavor, they also have some tracks where Sean O'Hagan's Brian Wilson cum Burt Bacharach inspired kitschy chamber pop influence is clearly felt: "Spiracles" is a lightweight but insubstantial ballad, while "Caleidoscopic Gaze" is an attempt at a multi-part piece, something like a cornier rewrite of "Refractions In the Plastic Pulse", but nowhere near as inventive or engrossing as that long piece.

Aside the aforementioned pieces, there are a lot of tracks which actually come fairly close to emulating the classic Stereolab approach and sound all the better for it: "People Do It All The Time" and "Infinity Girl" are two memorable pop-oriented tunes in the tradition of "Ping Pong" and it's beyond me why neither of them was chosen for the single. "Op Hop Detonation" on the other hand is as funky as anything on Emperor Tomato Ketchup and has an instrumental section with fuzzed out guitar like on "Cadriopo". Unlike Dots and Loops, we do get a lengthy drone-rock epic on this one, "Blue Milk". Contrasting the band's earlier and more abrasive droney pieces, this track has a smooth, tranquil and meditative atmosphere that makes it sound more akin to classical minimalism, very much in the vein of Terry Riley. While this 11 minute track shoulders most of the blame for this album sounding self-indulgent, this piece is actually one of the more interesting drone rock explorations Stereolab has done, mainly for its uniquely hypnotic and pastoral atmosphere that sounds like little else Stereolab has done. Psychedelic music for introverts. "Strobo Acceleration" however regains the kraut-rock groove of the band's early work, but here mixed in with cornets and other jazz derived textures.

A couple of tracks indicate that Stereolab could do mellow and lounge-derived post-rock well. "Puncture In The Radax Permutation" is memorable for being one of the rare songs where background singer and guitarist, the late Mary Hansen got a lead vocal and it's a very good one. While its opening part is just as corny as you could expect from the kitschiest moments elsewhere on this album, this song transforms into something really epic and transcendent when the drums kick in at 2:20 and when the piece transforms into something really beautiful with its Glass-like vibraphone ostinatos, assertive grooves and the glorious coda with its haunting strings. "Emergency Kisses" on the other hand is sung entirely by Laetitia Sadier, whose romantic crooning and cooing makes this piece irresistibly charming, it again has a strings oriented finale, but with some backward sounds mixed in.

My favorite track, however has nothing to do with either lounge or approximation of the earlier Stereolab formulas: the album closer "Come and Play In The Milky Night" might be the best album closer they ever recorded. This sounds like little else they had recorded before, taking their hypnotic layering of guitars and keyboards and vocals to an entirely new level. They've never achieved a finer or more transcendent combination of accessible melodicism and layered instrumentation elsewhere than on this song. Its crisp production and the guitar and keyboard oriented textures make this one stand out sonically.

While derided as a bloated mess and indeed several tracks here are somewhat questionable, this sprawling Stereolab record is better than most critics suggest and has loads of good (and even great) music to make it worthwhile. However, it's by no means an entry level Stereolab album, that's for sure. Those initiated, however, may still find plenty to enjoy here.

Stereolab - Dots and Loops (1997)

Dots and Loops, as produced for the most part by John McEntire of Tortoise fame, assisted by Mouse on Mars on a couple of tunes, is a more electronic sounding Stereolab album, and nowhere near as Kraut-rocking as the previous albums had been. Instead, there's a lot of jazz and funk flavor to a lot of these tunes. Horn and string arrangement crop up in lieu of guitars, which are relegated to the background, keyboards are even more on the foreground and a lot of electronic percussion either complements or replaces the drums, depending on a song. It's hard to believe Stereolab was still a rock band an album ago. "Refractions In The Plastic Pulse" is a highlight with its multiple section epic, as is "Contronatura" on a slightly smaller scale, but "Prisoner Of Mars" on the other hand is a drab attempt at loungy trip-hop and "Parsec" is essentially pseudo-jazz "spiced up" with bland and dated drum&bass styled percussion. Elsewhere, "Miss Modular", "Flower Called Nowhere" and "Ticker Tape of the Unconscious" are memorable songs with layered instrumentation and laid back melodies that sound even lusher, if also a bit too polished than Stereolab's earlier lounge gems, whereas "Diagonals" is essentially a rather flaccid pseudo-jazz version of "Metronomic Underground".

Nonetheless, this record brought both new fans to the band as well as turning off some of the older ones who were more in tune with the band's Kraut-rock side. Whatever a listener thinks of this album depends largely on ones predilection towards electronic music as well as jazz and lounge oriented music. Just as there's good and bad in absolutely every style of music, so is Dots and Loops made up of either hits or misses in the styles pursued here. The production on this record is excellent and pristine, as John McEntire is one of the most accomplished producers and record engineers in experimental music, even if Dots and Loops is one of the few Stereolab albums that explicitly sounds like a nineties product, this coming from a band otherwise known for combining sounds and styles into timeless amalgams.

Can - Tago Mago

One of the strangest and most ambitious releases from the German Kraut-rock scene, Can's Tago Mago was originally released as a double album in 1971. Original first LP (first four tracks on CD) features the most timeless kind of great German psychedelic/Kosmische music ever. "Paperhouse" evolves from a minor key melancholic psych/blues number to a menacing poly-rhythmic workout with some insane Damo Suzuki vocals on top. "Mushroom" takes the quiet-loud aesthetic to a whole new bizarre level, alternating between mellow low key eerieness and loud heaviness (highlighted by Damo's alienated screams) that thankfully doesn't get too obnoxious. This is an example of restrained anger, and Jaki Liebezeit shines on drums too, providing captivating Meters-style groove. Jaki and Damo are the true stars on this album. "Oh Yeah" is pure psychedelic drone heaven that rests on Jaki's fast paced drum pattern and Damo singing backward, then in English and finally Japanese. 18-minute "Halleluhwah" is an epic acidic mantra which is an endless exploration of funk rhythms.

Original LP two is where the things got very very strange, if also a bit self-indulgent. "Augmn" is all about psychedelic effects, bizarre drones, acidic vocal hums and whatnot. Whether you like it or not, this is one of the Can's most abstract pieces, sounds a lot like Stockhausen on acid. "Peking O" gets even quirkier, utilizing eerie organ drones, primitive drum machines, which get faster and faster as the composition progresses, free-jazz piano playing and on top of that, Damo's insane paranoid babblings that might either annoy the hell out of you or just make you laugh your ass off and last but not least, the noisy Zappa-esque ending with deranged feedback effects, clanging percussion work and more screams from Damo. I tend to prefer "Peking O" to "Augmn". "Bring Me Coffee and Tea" returns to the rock-oriented territory as it's yet another pleasant slow lethargic improvisational psych-drone number that builds and builds but never reaches to obnoxiously and extroverted rock climaxes as one may expect, there's some pretty acoustic guitar picking though. A true exercise in subtlety. And that's Tago Mago for you.

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

The title cut on Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock's 1965 album, is one of my favourite jazz compositions ever. With its meditative, serene qualities and that fantastic piano groove, this composition is a memorable effort that well deserves to be among the sixties jazz classics. The line up for this album is a classic post-Davis line up, with bass, drums, sax, trumpet and piano. In fact, three fifths of the personnel (Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams) is the same as Miles Davis' Second Quintet, with Freddie Hubbard filling in on trumpet and George Coleman replacing Wayne Shorter on tenor. Even though this means the sound is pretty much in the sixties post-bop vein as far as instrumentation (and composition goes), listening to this record offers quite a few subtleties in a way. Herbie Hancock's solos are really advanced and at times you can clearly point his modern classical influences a la Stravinsky, especially during his solo on the third track, "Little One". Ironically enough, the 1978 live version of the album's title track with Chick Corea had a fairly avant-classical Stravinsky esque middle section to it. Of course it goes without saying that any sixties jazz album with the great Tony Williams on drums deserves to be heard.

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

Soprano saxophone's history in jazz prior this release was limited to few players, the most famous example being Sidney Bechet, whose sound was rather different from the way soprano sax sounds like nowadays, his intonation being more clarinet like (Bechet was a clarinetist). After Bechet died in 1959, it seemed like soprano saxophone was forever destined to be a rarer type of instrument. That is, until John Coltrane, usually known for his tenor saxophone playing, decided to pick up the soprano. And indeed, he was inspired by Bechet. The 1960 album My Favorite Things turned out to be not only a hit record, but pretty much a catalyst for soprano sax gaining popularity in jazz. The fourteen minute title track was something of an innovation in modal jazz as well: taking a popular Rodgers & Hammerstein song and making it a modal, Eastern music influenced trance-inducing excursion took improvisation on a theme to an entirely new level. And the bold new soprano sax tone with the instrument sounding very much akin to oboe, or even shenai (an exotic reed instrument) was also embraced by jazz listeners and musicians, setting the tone for other soprano saxophonists to emerge later on. Not less captivating was the support of backing musicians, particulary McCoy Tyner's excellent piano backing with rich and shifting chord voicings and Elvin Jones' dexterous drumming. The second piece on the record, "Every Time We Say Goodbye" showcases Coltrane very well in the ballad setting, with more subtle kind of soprano sax outing as well as featuring a sublime piano solo from Tyner. For the side two, Coltrane switches to tenor sax as well as more energetic material, giving an intense solo in "Summertime", and the album closes with a more upbeat "But Not For Me", which shows that although My Favorite Things is a record notorious for soprano sax display, his tenor sax playing on this record was just as vital.


John Coltrane Quintet (incl. Eric Dolphy) playing "My Favorite Things" in 1961.

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Released in 1970 after the Mothers of Invention had been disbanded for a while, Burnt Weeny Sandwich is an under-rated Frank Zappa masterpiece that offers us a couple very Cruising With Ruben and the Jets like arrangements on a couple of Fifties Doo-wop numbers, but that's not the main point of it. There are also instrumentals which easily rival the work on Hot Rats, composition wise, even if the Mothers weren't such great musicians as Frank's subsequent back up bands. We hear evocative childish jazz played by some out of tune instruments ("Overture to Holiday In Berlin"), prime dissonance a la Stravinsky ("Igor's Boogie", esp. Phase One), occasional guitar workouts (the title track and the expanded version of "Holiday In Berlin"), pseudo-classical quirky duet of Zappa (guitar) and Ian Underwood (piano, harpsichord) on "Aybe Sea", plus proto-prog masterpiece "Little House I used to Live in" which runs through different sections all of which showcase either solos by Zappa or violinist Sugarcane Harris or brilliantly arranged sections, like the chamber music bit at 13:35, easily one of the most evocative chunks of music from the composer. Overall, it's arguably the most ambitious composition Frank Zappa managed to spit out during the early Mothers. Burnt Weeny Sandwich is one of Frank Zappa's most beautiful albums.

Frank Zappa - Lumpy Gravy

Lumpy Gravy is one of those records which challenges a lot of preconceived notions about music and noise. Essentially, this 1968 Frank Zappa release (his first real solo album) which followed We're Only In It For The Money album, consists of two 16 minute collages of orchestral and otherwise instrumental pieces, studio chatter recorded inside the piano and tape edit sounds in the fashion of musique concrete. It's evident that Zappa is a prime melodist and a skilled arranger judging by the musical segment, but when put next to treated tape sounds and bizarre Dadaist dialogue, the result gives an entirely different meaning to the notion of composition. Originally Zappa wanted to record an all-orchestral piece for Capitol Records, as proposed by a producer for the label. However, there was a thirteen month litigation holding back the release. Meanwhile, FZ had recorded loads of dialog by having people sit under the piano with a sustain pedal depressed, giving the voices the unique ambiance. Putting it all together, we have a record which is not the most accessible Zappa release, but nonetheless features lots of innovative production techniques as well as unbelievable sounds. Not to mention, some of Zappa's best melodies, like "Duodenum", instrumental versions of "Oh No" and "Take Your Clothes Off", as well as a haunting orchestral piece "I Don't Know If I Can Go Through This Again". Lumpy Gravy presents Zappa at his most radical as a composer, arranger, record producer and conceptualist.