[.ca] Emperor Tomato...

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

Odd-Timed Rhythms + Enigmatic Blend of Retro and Futurist:
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 vocal rhythmics that smack of old Jon Anderson and the boys of Yes, 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 resemble. 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 Revere" are perfect examples of this. The former featuring a steady, repetetive (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 7/8 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.

Nearest and dearest to my heart:
Before Emperor Tomato Ketchup was released, I was a big fan of Stereolab, especially of Transient Random Noise Bursts. Mars Audiac Quintet followed and I took it to be Stereolab's definitive statement; it seemed to say "We are Stereolab and we like to play droney rock, so that is what we are damn well going to do on every single song." I felt that after Mars, that was it: Stereolab had picked out their little niche in the world and they were going to stay there. Then came Emperor Tomato Ketchup... This was something new. It still had many of their trademarks - vintage synths, a mixture of the old and new, dual female vocals, french accents, marxist lyrics, very poppy, and, yes, even some droney rock - but it was a wholely different beast from any music by Stereolab or by anyone else that had come before. It was super funky, it was electronic, it had dense layers of a whole army of cool instruments. The sounds on many songs build up one on top of another until the songs almost burst with insane energy. This is their most edgy album with sonics that try to push the listener over the brink. Witness the apocalyptic guitar feedback on Metronomic Underground, the stabbing synths and strings on Cybele's Reverie, the frantically disonant sax on Percolator, the overdriven riffing on Noise of Carpet, the pounding drums on the title track, the swaggering funk of Sparkplug. Since Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Stereolab has continued to release one great album after another, but there has always been a slight sense of disappointment. Perhaps they just set the bar too damn high with this one. No more could they get by with merely great albums. Nothing short of a total 180 degree turn could possibly top this. It will always be my favorite.

Indie Rock Classic:
This is the album that put Stereo Lab on the map as one of the premier indie rock bands of the early 90's. This album features their most consistent recorded work and is pretty much the turning point in their career where they started becoming more synth based as where their earlier works featured some more guitar work. This is also in my opinion the best starting point for anyone new to Stereo Lab's work.

Couldn't hear the difference between songs:
After reading all the great reviews of the cd, I went ahead and bought it. After listening to it once, i haven't put it back in since. I think I'm going to try again, but the problem I had with the cd is that it all sounded the same. French, slow, and boring. The vocals were very pretty and relaxing though. I think it just might be that I am used to really upbeat stuff. Don't get this unless you know what to expect.

Beautiful, poetic, and ridiculous:
Stereolab's Emperor Tomato Ketchup is a strange blend of progressive rock, '60's rock, French pop, and fatuity! The blend somehow works and no song sounds like another. They exhibit a Bohemian spirit of artistic liberation and have fun at the same time. This is truly an incredible album and is the epitome of Euro.

• Metronomic Underground
• Cybele's Reverie
• Percolator
• Yper-Sound
• Spark Plug
• Olv 26
• Noise of Carpet
• Tomorrow Is Already Here
• Emperor Tomato Ketchup
• Monstre Sacre
• Motoroller Scalatron
• Slow Fast Hazel
• Anonymous Collective