Part of Stereolab’s legacy was to expose the orthodoxy of indie rock by embracing stuff indie rockers would have found desperately uncool: space-age pop, cocktail jazz, elevator music. Where 1996’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup retained a punk edge (if you squinted, at least), Dots and Loops, released only a year later, was the full fruitcake. Compare the band’s 1993 epic “Jenny Ondioline”, a three-chord, 18-minute trance of noisy guitars and socialist incantations (“I don’t care, democracy’s being fucked”), with “Refractions in the Plastic Pulse”, which shifts from lounge waltz to variety-show jazz to synthesiser étude to funk-lite—a complex, almost pointedly corny descent into music that sounds less like the work of bonded mammals than some faceless corporation.
That, of course, is part of the point: Marxist-socialist-materialists that they were, the band advanced the idea that all this manufactured stuff was in fact the real music of our mostly manufactured times: the swingin’ ’60s window dressing of “Miss Modular”, the soothing breakbeats of “Parsec”, the greet-the-day vibraphones of “Brakhage”—all of it sounded curiously prefabricated, musical MREs for enterprising youths on the go. Light, colourful, and effortlessly complex, Dots and Loops mapped the future the band had been searching for from the start.
Tracklisting
- Brakhage
- Miss Modular
- The Flower Called Nowhere
- Diagonals
- Prisoner Of Mars
- Rainbo Conversation
- Refractions In The Plastic Pulse
- Parsec
- Ticker-Tape Of The Unconscious
- Contronatura
- Diagonals Bode Drums
- Contranatura (Pt 2 - Instrumental)
- Brakhage (Instrumental)
- The Flower Called Nowhere (Instrumental)
- Bonus Beats
- Diagonals (Instrumental)
- Contranatura (Demo)
- Allures (Demo)
- Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (Demo)
- I Feel The Air (Demo)
- Off On (Demo)
- Incredible He Woman (Demo)
- Miss Modular (Demo)
- Untitled In Dusseldorf (Demo)
Apple Music
Videos
Stereolab - Miss Modular (Official Video)
More Videos
- Brakhage
- Miss Modular
- The Flower Called Nowhere
- Diagonals
- Prisoner of Mars
- Rainbo Conversation
- Refractions in the Plastic Pulse
- Parsec
- Ticker-tape of the Unconscious
- Contronatura
Release Images
Release Information
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia URL | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_and_Loops |
| Format | Vinyl 2× LP Album Reissue Remastered, Vinyl LP, All Media Limited Edition Numbered (Clear, Expanded Edition) |
| Label | Warp Records |
| Catalog Number | none |
| Notes | Tracks A1, A2, B1, B3 to D2 recorded at Idful Music Corp., Chicago, March 1997. Tracks A2, B3, D1, D2 & parts A & B of C1 mixed at Soma Recording Studio, Chicago, May 26th - June 4th 1997. Chicago tracks recorded directly onto hard disk. Tracks A3, D2, D3 recorded at Academy of St. Martin in the Street, Düsseldorf, April 1997. Instrumentation: Vocals, Farfisa organ, electric guitar, bass, analog synthesizers and other electronic devices (for sound generating and filtering), Fender Rhodes piano, drums, beatbox, percussion, piano, clavinet, nylon string acoustic guitar, electronic percussion. Remastered album plus a bonus disc of demos and alternate versions Fold out poster and DL card Numbered on hype sticker The initial vinyl edition was 2500 numbered triple clear vinyl copies, of which 2000 were this release and 500 were the [url=https://www.discogs.com/Stereolab-Dots-And-Loops/release/14127544]Obi strip version[/url] |
| Discogs URL | Stereolab - Dots And Loops |