Editorial Reviews
Music Review:
Music Review
Brahms: Symphony in Cm No1, Op68; Mozart: Concertos for piano No9
Brahms: Symphony in F No3, Op90; Symphony in D No2, Op73
Amazon.com
When you're a prolific band that also happens to be mighty friendly to your obsessive compulsive collector fan base, you wind up releasing a lot of singles and EPs with material that's otherwise unavailable on your albums. And here, for the price of a Japanese pressing of the Fluorescences EP on an auction site alone, you get Stereolab's eight Elektra EPs, from 1993's Jenny Ondioline to 2001's Captain Easychord. The "groop"'s collaborative EPs ( Crumb Duck, Uilab) are not included, but there is a DVD with rarely-seen videos and television performances. This box set serves far more than a plug-the-gaps exercise for trainspotters; as with the singles collections Switched-On volumes one, two and three (did we not mention this band is prolific?), it's an intriguing retrospective of the band in their mature years. And unlike those comps, this set often highlights the band's more lengthy, experimental songs. "Les Yper Yper Sound," for instance, John McEntire's distorted, delightfully repetitious reworking of "Yper Sound" from Emperor Tomato Ketchup, is spine-tinglingly awesome. --Mike McGonigal
Album Description
This box set contains three CDs with 35 songs, 28 of which are previously unreleased in the US, plus a DVD with rare videos and UK TV performances, all for a low list price. The CD tracks were culled from eight EPs previously only available as imports. Seven of these had matching videos that are featured on the DVD. The first pressing includes a limited edition sticker set featuring early EP album art. "...this Anglo-Franco-Australian partnership whips up Velvet Underground buzz, Krautrock groove, easy listening lightness, and vintage French pop sweetness into an instantly identifiable frappe"--Rolling Stone.