hypersongs

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Their fourth studio album, built on loops and recorded partly in Chicago with John McEntire.
Stereolab, 1996

It was released on Duophonic in the UK on March 18, 1996 and on Elektra in the US on April 9, and takes its name from Shuji Terayama's 1971 film. Gane has said it marked a shift from riff-based writing to composing around loops, after a year of writer's block. The band flew to Chicago at the end of July 1995 with most of the album demoed, recording at McEntire's Idful, and drank at the Rainbo Club below the studio, which "Rainbo Conversation" on Dots and Loops commemorates. John McEntire added synth, electronics and percussion, Sean O'Hagan Wurlitzer, Vox organ, vibraphone and string arrangements. It reached 27 in the UK and sold over 46,000 copies in the US by August 1997.

AllMusic gave 5 stars, Erlewine calling it their most complex, multi-layered record; Pitchfork gave 9.4, Uncut 9 out of 10, NME 8 and the Village Voice an A-minus.

Track listing

  1. Metronomic Underground7:55
  2. Cybele's Reverie4:42
  3. Percolator3:47
  4. Les Yper-Sound4:05
  5. Spark Plug2:29
  6. OLV 265:42
  7. The Noise of Carpet3:05
  8. Tomorrow Is Already Here4:56
  9. Emperor Tomato Ketchup4:37
  10. Monstre Sacré3:44
  11. Motoroller Scalatron3:48
  12. Slow Fast Hazel3:53
  13. Anonymous Collective4:32

More from Stereolab

Peng! (1992), Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements (1993), The Groop Played "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music" (1993), Mars Audiac Quintet (1994), Dots And Loops (1997), Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night (1999), The First Of The Microbe Hunters (2000), Sound-Dust (2001), Margerine Eclipse (2004), Chemical Chords (2008), Not Music (2010), Instant Holograms On Metal Film (2025)

Sources

  1. Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Wikipedia
  2. Emperor Tomato Ketchup, 30 years on, The Quietus