Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup

In reference to a 3rd variant, no mould SID. I love the gatefold design and the Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks, esp. first press, yum. Clean, open sound.

Check out the 1960s Bartok concerto for orchestra lp that Ketchup artwork was based on. I have both...look fab side by side but i dont know how to put a pic here

One of the groop's finest, and most critically acclaimed works. If you're wanting to introduce someone to Stereolab or if you're perhaps getting into them, I would no doubt recommend this album. The songs are varied in a way so that each one is considerately different with one and another, which is a major contrast with their previous album Mars Audiac Quintet (as most of the tracks have a similar structure).

The album begins with "Metronomic Underground", the longest track of the album. The way it builds up is fantastic, and the instrumentation makes the listener come back for more. Straight after that, we get "Cybele's Reverie", which is such of a beautiful song; the vocals, and the violins segments are just amazing to hear. Now, I don't want to go over all of the tracks in detail, but I would have to say that all of them are great in their own ways. Alongside the aforementioned songs, I'm a fan of "Les Yper Sound", "Spark Plug" and "The Noise of Carpet", which I consider to be the highlights of the album.

If you're feeling down, I would probably advise you to give a listen to the whole album from start to finish. I'm definitely looking forward for its reissue!

Stereolab's "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" refrains to a character that is very influenced by the sixties and the seventies, with undertones of French pop and reminiscences from the automatic psychedelia from Silver Apples and a well constructed pastiche of Krautrock tendencies that overcome in a very colorful and melodic album that departs from the more avantgardistic pro Velvet underground fascination more votive in their previous albums.
I didnt listen this kind of music in 1996, but the powerful vitalism from it and the continuous rotation of certain songs into the circles of NYC at the time were enough to fill me with its inhibited positiveness and colorful sweetness. It is the kind of album that goes along with every circumstance and contains different moods in through its own aural delivery, thats probably its richness.
The voice from Laetitia sadier along with the backing vocals of Mary Hansen creates this lovely melodic form that interplayed with the tonal layers and the instrumental loops enncompased with the robotic rhythms makes it a big hit for a rainy day, for the walk or the car drive.

it is to notice that while one may dedicate some deep listening disposition towards the album it may identificate the tricks behind its veil.
In some songs sometimes there is not even a proper melody construction (aside from the voices which are always the top center of the whole thing) but a sort of continuous juxtaposition of tonalities and loops that added the proper velocity and rhythmic resonance finally conform a melodic structure that always manages to bring an impressive concatenation of melody and fluidity. Also the variety of the album it is displayed not by the ammount of different instrumentation but by the disposition and different organization of the drones and the beat. Take notice for example how the backing tonal chords from "Percolator" which is an upbeat happy song resembles almost identically those of the "Monstre Sacre" which is the melancholic note from the album, nevertheless completely different in form and sentiment.

This is the kind of album one may keep in the shelves for whenever the sun is not around, its shiny and colorful melodic predicament may be enough to rise the mood of a dead person, and its enough inventive and vitalistic as to sur the mere pop enterntainment.
Classic of the 90s.

How come there are no reviews for this famous album on Discogs?... Anyway, this certainly goes down as one of the iconic albums of the '90s. Combining influences from krautrock, noise pop or retro French pop (I only mentioned three, but many more can be felt on the album), Stereolab sound different on almost each track on this album, yet it never feels like a half-baked compilation or mixtape. Maybe not as cohesive as "Sound-Dust" or "Dots and Loops", Emperor Tomato Ketchup has one big advantage: it's very fun. It's also artsy, at least more artsy than "Mars Audiac Quintet", but it's fun, first of all. While struggling with a harder-to-get-into Stereolab album, I was easily attempted to replay this: it certainly caught them in a moment of divine inspiration. Needs probably a few listens or one very attentive listen, but, after that, there's no filler to be found here.