Stereolab — Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Expanded Edition) (Europe 2019 Reissue)
Inner panel:
Tracks A1 to A3, B2 to B4, C3, D2 recorded at Blackwing Studios London.
Tracks B1, C1, C3, D3 recorded at Idful Music Corp. Chicago. Remastered at Calyx, Berlin.
Thankyou to: Terry Tolkin, Bryan Smith, Doug McCombs, John Herndon, Jeff Parker, David Pajo, Brad Wood, Casey Rice, Piggy, Mike McCutchen, Andy Bryant, Chris Holmes, Brian Welsh, Elliot Dicks, Rian Murphy, Dan Koretzky, Dan Osborn, Bettina Richards, C. Castoriadis, Bundy K. Brown, Darren B, Steve, C, Tanya S, Brigitte F, Nicolas E, Ellen Stewart, Russell Warby (2), Brian O'Neill, Grubb, Katharine Gifford, Sonic Boom (2) & Sheri Hood.
Sleeve at Trouble
Published by Domino Publishing Co. Ltd
Contact martin@associatedlondonmanagement.com
On 24" x 24" poster:
Original sound recording made by Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks 1996
P 1996 Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks
C 2019 Warp Records
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"Metronomic Underground" originally called "Chrome Tubby". The second track written for "Emperor Tomato Ketchup". This was the beginning of the 'arranged in the studio / studio as instrument" approach that [Stereolab] would adopt. There were no computers or samplers used in recording "Emperor Tomato Ketchup".
"Cybele's Reverie", the single from the LP (not forgetting the US promo "Noise Of Carpet"). It was released as a single in edited form.
"Percolator" [is] in 7/8 time.
"Les Yper-Sound", the first song on the LP to be recorded in Chicago. John ended up gating/shaping the guitar chords with a hi-hat pattern and then filtering it through a synthesizer.
"OLV 26", an earlier attempt at this basic electronic rifferama in early Kraftwerk style became part of the "Simple Headphone Mind" recording with Nurse With Wound.
"The Noise Of Carpet" was indeed a kind of single in the US, albeit a promo.
"Emperor Tomato Ketchup", sped up the vocals by slowing the tape down. This was all done on the demo which normally meant the vocal melody was too high to sing. Instead of changing the key of the song to suit the vocal range [Stereolab] again slowed the tape down because [they] liked the effect of speeding up the vocals. This is a track that would have turned out totally different if [they] had recorded it in London.
"Motoroller Scalatron", another Lab song named after a keyboard instrument. This was Duncan's last record with [Stereolab]. Morgane had only learnt the organ just before joining the band and this was her first record with [them] (give or take some limited 7" or something).
"Slow Fast Hazel", demo on the Fostex cassette recorder.
"Anonymous Collective", final song on the LP and final song recorded at Idful, Chicago.
Freestyle Dumpling / Percolator (Original Mix Version)
"Freestyle Dumpling" was recorded in London for Emperor Tomato Ketchup but didn't make the LP. It was released a couple of years later as one side of a 7" single available with the Japaenese boxset edition of Aluminum Tunes, where it was incorrectly titled as "Freestyle Dumping". [Tim Gane] invited Ray to come down to Blackwing Studios during the early stages of recording the album to add saxophone on a number of tracks, but on the final LP Ray only appears at the very end of "Percolator". After two weeks of recording [Stereolab] had about ten tracks of just drums with bass and alto sax playing exactly the same thing laid of the top of it. Sean wrote the descending line for Wurlitzer and strings. That broke the impasse and opened up all the tracks again. Ray's sax got edged out of the final mixes for the LP. "Percolator (Original Mix Version)" dates from a week or two before the final LP versions, is a bit longer and has a different arrangement, and there's a bit more of Ray's sax at the end.
"The Noise Of Carpet (Original Mix)", earlier and more abrasive version of the song which had the working title "Broken Face".
"Old Lungs", although not a previously unreleased track (it appeared on an ATP festival LP) [Tim Gane] wanted it included here because it was the first track written for "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" and acted as a kind of catalyst for the whole thing. It was the blueprint for some songs in particular, and set down the path for the overall feel and sound identity of the LP as a whole. It was written a couple of months ahead of most of the other tracks on the album, and [Stereolab] had already played it live on a short tour with Yo La Tengo in the UK. It built up into a frenzy when played live but didn't translate to the recording studio. [Stereolab] tried a second version ("Young Lungs"), playing it live in the studio but that also didn't make the LP.
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Mastering notes
This series of re-issues were mastered from the original 1/2" tapes at Calyx Mastering, Berlin.
As [Stereolab] started the project it became obvious that most of the tapes were showing signs of deterioration and some of the earliest ones were already at an advanced stage of decay and were actively shredding. They would need to be baked. Baking is not done to improve the quality of the sound and can lead to some softening and loss of fine detail but the process was necessary to preserve the contents of the tape long enough to transfer the tracks. Great care was taken during the baking of the tapes.
The earliest tapes would not have been able to withstand the stress put on them by a normal tape machine set up, with its high tension mechanism and multi head configuration, plus [the] 1/2" tapes needed to run at 30 inches per second - this increased tension and would have most likely snapped the tape.
As a solution Bo decided to commission a bespoke tape block which consisted of a single playback head and a simple, no tension tape guide. This allowed the tape to be simply held in place as it passed over the single head.
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Demos
The demos were all recorded onto a Foster X-15 4-track cassette recorder - mainly using a DI'd Fender Jaguar guitar and a microphone for Laetitia's vocals. Sometimes [Tim Gane] would use a keyboard too.
The demos were mixed onto 1/2 " tape using some analogue EQ, compression / limiting and a spring reverb.
These demos were just working material to play to the band at the rehearsals or in the studio to show the rough structure of the song. As they were not meant for public release not much care was taken in the presentation, just something to show the general idea and for [Tim Gane] and Laetitia to get the parts down on tape so [they] wouldn't forget them.
Every so often Mary would come over to the house and record a vocal or two but as the songs were normally knocked out pretty quick, and [they] didn't live that close together, Mary doesn't feature on most of the demos.
The demos from around Emperor Tomato Ketchup are still generally representative of the final recorded versions except for the tracks with Moog chords which are played on guitar here. [Stereolab] still rehearsed some of the songs before recording them but not many. On later albums the demos and the final recorded versions would take different paths and vary quite a bit more.
Throughout all the LP's recorded up to Margerine Eclipse the demos were recorded to cassette tape. The interpretations, once [Stereolab] ditched rehearsing before recording, changed enormously.
Sticker, front cover:
Expanded Edition
Remastered album plus a bonus disk of demos and alternate versions, fold out poster and DL card
Other notes:
Gatefold cover
