Stereolab share two tracks from upcoming 'Dots & Loops' reissue

Stereolab‘s next round of expanded album reissues — Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Dots & Loops, and Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night — are out September 13 and they’ve just shared two tracks from 1997’s near-perfect Dots & Loops. Specifically, they’ve shared two versions of “The Flower Called Nowhere,” the gorgeous, harpsichord / strings / “ahhs”-filled song that comes right after single “Miss Modular” and features one of the slowest fades ever. Here’s Tim Gane on the track:

This song was recorded with Jan Werner and Andi Toma of Mouse on Mars, and remains one of my absolute favourite Stereolab tracks. I was very interested to find a chord that would evoke the feeling I got when listening to the music of Polish jazz musician and film composer Krzysztof Komeda. I eventually found a chord that I liked, probably by accident, and with it I wrote the music for this song. We also tried to capture some of that mid/late 60’s European exploitation film music vibe with the rolling harpsichords, trap drums, ethereal vocals and other colourful sounds.

As an extra feature one of us (probably Andi when I talked about the sound I wanted with him) thought to put the Gothic choral chant as featured in Fearless Vampire Killers in the track, so off we went to the local video store to see if they had it in stock. Amazingly enough they did, and we were able to duplicate it more or less. It’s weird to think that if the local video store hadn’t have that film in stock at exactly that point in time then this track would have been totally different.

They’ve offered up the remastered original, and a slightly shorter instrumental version that wisely still keeps those heavenly ahhs. Listen to both below.

You can pre-order those new reissues now. Stereolab’s reunion tour hits North America in September and includes two sold-out nights at NYC’s Brooklyn Steel.