ᜀᜈᜒᜆᜓᜃᜍᜍᜓᜀ♪AnitoSoul mbalangue⋆junglist

Stereolab “Refractions in the Plastic Pulse” Dots and Loops, 1997 Seventeen minutes and thirty-two seconds.  Almost six times the length of the average song played by radio stations (I remember those!).  That might seem excessively long, but in the hands of the Stereolab crew, it feels just right.  Often “long” songs (anything over five minutes) feel even longer than they are, because of extreme repetition (see “Freebird”).  “Refractions…” doesn’t feel so much like a song as it feels like a mini concept album:  several different melodic and sonic themes expertly woven in a way that sounds like several different songs in one. And just what would this concept be?  I have a hard enough time deciphering a song’s meaning when it’s in my native language, much less when it’s in French. The lyrics seem to playfully echo the songs loopy, meandering idea.  (I believe that my translation is accurate.)

What is, isn’t closed In the most essential point of view, What is open, is to be In a non-ending action, Without trophy and without glory A creation without bottom, Without profit nor victory