Tall Dwarfs, Stumpy (CD)

A funny notion, even by Tall Dwarfs standards—for Stumpy, they collected loops or backing tracks from fans around the world to build their songs on top of. The results are a bit more awkward and less catchy than other Tall Dwarfs albums, but these differences are relatively minor. There are still weird pop songs built on top of strange sounds, if none quite as catchy as favorites from that era like "Highrise" or "The Fatal Flaw of the New". A notable track is the long, Velvets-y "Up" that ends Stumpy, and is pretty atypical of their work. While the Tall Dwarfs were still proudly working in primitive analog formats in 1996 (and documenting this process in the liner notes), the results are a bit less lo-fi than some of the early records.