- Pet theory #452: STL, AKA Stephan Laubner, will never top the RA charts, simply because no one can decide on which track is the best on any given release. Mild consensus formed around "Birdart" and "Something Is Raw"—the latter helped along by Ame including it on their Fabric mix—but more often than not DJs just throw up their hands and chart the entire EP. Look for that trend to continue with Nocturnal Mixdowns.
It's not that there aren't highlights: Laubner gets excited enough on "All Nite Long" to mess around with some wordless samples, unleashes glisteningly lo-fi crystals of melody on "Hidden Dope" and drops analogue science on…well…everything. But, like all of his work, it's frustratingly (fascinatingly, awesomely) consistent. Despite being a double 12-inch release, Nocturnal Mixdowns feels very much like an album, its pervasive downtempo mood of foggy house overwhelming.
By my count, Laubner has released a ridiculous six-plus hours of material in the past 12 months. And, sure, if you've heard two STL joints, you've probably heard most of what the man has to offer. But Laubner does the few things that he does exceptionally well, fruitlessly attempting to craft a Platonic ideal of lo-fi house music over and over again. If these are going to be the results, long may he toil.
Tracklist A1 Flying Square
A2 All Nite Long
A3 Loop A
B1 Moonlight Reflections
B2 Hidden Dope
B3 Loop B
C1 Fog and Snow
C2 The Taphead
C3 Loop C
D1 2 Deep
D2 Loop D