Flowchart -- who for all intents and purposes was just a guy named Sean O'Neal -- started out making records that sounded so much like Stereolab that some people thought they were meant as some kind of parody. After a couple of records in this style, O'Neal started incorporating a lot of other influences into Flowchart's sound, and they ended up being a really interesting, varied project. My favorite, however, is this 1996 single on a clearly Sarah Records-obsessed Japanese label called Motorway. "Sideshow All the Way" is rather unique in Flowchart's oeuvre because guitar takes precedence over keyboards, and the strummy-strummy-la-la melody and gently bossa nova-ish rhythm is much more Blueboy than Stereolab. Still, he doesn't leave the electronics completely out of the picture: what sounds like a crackle of vinyl surface noise at the song's beginning quickly reveals itself to be an integral part of the song's rhythm track.

-Stewart Mason