Stereolab - Pulse Of The Early Brain (Switched On Volume 5)

3LP in custom gatefold jacket

12" poster insert with download code

Limited edition "Mirrorboard" reflective cover

The fifth volume of Stereolab's Switched-On non-LP tracks compilations. Throughout the course of their original 1990 - 2009 run, Stereolab may have released more songs outside of their 10 studio albums than were on them, writes Brooklyn Vegan.

While they used those singles, B-sides, EPs, flexis, splits, collabs, and compilation contributions for experimentations, these songs were often some of their best, too.

For those non-completists out there who haven't devoted a room of their house to all these records, Stereolab have helpfully been collecting them on their Switched On series. The first three comps in the series came out during the '90s and then, due to "circumstances beyond our control," there wasn't a fourth volume until 2021. The floodgates have clearly opened as just a year and a half later we've got Volume 5, Pulse of the Early Brain.

Unlike previous editions of the Switched On series which seemed to go chronologically, Vol. 5 pulls tracks from throughout their career, including B-sides, radio sessions, live tracks, and more. Highlights here include the two tracks from their 1997 Simple Headphone Mind collaborative LP with Nurse With Wound; 1992's Low Fi EP (the first record to feature drummer Andy Ramsay and backing vocalist Mary Hansen), stray songs from various editions of 2008's Chemical Chords, and a terrific live version of "Cybele's Reverie" recorded at Hollywood Bowl in 2004 when they were opening for Air.

There is still plenty of meat on these bones, like Autechre's remix of Dots & Loops cut "Refractions in the Plastic Pulse," the intense chug of Lo Fi's "(Varoom!)," and "Robot Riot" which was originally written in 2000 for a sculpture made by artist Charles Long, who they collaborated with on 1995's Music For The Amorphous Body Study Center project. Pulse of the Early Brain also works as an alternate history — from the early drones to later jazzy tropicalia and all points in between — for a band that always wore Esoteric and Obscure like a badge of honor.

Side A

1. Stereolab / Nurse With Wound – Simple Headphone Mind

Side B

1. Stereolab / Nurse With Wound - Trippin’ With The Birds

Side C

1. Low Fi

2. [Varoom!]

3. Laisser-Faire

Side D

1. Elektro [he held the world in his iron grip]

2. Robot Riot

3. Spool Of Collusion

4. Symbolic Logic Of Now!

5. Forensic Itch

6. Ronco Symphony [Demo]

Side E

1. ABC

2. Magne-Music

3. Blaue Milch

4. Yes Sir! I Can Moogie

5. Plastic Mile [Original Version]

Side F

1. Refractions In The Plastic Pulse [Feebate Mix] - Autechre Remix

2. Unity Purity Occasional

3. The Nth Degrees

4. XXXOOO

5. Cybele’s Reverie [Live at the Hollywood]

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