INDIE ONLY – LTD MIRROBOARD VINYL
The fifth "Switched On" volume from Stereolab yet again sweeps up a bunch of their rarest releases, throwing them together with a few unreleased tracks for good measure. This one's especially worth a peek, including Autechre's genius remix of 'Refractions in the Plastic Pulse' and Stereolab's second lengthy collab with Nurse With Wound.
'Pulse of the Early Brain' opens with Stereolab's album-length 'Simple Headphone Mind' collaboration with Nurse With Wound, 31 minutes of psychedelic kraut-directed squiggle that's worth the asking price alone. Like with their previous NWW collaboration, the band sent material to Steven Stapleton - in this case 'The Long Hair of Death', which emerged on a later split with Yo La Tengo - who shaped it into something completely different in his studio. The same track was used on both versions, and Stapleton fleshes out Stereolab's motorik original with lysergic synths, dissociated blotter-strength timestretched voices and discomposing foley samples. Essential gear, basically.
Elsewhere, there's remastered jams from throughout the band's history, like a suite of loungey "Chemical Chords"-era tracks, and the synth-fried 1998 gem 'Symbolic Logic of Now!'. Autechre's blunted edit of 'Refractions In The Plastic Pulse' is an unexpected inclusion, and still one of our favorite AE remixes - an "LP5"/"EP7" drumwall collapse that turns Stereolab's original into ghost traces over precision-sliced drums.
But for fans it's the unreleased material that'll be the biggest draw, and there's a bounty: a live version of "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" fave 'Cybele's Reverie', a demo version of "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music" track 'Ronco Symphony', two tracks made for Charles Long's sculptures, and a new recording of 'Plastic Mile'.
TRACKLIST:
1. Stereolab & Nurse With Wound - Simple Headphone Mind
2. Stereolab & Nurse With Wound - Trippin' With The Birds
3. Robot Riot
4. Spool Of Collusion (Remastered)
5. Symbolic Logic Of Now!
6. Forensic Itch (Remastered)
7. ABC
8. Magne-Music (Remastered)
9. Blaue Milch
10. Yes Sir! I Can Moogie
11. Plastic Mile [Original Version]
12. Refractions In The Plastic Pulse [Feebate Mix] - Autechre Remix
13. Unity Purity Occasional
14. The Nth Degrees (Remastered)
15. XXXOOO
16. Cybele’s Reverie [Live at the Hollywood Bowl]
![Pulse Of The Early Brain [Switched On Volume 5]](media/coverart-big/156107-stereolab-pulse-of-the-early-brain-switched-on-volume-5-blue.jpg)
![Electrically Possessed [Switched On Vol. 4] by Stereolab](data:image/jpeg;base64,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 "Electrically Possessed [Switched On Vol. 4] by Stereolab")
