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

Released: 02/09/22

Stereolab's Switched On' series, which collects non-album tracks from the band's 30-year plus existence, continues to be nothing short of pure joy for fans. Number five, the latest in the ongoing collection, again serves up some previously hard-to-find gems from The Groop's back catalogue, not least the album's psych-krautrock-heavy openers Simple Headphone Mind and Trippin' With The Birds from 1997, both collaborations with excellent UK weirdos Nurse With Wound (released together as a 12 in 1997, this was their second collaboration with Steven Stapleton's rightly lauded experimental outfit). 

Elsewhere we have a splendid version of Cybele's Reverie, recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl in 2004 (when the band supported Air); all four tracks from 1992's excellentLow FiEP; and Blaue Milch, which was recorded for a 1998 Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra compilation album “ each artist on the LP having been sent a Peter Thomas audio track that they were then asked to build into a new song.Pulse of the Early Brainof course features many more such delightful rarities, but chief among them may just be the majesticRobot Riot (previously unreleased) and Unity Purity Occasional, both written for sculptures made by Charles Long, an artist that the band had previously collaborated with on theMusic For The Amorphous Body Study Centerproject.