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 excellent Low Fi EP; 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 Brain of course features many more such delightful rarities, but chief among them may just be the majestic “Robot 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 the Music For The Amorphous Body Study Center project.