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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]

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