Stereolab - Pulse Of The Early Brain (Switched On Volume 5) (3LP) - Blue Mirriboard Sleeve Vinyl

Stereolab’s Switched On series has always been a treasure hunt, and Pulse of the Early Brain (Switched On Volume 5) feels like finding the last few pieces under the couch. The set arrived 2 September 2022 through Duophonic UHF Disks and Warp, with Drag City taking care of the US issue, and it pulls together stray singles, collaborations and hard‑to‑find cuts that map out the band’s sidelong steps across the 90s and beyond. It’s not an introduction so much as a deep dive, the sort of compilation that explains why Stereolab vinyl remains such a beloved thing to chase down.

The headline grabber this round was Robot Riot, an unearthed 1995 piece that Tim Gane found during the band’s archive trawl. It was written for an art collaboration with US sculptor Charles Long, part of the same orbit as their Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center work. You can hear the era right away. The motorik chug is set with clockmaker care, Moog burbles snake around a two-chord figure, and Laetitia Sadier’s voice turns cool observation into something quietly ecstatic. When Mary Hansen’s harmonies rise through the mix, it hits that particular Stereolab sweet spot, where utopian shimmer meets garage‑built minimalism. It’s not a novelty outtake. It sounds like it belongs beside mid‑90s highlights.

Pulse of the Early Brain also restores the longform Nurse With Wound collaboration Simple Headphone Mind, with its companion Trippin’ With The Birds. These two sides were scarce for years, and having them back in print is a small public service. They let Stereolab relax into hypnotic repetition while Steven Stapleton pokes at the edges, tugging the loops just out of shape. The groove never collapses, though. It just morphs, testing how far the band can stretch a pattern without losing the plot. If you ever wanted to hear their lounge‑kosmische tendencies pushed toward the weird end of the room, this is the proof.

As with earlier Switched On sets, the joy here is in the seams. Little shifts in drum feel from Andy Ramsay, the grain of vintage organs, that dry, direct guitar tone from Gane, and Sadier slipping between English and French with the same measured poise. Some tracks have the aerodynamic snap of the Emperor Tomato Ketchup period, others lean into the pliant lounge textures that would blossom around Dots and Loops. The sequencing handles those moves with a crate‑digger’s logic. You’re not being fed a narrative so much as shuffled through rooms in a familiar house, noticing details you’d missed. It suits a band that treated B‑sides and one‑offs like an open lab.

On vinyl the set has space to breathe, which helps the longer pieces bloom. Pulse of the Early Brain (Switched On Volume 5) vinyl is the version I keep recommending to friends. The low end sits warm without fog, cymbals have that brassy ring instead of splash, and the inner detail on the organ tremolo actually reads. Among Stereolab albums on vinyl, the Switched On volumes are sneaky essentials, because they sketch the band’s edges and help the albums make more sense. If you buy Stereolab records online, keep an eye on the Warp and Duophonic editions, since they’ve been consistent with quality across the reissue campaign.

Critical response was solid when this came out. Reviewers who know the catalogue recognised it as more than a mop‑up exercise, and fans were grateful to have the Nurse With Wound sides and Robot Riot back in one place. That’s the key with this series. It doesn’t just tidy the archive. It shows how Stereolab kept testing their own formula across split singles, art commissions and tour‑only 7s, then quietly folded the lessons back into the main thread.

If you’re the sort of listener who loses an hour flipping through a Melbourne record store, this compilation scratches the same itch. You go in for one thing, come out with a clutch of oddities that reframe the band you thought you knew. For folks hunting Stereolab vinyl, Pulse of the Early Brain lands as an easy staff pick. It’s generous, it’s coherent, and it offers a few surprises even if you’ve been along for the whole ride. And for anyone in the vinyl records Australia world trying to decide where to start with the rarities, this one’s simple. Start here, then let the series pull you further down the rabbit hole.