Stereolab - Switched On, Volumes 1-5 (2024)

An anthology boxset that compiles all five volumes of the Stereolab Switched On series: 94 non-album tracks and sought after deep cuts by the groop. Includes the original Switched On compilation LP released in 1992, 1995's Refried Ectoplasm[Switched On Volume 2], 1998’s Aluminum Tunes[Switched On Volume 3], 2021’s Electrically Possessed[Switched On Volume 4], and 2022’s Pulse Of The Early Brain[Switched On Volume 5]. All the tracks have been remastered from the original tapes in recent years, personally overseen by Tim Gane of the band at Calyx in Berlin.

A Stereolab completist's dream come true, Switched On, Vols. 1-5 rounds up all of the band's singles and rarities collections and traces the evolution from their earliest drone-pop to the sophisticated experimental sounds they purveyed in the late 2000s. Switched On gathers songs from the group's busy 1991, with "Super-Electric" and "Au Grand Jour," reaffirming that their essential sound – motorik lock-grooves, bubbling analog synths, fuzzed-out guitars, and angelic vocals – arrived fully formed. "Doubt" and "Brittle" are among their most vibrant pop songs, while the eight-minute "Contact" is a warm-up for the epics they soon mastered. Refried Ectoplasm: Switched On, Vol. 2 serves as a reminder that Stereolab's key songs from the early '90s, such as "Lo Boob Oscillator," "French Disko," and "John Cage Bubblegum," didn't just appear on their albums.

Aluminum Tunes: Switched On, Vol. 3 gives the innovative, jazz- and electronic-infused sounds of Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops a more whimsical twist with Wagon Christ's remix of "Metronomic Underground" and a swinging cover of Antônio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba" with Herbie Mann. It also includes 1995's essential Music for the Amorphous Body Center EP, a work composed for an installation by visual artist Charles Long that foreshadows the intricate experiments that soon appeared on Stereolab's albums.

Spanning releases from 1999 to 2008, Electrically Possessed: Switched On, Vol. 4 covers nearly half of the group's career, but captures the flavor of its era just as completely as the series' other volumes. Songs from the mini-album First of the Microbe Hunters, like the serenely spacey pop of "I Feel the Air (Of Another Planet)" and the strutting jazz-funk of "Barock-Plastic," provide a playful contrast to 1999's heady Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night. Stereolab take a similarly lighthearted approach on limited-edition tour singles such as 2008's blissed-out "L'exotisme Interieur" and 1999's "Calimero," a collaboration with Brigitte Fontaine that is one of their clearest homages to French pop à la Serge Gainsbourg. Among the other highlights are the bustling "B.U.A.," another piece commissioned by Long, and the previously unreleased "Solar Throw-Away (Original Version)," a tart, brassy ballad.

Though the works that Stereolab gathered on Pulse of the Early Brain: Switched On, Vol. 5 somehow fell through the cracks of their previous collections, they include some of the band's most sought-after music. Chief among them is September 1992's Low Fi EP, the first release to feature beloved vocalist/keyboardist Mary Hansen and longtime drummer Andy Ramsay. Both make their mark on the blissfully loud and transporting rock of "Laisser-Faire" as Laetitia Sadier and Hansen's vocal interplay and fuzzed-out keyboards and guitars crest and crash over Ramsay's bashed kit. The 1997 Nurse with Wound collaboration Simple Headphone Mind is another rare gem that transforms the single "The Long Hair of Death" into euphoric, psychedelic motorik. Since Stereolab released so much music, each Switched On collection is essential listening for fans; taken together on Switched On, Vols. 1-5, they make a fascinating, rewarding alternate history of the band's career.

Tracklist
Switched On
1-1 Super Electric 5:21
1-2 Doubt 3:21
1-3 Au Grand Jour' 3:23
1-4 The Way Will Be Opening 4:05
1-5 Brittle 3:43
1-6 Contact 8:14
1-7 Au Grand Jour 3:37
1-8 High Expectation 3:31
1-9 The Light That Will Cease To Fail 3:24
1-10 Changer 4:52

Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2)
2-1 Harmonium 5:55
2-2 Lo Boob Oscillator 6:33
2-3 Mountain 4:05
2-4 Revox 4:14
2-5 French Disko 3:35
2-6 Exploding Head Movie 4:48
2-7 Eloge D'Eros 3:53
2-8 Tone Burst (Country) 2:12
2-9 "Animal Or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason…)" 13:33
2-10 John Cage Bubblegum 3:19
2-11 Sadistic 2:36
2-12 Farfisa 2:23
2-13 Tempter 5:54

Aluminum Tunes (Disk 1) (Switched On Volume 3)
3-1 Pop Quiz 4:20
3-2 The Extension Trip 3:43
3-3 How To Play Your Internal Organs Overnight 3:59
3-4 The Brush Descends The Length 3:08
3-5 Melochord Seventy-Five 3:39
3-6 Space Moment 4:21
3-7 Iron Man 3:27
3-8 The Long Hair Of Death 4:49
3-9 You Used To Call Me Sadness 4:01
3-10 New Orthophony 6:27
3-11 Speedy Car 5:00
3-12 Golden Atoms 5:19
3-13 Ulan Bator 3:15
3-14 One Small Step 4:17

Aluminum Tunes (Disk 2) (Switched On Volume 3)
4-1 One Note Samba / Surfboard 9:10
4-2 Cardiopo 3:10
4-3 Klang Tone 5:37
4-4 Get Carter 3:23
4-5 1000 Miles An Hour 4:32
4-6 Percolations 3:22
4-7 Seeperbold 5:08
4-8 Check And Double Check 4:04
4-9 Munich Madness 3:49
4-10 Metronomic Underground (Wagon Christ Mix) 7:52
4-11 The Incredible He Woman 3:33

Electrically Possessed (Disk 1) (Switched On Volume 4)
5-1 Outer Bongolia 9:29
5-2 Intervals 4:38
5-3 Barock-Plastic 3:17
5-4 Nomus Et Phusis 4:23
5-5 I Feel The Air (Of Another Planet) 8:12
5-6 Household Names 3:43
5-7 Retrograde Mirror Form 6:45
5-8 Solar Throw-Away (Original Version) 3:06
5-9 Pandora's Box Of Worms 2:16
5-10 L'exotisme Intérieur 3:23

Electrically Possessed (Disk 2) (Switched On Volume 4)
6-1 The Super-It 3:51
6-2 Jump Drive Shut-Out 2:43
6-3 Explosante Fixe 4:25
6-4 Fried Monkey Eggs (Instrumental Version) 2:08
6-5 Monkey Jelly 1:54
6-6 B.U.A. 4:51
6-7 Free Witch And No Bra Queen 4:44
6-8 Heavy Denim Loop Pt 2 2:54
6-9 Variation One 4:01
6-10 Monkey Jelly (Beats) 1:53
6-11 Dimension M2 4:03
6-12 Solar Throw-Away 3:59
6-13 Calimero 6:25
6-14 Fried Monkey Eggs (Vocal) 2:08
6-15 Speck Voice

Pulse of the Early Brain (Disk 1) (Switched On Volume 5)
7-1 Stereolab / Nurse With Wound– Simple Headphone Mind 10:46
7-2 Stereolab / Nurse With Wound– Trippin' With The Birds 21:01
7-3 Stereolab– Low Fi 5:22
7-4 Stereolab– (Varoom!) 9:19
7-5 Stereolab– Laisser-Faire 4:35
7-6 Stereolab– Elektro (He Held The World In His Iron Grip) 8:01

Pulse of the Early Brain (Disk 2) (Switched On Volume 5)
8-1 Stereolab– Robot Riot 2:56
8-2 Stereolab– Spool Of Collusion 2:13
8-3 Stereolab– Symbolic Logic Of Now! 4:05
8-4 Stereolab– Forensic Itch 3:06
8-5 Stereolab– Ronco Symphony (Demo) 1:00
8-6 Stereolab– ABC 5:16
8-7 Stereolab– Magne-Music 3:53
8-8 Stereolab– Blaue Milch 4:58
8-9 Stereolab– Yes Sir! I Can Moogie 1:03
8-10 Stereolab– Plastic Mile (Original Version) 6:34
8-11 Stereolab– Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (Feebate Mix) 7:51
8-12 Stereolab– Unity Purity Occasional 2:18
8-13 Stereolab– The Nth Degrees 4:14
8-14 Stereolab– XXXOOO 1:10
8-15 Stereolab– Cybele's Reverie (Live At The Hollywood Bowl) 5:47