Stereolab

Stereolab – Transient Random‐Noise Bursts With Announcements (Expanded Edition) (1993/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:44:44 minutes | 2,08 GB | Genre: Krautrock, Indie Rock, Experimental, Post Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Duophonic – Warp Records

May 3, 2019 sees the start of Stereolab’s seven album reissue campaign when 1993’s ‘Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements’ and 1994’s ‘Mars Audiac Quintet’ are reissued, via Warp Records and Duophonic UHF Disks, as expanded and re-mastered editions on vinyl and compact disc. Each album has been re-mastered from the original 1/2” tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane. Bonus material will include alternate takes, 4 track demos and unreleased mixes.

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Stereolab – The Groop Played Space Age Batchelor Pad Music (1993/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 28:11 minutes | 348 MB | Genre: Krautrock, Space Rock, Indie Rock, Lounge
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Too Pure

The Groop Played Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, an odd and hypnotic mini-album, represents the point where Stereolab ceased to be simply another ultrahip London band. Their twin influences, Neu!-style trance-rock and easy-listening pop, still hadn’t quite fused by this point, existing side-by-side rather than coalescing, but the whole thing sounds smooth and assured, with the charm and confidence of a group well aware they’ve hit on the kind of good idea that’ll last them for years. They made better records than Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, but this is where it really began, and it has a freshness and life of its own. –Taylor Parkes

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Stereolab – Sound-Dust [Expanded Edition] (2001/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:24:32 minutes | 1,67 GB | Genre: Post Rock, Indie Rock, Experimental
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Duophonic – Warp Records

‘ Remastered from original tapes. ‘ Bonus disk of unreleased demos, outtakes and alternate mixes. ‘ Co-released by band’s own label Duophonic UHF Disks and Warp Records. ‘ Fold-out poster insert with lyrics and sleevenotes from Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane.

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Stereolab – Margerine Eclipse [Expanded Edition] (2003/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:33:42 minutes | 1,96 GB | Genre: Electronic, Downtempo
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Duophonic – Warp Records

‘Remastered from original tapes. ‘ Bonus disk of unreleased demos, outtakes and alternate mixes. ‘ Co-released by band’s own label Duophonic UHF Disks and Warp Records. ‘ Fold-out poster insert with lyrics and sleevenotes from Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane. ‘ LP in bespoke gatefold sleeve with DL card, housed inside a heavyweight clear PVC wallet.

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Stereolab – Electrically Possessed [Switched On Volume 4] (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:44:26 minutes | 2,13 GB | Genre: Electronic, Downtempo
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Duophonic

The fourth in the Switched On series that compiles non-album tracks and sought after deep cuts by the groop. Following on from the first volume released in 1992, 1995’s Refried Ectoplasm, and 1998’s Aluminum Tunes, the long-awaited fourth installment spans 1999 – 2008 in the Stereolab story and collates 3 LPs worth of material, all remastered from the original tapes and overseen by the band. It features all the tracks from out-of-print and sought after mini-album The First Of The Microbe Hunters, one-off and impossible to find tour 7″s, compilation tracks, art installation work and a couple of unreleased outtakes from the Mars Audiac Quintet and Dots and Loops recording sessions.

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Stereolab – Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (Expanded Edition) (1999/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:00:18 minutes | 2,39 GB | Genre: Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Duophonic – Warp Records

September 6, 2019 sees the continuation of Stereolab’s seven album reissue campaign when 1996’s ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’, 1997’s ‘Dots and Loops’ and 1999’s ‘Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night’ are reissued, via Warp Records and Duophonic UHF Disks, as expanded and re-mastered editions on vinyl and compact disc. Each album has been re-mastered from the original 1/2” tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane. Bonus material will include alternate takes, 4 track demos and unreleased mixes.These reissues follow 1993’s ‘Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements’ and 1994’s ‘Mars Audiac Quintet’ which received Expanded Editions earlier in 2019.

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Stereolab – Low Fi (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 27:17 minutes | 605 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Too Pure

Low Fi is the third EP by English-French rock band Stereolab, released in September 1992 by Too Pure. The title of the final track “Elektro (He Held the World in His Iron Grip)” is taken from the cover of the thirteenth issue of the comic book Tales of Suspense, released in 1961. It is the first Stereolab release to feature longtime drummer Andy Ramsay and backing vocalist Mary Hansen, who stayed with the band until her death in 2002. The EP was compiled on physical releases of Pulse of the Early Brain.

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Stereolab – Pulse Of The Early Brain [Switched On Volume 5] (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:27:19 minutes | 1,82 GB | Genre: Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Duophonic UHF Disks – Warp Records

Whereas earlier editions cleanly wrapped up singles, EP tracks, compilations appearances, and other non-album effluvia of a specific era, Pulse of the Early Brain, the fifth installment of Stereolab’s odds-and-sods series spans almost the entirety of the band’s original, pre-2019 reunion existence, making for a notably less sonically cohesive collection. And, as if to forewarn casual listeners that this edition of Switched On is not for the faint of heart, the first 30-plus minutes are just two tracks, both of which are motorik jams recontextualized by/with Nurse With Wound. Despite their length and unapologetic weirdness, though, “Simple Headphone Mind” and “Trippin’ With The Birds” are some of the bravest and most rewarding chunks of space-rock you’ll ever hear. Though Pulse of the Early Brain seems to be a final clearinghouse effort to collect random remains into a relatively tidy package some of the material is nonetheless just as refreshing as that of the first four volumes, whether due to rarity or revelation. After the first half-hour, you’ll remember why these compilations have been so essential for Stereolab fans, as the set bounces around from late-era space-pop (2008’s “Spool of Collusion”), grinding paleo-psychedelia (a 1996 cover of “ABC,” from the Godz’ third album), a previously unreleased live track (“Cybele’s Reverie,” recorded at the Hollywood Bowl in 2004, when the band opened for Air), and a mixed bag of buried rarities (“Robot Riot” is part of the second collaboration the group did with sculptor Charles Long) and true castaways (a minute-long split-single track called “Yes Sir! I Can Moogie” which is a truncated and stripped-back version of “Moogie Wonderland”).

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