Stereolab
Aluminum Tunes (Switched On, Volume 3) (Drag City)
by Nik Rainey
At the rate Stereolab pumps out these rarities collections, one has to wonder whether the Marx-Moogs-and-magic collective allows themselves any sleep. (Granted, a few of the songs on this two-disc set sound as if they may have been written while under the influence of Morpheus, but they’ve mastered their dominion so well that even the pre-sets on their keyboards are pretty engaging.) Aluminum Tunes revisits the overspill left over from their Mars Audiac Quintet/Emperor Tomato Ketchup period, including radically different versions of tracks from those albums, limited-edition single sides, the heretofore unreleased, and the entire contents of the Music for the Amorphous Body Center EP (incidental music commissioned for an art installation).
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