The highlight of this compilation is the band’s 2000 EP The First of the Microbe Hunters. Primarily made up of work Stereolab released from 1999 until their initial hiatus in 2009, this compilation is a bounty of highlights from a rich period when Tim Gane was writing pop songs with multi-layered, almost-proggy arrangements to better support frontwoman Lætitia Sadier’s dense sociopolitical lyrics. Bouncy fan favorite “Lo Boob Oscillator” first appeared on a 1993 single on Sub Pop, and the lush soundtrack Stereolab created for sculptor Charles Long’s exhibition The Amorphous Body Study Center was originally only available to purchase at New York’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. The sneaky secret that these comps keep revealing is that the group often dropped some of their best work away from their full-lengths. Stereolab released three such collections through the ’90s and, to cap off their recent run of deluxe album reissues, have put together a fourth volume, subtitled Electrically Possessed.
The band gathered up this non-LP material for a series called Switched On. Stereolab’s discography is littered with singles, limited-release EPs, and compilation appearances-manna for their fellow vinyl junkies. But the label also applies to the group’s approach to releasing its own music. In his book Retromania, writer (and occasional Pitchfork contributor) Simon Reynolds called Stereolab “the ultimate record-collection rockers” to describe their crate-digging, obscurantist aesthetic.