Stereolab – Crumb Duck

I own this version of the PDO UK, which normally produced "bronzing" CD. Yet it still looks ok... What about your copy?

This CD is a collection of oddities that is probably one of the less essential Nurse With Wound works of the '90s. The disc opens with both sides of the 'Steel Dream March of the Metal Men' 7", both outtakes from Thunder Perfect Mind which can be picked up on both Large Ladies With Cake in the Oven/Sinister Whimsy for the Wretched, and on the expanded version of Thunder Perfect Mind.

The main draw here comes in the form of both tracks from the 10" of the same name by Nurse With Wound & Stereolab. Steven Stapleton was drafted in to potentially produce some new Stereolab material. It's not clear entirely what happened, but it seems not that much got recorded, and what did came out under both artists' names. The material has its fans, but for me, Stapleton himself sums it up talking about the wider availability of krautrock in the late '90s: "they don't have to listen to fucking Stereolab - listen to Neu!, listen to where Stereolab ripped off all their ideas from."

The disc closes with 'New Dress', previously available on the first Automating CD. All in all, a fairly inessential collection, for completists as far as Nurse With Wound records go.

On this release, some reverb has seemingly been added to "The Dadda's Intoxication" in what appears to be an attempt to mask the fact that it was sourced from a vinyl rip of the earlier ClawFist release. Clicks and pops can be heard despite the added effect(s).