24/12/08 - new Amorphous alternative versions

Thanks to Dell1972 on the forums for spotting some new track info on the Amorphous MySpace. A "new" track, 'His Motherness', is present, albeit simply an alternative version of 'The Emptiness Of Nothingness' (which, in a world of '-ness'ness, was originally called 'The Otherness', of course). Continuing the trend, it is credited as being from a 2009 release called 'The Outerness'. Another one to add to the list, alongside 2012, The New Love Poetry, Wobbly Oozescapes, Amorphik Alternatives and the Isness re-release. There's also a new mix of E'lysian Feels', and an edit of 'High Tide On The Sea Of Flesh'. And, in an unexpected move, an already released mix of Mello Hippo (the Abbey Road version, this time).
Time will tell on the new releases, we suppose.

Elsewhere on MySpace, you can hear a clip of the first Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble CD being previewed on Radio 1 on the MPB MySpace. There is apparently a Yage MySpace, although no music has been uploaded and there's not been a login since March! And that's about it.

05/12/08 - Gaz on Radio 1 in the forthcoming weeks

Gaz has posted the following on the Amorphous MySpace...

A MONSTROUS PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE . .our DJ mix compilation NOW RELEASED was eulogised about by Rob da Bank on BBC Radio 1 last Sunday . . .

Our majordomo Gaz Cobain is to be a guest in forthcoming weeks to talk about the parallel worlds of Monstrous / AA/ FSOL . . .we'll let you know . . .


listen to the BBC hype=UP here !!

http://www. myspace. com/amonstrouspsychedelicbubble

If you're digging MONSTROUS as a concept then make sure you become a friend of the myspace listed above cos as the project expands that's where the news about it will occur .. events/ new releases/broadcasts etc . . . . .

26/11/08 - Pod Room errors

Brian has informed us that due to the immense size of the files downloading each day, The Pod Room is currently under a little strain and customers may be having trouble downloading files. If you have had an error, reply to the link email and bug Brian about it - he says he'll be getting around to sorting out all errors found.

23/11/08 - New tracks on Environments 2

Groovedis have the first proper info on Environments 2 - on their page it's described as "an epic album featuring 14 tracks (2 of which are brand new) of strings, choirs, cellos, light beats and more." Glacier 1 & 2, A Corner, Colour-Blind and Journey To The Centre are known to be older pieces, so two of the other nine are entirely new recordings. We don't know which yet, maybe it'll say in the sleeve. Hopefully it won't be too long to wait until they come in the post!

21/11/08 - some articles, EBS3 gets a second outing

Have a read of a couple of articles promoting the Psych Bubble CD (out in all good retailers on Monday). First up we have Gaz talking about psychedelia - the opening stuff is from the CD booklet, but it features a nice list of recommended albums. Secondly, Gaz again talks about music - this time the most important 36 albums to him. You can download these as image files here and here (note: big files!). The album itself is getting some rave reviews so far.

And for the pointless news completists out there, the Electric Brainstorms 3 sessions (premiered on Frisky Radio a few weeks ago and available in all good Pod Rooms) was played on Proton Radio on the 17th, and thus will be available to download and stream from their on-demand service.

15/11/08 - Opening of The Pod Room

Last night saw the opening of The Pod Room, FSOL's online transmission site. Available for puchase and download now are all of the band's Kiss FM mixes, Electric Brainstorm sessions, Essential Mixes and Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble shows. Included among these is the now infamous Electric Brainstorms 3, the three hour show originally intended for broadcast on PBS radio. This show features new FSOL recordings (as opposed to archives), along with some unreleased EMS:Piano and Zeebox material.
Check out the Podroom at FSOLDigital.com now!

12/11/08 - Pod room and shows, Zed Storm?

Our friendly FSOL-friend Mason Bentley, on the boards, has given us a tracklist for the second Electric Brainstorm mix (the postponed three hour show), which runs a little like this:

01. The Future Sound of London - Heart Sick

02. 801 - Brocken Head

03. Fizzarum - Phut Of Plex

04. Pierre Henry - Erotica

05. Pauline Oliveros - Processions

06. Luc Ferrari - Presque Rien

07. The Advisory Circle - Hocusing For Beginners

08. Nurse With Wound - Russolo

09. Herbert Elmert - Klangstudie II

10. EMS:PIANO - The Suitcase

11. The Future Sound of London - Environments 2

12. Focus - Anonymous Two

13. Ennio Morricone - Ninna Per Adulteri

14. Brian Eno & David Byrne - Two Against Three

15. Bruce Haack - Electric To Me Turn

16. Throbbing Gristle - Lyre Liar

17. Morton Feldham - Voice + Cello

18. Andy Fairley - Jack The Biscuit

19. The Supsonic - Mach 2.2

20. EMS:PIANO - The Vessel

21. The Future Sound of London - Somewhere (Archived)

22. The Future Sound of London - Tudor Oak (Manor Farm)

23. Mary St John - Angular Reflectance Characteristics

24. Zeebox - Clik Clik

25. 90˚ South - Citroen DS

26. Malcolm Clarke - Bath Time

27. Cevinkey - Blotter

28. Twilight Circus Dub Sound System - Carosel

29. To Rococo Rot - Eisfeld

30. Clyde Port Authority - Dredgers

31. Bernard Parmegiani - ?

32. Zeebox - Open Head Surgery

33. The Future Sound of London - Environments 2

34. Mordant Music - Ghost Ship

35. Robin Saville - Colin The Lazy Cormorant Part 1

36. FS Blumm - Binsen And Bast

37. Yage - Til We Meet Again

38. John Cage - Imaginary Landscape No 1

39. Focus Group - Leaving Through

40. Jazkamer - Live @ Super

41. Matmos - Rainbow Flag

42. Monstrance - I Lovely Cosmonaut

43. Vashti Bunyan - Pink Sugar Elephants

44. Delia Derbyshire - Mattchin

45. Faust & Nurse with Wound - Lass Mich

46. Zeebox - Minimal Wave

47. Nel Mondo de Lavoro - Calcolatore Electtronico

48. The Coma Lillies - 4

49. Pan Sonic - Fugal Force

50. Proem - Cold Water

51. Belbury Poly - New Mobility

52. Second Thought - Street

53. Funckarma - Atmodion Drake

54. The Future Sound of London - A Corner

55. Land Of Nod - The Land Of Nod (Sunrise)

56. Neu - emusik

57. Sunburned Hand of the Man - Nice Butterfly Mask

58. Clyde Port Authority - Stand Still

59. The Future Sound of London - Distant Nebulus

60. The Future Sound of London - Environments 2

61. The Future Sound of London - Turned

62. Monsterism Music Library

63. Daniel Pemberton - ?

64. The Future Sound of London - Yage (Bejing)

65. Zeebox - Heavily Involved With Drugs

So, what can we say about this tracklist? Well, it was promised to contain some new FSOL material, and it's highly likely the opening track is newly recorded - Turned is also a title new to us, so it's possible unheard material. There are also unreleased Zeebox tracks from Heavily Involved With Drugs) and EMS:Piano tracks, which are curiously credited to Dougans/Cobain, despite the project initially seeming to be a Dougans solo work.

The tracks labelled simply as Environments 2 suggest the set was most likely constructed while the album was intended to be '3 parts - 59 minutes' as opposed to the 14 track version we're familiar with now. Although this means A Corner wasn't originally intended for the album... confusion once more. Elsewhere we have Somewhere (Archived), again suggest From The Archives Vol 6, even though only five were planned. These tracks just keep appearing! 1997 track Tudor Oak has resurfaced too, although it is currently unknown whether the manor farm suffix refers to a sub-title or an album it's from. Time will (may) tell. Yage (Bejing) is another mytsery track, whether this will be a remix of Yage or a new track or a Yage track remains to be seen - and speaking of Yage, there's an unreleased track, probably from the Woodlands of Old sessions, called Til We Meet Again. Monsterism Music Library is likely to be FSOL-related (or Dougans, at least), with the link to Pete Fowler's Monsterism cartoon and possible soundtrack to the forthcoming series. The final tracks to watch are the Clyde Port Authority, which are credited to A W Dougans (possibly Alan Dougans), the CPA name has appeared in mailings to our site from Brian himself!

The rest of the show features a lot of early experimental electronic and avant-garde artists alongside some more contemporary industrial and ambient, with a few trademark psych and prog tracks, and some stuff we've not heard of.

This show is only coming to The Pod Room. If you're as excited by the tracklist as we are, you'll be happy to hear this won't be long - The Pod Room is in the process of being transferred and will be with is in the very near future. Watch this space!

RONXTO on our forum has spoken to someone who has heard what is rumoured to be new FSOL material. Only the name Zed Storm has appeared, and we are told features an acid bassline and breakbeats. Zed Storm may be a song title or a new alias, maybe we shall see!

Right, I've wasted enough office time, back to work...

11/11/08 - Release dates and links

CDs are, apparently, in the post, but here's some release dates for you:

Environments II and From The Archives 5 are available in the shops from 5th January 2009. Of possible mild interest is the artwork: Environments II seems to feature the identical cover to the one on FSOLDigital (with the different font the normal), while Archive 5's cover seems to have reverted its writing to mixed font, making it out of place with the other archive releases, but fitting with the Freeze Magazine CD and Envrionments 1, perhaps a sign of artwork to come?

Those who haven't spotted the first volume of A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble under AA or FSOL, this may be because it's listed on some sites as Various Artists (annoyingly), but a search for the title should give results.

The Royal Mail seem to have mislaid our copy of the latter for the moment, but word from the forum reveals a five page ramble from Mr. Cobain in the booklet, which goes on to mention him arriving at the end of his voyage of discovery at the end of last year - which seems to have gone some of the way towards the re-emergence of the FSOL moniker. With every revelation it really does seem a new Future Sound of London album is hurtling in our direction (albeit a relatively slow hurtle...). We'll post some more snippets from the booklet if anything else interesting turns up!

06/11/08 - Out now and coming soon!

Just a quickie - according to FSOLdigital, A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble is now available for puchase, priced at £11.50. Furthermore, expect those other new CD releases (Environments II and Archive 5) pre-ordered from the site to arrive in the next week or so. And to finish up, The Pod Room is nearly upon us - keep your eyes open for that!

27/10/08 - Environments II, Archives 5 CDs, tour?

After six CDs already this year and the first Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble CD in a few weeks, we've been spoiled. So what better to follow this up than with two more CD releases? Environments II (CDTOT62) and From The Archives Vol. 5 (CDTOT63) are available for pre-order on FSOLDigital.com, with a 'mid November' release date there, so we're probably looking at December for full shop sales (we'll confirm once we know!). Promos are floating around on eBay already.

More excitingly, Mason Bentley says simply "FSOL World Tour: standby for announcement". We'll keep you informed...

17/10/08 - Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble 1 tracklist

Here you go:

Tracklist
CD1
01. Donovan - Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)
02. Chiitra Neogy - The Perfumed Garden - The Encouragement of the Lusty Wife
03. Heaven And Earth - Feel the Spirit
04. Osibisa - Blank Ant
05. Pop Levi - Blue Honey
06. Yellow Moon Band - Entangled
07. The Earlies - Breaking Point
08. Betty Davis - If I'm in Luck (I Might Get Picked Up)
09. Mountain Machine - Mountain Machine
10. Henry Roland - After All
11. Paul Giovanni - Maypole
12. Ian Neal - Kingdom of the Birds
13. The Amorphous Androgynous - Light Beyond Sound
14. Bob Downes - Tunnels Electronic
15. Can - Flow Motion
16. The Cosmic Wizards’ Club Band - Musashi
17. Espers - Mansfield and Cyclops
18. Cranium Pie - There It Is Part 2
19. Miles Davis - Rated X
20. Psychonauts - Circles
21. Pentangle - Light Flight
22. Friends Of Dean Martinez - Wichita Lineman
23. The Amorphous Androgynous - The Lovers
24. The Amorphous Androgynous - Opus of the Black Sun

CD2
01. Tommy Graham - Sahajiya
02. Cranium Pie - Awakening of the Birds
03. Cranium Pie - Drying in the Sun
04. Nick Nicely - 49 Cigars
05. Chiitra Neogy - The Perfumed Garden - The Encouragement of the Lusty Wife
06. Donovan - Riki Tiki Tavi
07. Devendra Banhart - Lazy Butterfly
08. Mahavishnu Orchestra - You Know, You Know
09. Hariprasad Chaurasia - Manzh Khamaz Teental
10. Tim Buckley - I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain
11. The Emperor Machine - Roller Daddy
12. Mahagon - Dívka s Jablky
13. Lord Sitar - I Am the Walrus
14. Wizards of Ooze - Helga
15. Tommy James and The Shondells - Cellophane Symphony
16. Hawkwind - Silver Machine
17. Magic Carpet - The Phoenix
18. David Axelrod - The Mental Traveler
19. Werkraum - Queen Mab
20. Shweta Javeri - Heart of Darkness

15/10/08 - FSOL to play 'live' at Bloc Weekend next year

Yes, the band's first live show since the Essential Festival some ten years ago,
The Future Sound of London will be broadcasting a live performance to BLOC, a weekend festival on the west coast of England, 13th-15th March 2009. Check out more information here.

This is all very exciting news, not only because of the performance, but what it suggests. As this appears to be a live show rather than a DJ set, is there new material round the corner for them to play? Either way, with several months away, there's a lot of speculating time.

14/10/08 - Amorphous on Donovan film, Psych Bubble snippets

Mr. Cobain writes...

Always a pleasure indeed (!) to hear from the Sunshine Superman himself, 'Donovan'... so last week when the Amorphous were invited to the Hampstead premiere of a new film celebrating the life and career of said psychedelic minstrel of course we duly attended... we were regaled with over 2 hrs of stories charting this man's amazing journey. Initially hailed as 'the British Dylan', Donovan justifiably carved out his own VERY special place in the musical lexicon (and rightly so!)... with his own unique brand of zen beat psych jazz funk bohemia and that's before you get onto mystical rockfolk and excursions into eastern promise! This man's music is as vast as the cosmos he is clearly tuned to! From the Maharishi to teaching John Lennon the Dear Prudence finger picking guitar style to drug busts and forays into transcendental states to American No1s to Led Zep being his backing band its quite a story! We didn't want to ask if we were in it (cos we vaguely remember a camera ghosting around when we worked together) so we were pleasantly surprised and honored when our faces duly popped out at us from the silver screen...
So here's a snippet where we hang with THE MaaaaaaN himself and work on a new rendition of a track that had previously appeared on the Isness called 'Divinity'!!

After the film Don's wife hugged Gaz and thanked him for the burdock root he had thrust into Don's hand as he climbed into a black cab leaving the Galaxial Pharmaceutical (our studio of the time). Don had looked bemused at the sight of the muddy root vegetable in his hand and so Gaz had said '"your wife will know what to do with it!". Well it seems she did... as she told him last week she dried it and put it on the altar and has been munching a small amount DAILY ever since and as you'll see she looks wonderful... (Now could that be the burdock root we wonder ha ha!)

Incidentally we have licensed a couple of Donovan trax for the upcoming 'A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind Vol 1- Cosmic Space Music' album which is a DJ journey that we have compiled and mixed that will be released on Nov 24th on Platipus Records. This has taken well over a year to bring together... such is the complexity (and insanity) and (did anyone mention) bureauocracy of licensing departments and record companies.
Anyway TIS DONE and tis sounding grande and charts over 40 years of psychedelic cosmic space music and IN THE PROCESS reclaims the psychedelic word from the annuls of history and the lingo of marketing men to return it to its original and grander original transformative origins to show how the spirit is truly vibrant and alive NOW NOW!! HOW could it not be with the triple helix in development an all!!
From Mahavishnu Orchestra to Miles Davis to Can to Devendra Banhart to Lord Sitar to the maaAN Donovan to Amorphous and too many others to mention (over 40 tracks) tis truly a sonic feast!! We are currently in talks to host events on the Monstrous Bubble theme so keep it locked in an incredibly loose way!!

Multidimensional love

the Automobile Association

08/10/08 - Monstrous press release

Lots more news on the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble release for you all!

From http://www.electricroulette.com/2008/10/amorphous-andro.html

"Are you aware of Amorphous Androgynous? You should be for two reasons. One - We've spoke about 'em before and, Two - It's the mighty Future Sound of London doing stuff under a different name. Now, if that's all news to you, don't worry, we ain't gonna get all Record Shop on you. It's cool. If you're interested, pull up a chair and we'll fill you in. Do what we do and borrow the information and pass it on like you knew about it all along.

Anyway. Amorphous Androgynous are Gaz Cobain and Brian Douglas of FSOL, moving away from the electronics and into psychedelic cosmic prog rock. Of course, it's not that clear cut as the two bands cross over... I mean, it's not like FSOL never used live instruments and AA certainly stick their sitars through the circuits... but FSOL don't feel as 'live' as Amorphous. And it's 'live' where we're at...

Amorphous Andorgynous are releasing the brilliantly titled ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind’, which for my money, sounds as tripped out as any Gong release! I like it! Well, the LP is an ISDN show that Amorphous Androgynous broadcast on XFM and KISS FM, has become something of a legend between fans and it extremely hard to come by these days even on the web.

Now, it's set for release as a double mix CD on December 1st (via Platipus Records) and the mix is set to re-generate the excitement around the Cosmic Space Music concept and finally make the music available to the fans while aiming to re-create the essence of the mix... essentially, a DJ trip spanning over 4 decades of genre-busting music featuring artists such as Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Donovan, Devendra Banhart, Tim Buckley, Hawkwind, Magic Carpet, Can, Emperor Machine, Pop Levi, The Earlies, The Psychonauts, Betty Davis and more. Whaddalineup!

‘Mostrous Psychedelic Bubble’ will form a series of mix albums with the next one compiled and mixed by FSOL (Future Sound of London). Get that!"


No news on a tracklist - will this match a previous mix or will it be exclusive? - but it's definitely out on November 24th and the press is spreading.

Rich from Platipus adds these snippets:

"It's actually still 24th Nov for physcial CD release ...... Dec 1st - that was just a press thing. CD should be available a couple of weeks before this exclusively from our site www.platipus.com, and hopefully as digital from http://stores.d-igital.eu/platipus/. As of 25th Nov it should be available digitally from Itunes and the usual digital sites."

And RE: the second mix in the series: "well I'm yet to get a tracklist from Brian, the AA mix took 2 years to license the tracks, I'm hoping the FSOL one will be out before the summer 2009"

So there you go!

29/09/08 - Psych Bubble release date.

Thanks for RONTXO for the exciting news of finally having a release date for A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble vol. 1, mixed by The Amorphous Androgynous: 24th November 2008, on Platipus records. No word on a tracklist yet, but at two months away we shouldn't have to wait too long to find out what's in store, hopefully.

26/09/08 - Frisky Radio show

This afternoon it was the turn of Frisky Radio to host a FSOL show, which we are tentatively calling The Electric Brainstorm Volume II (unconfirmed). Similar in style to the first volume, it's more of a mix set than an ISDN tour-era FSOL broadcast. There's some interesting stuff in there, as you will see...

To Rococo Rot - Freitag
Legaic - Mings Feaner
Onstrance - Chaingang
Chris Carter - Slomo
Marne Nordheim - Colorazione
Max Richter - Cathodes
Jonny Greenwood - Clockwork Tin Soldiers
Max Ritcher - This Picture Of Us
The Future Sound of London - Summers Dream
Elite Barbarian - Soft Remind
Cassette Boy - ?
The Advisory Circle - The Old Schoolhouse
Implog - Holland Tunnel Drive
The Future Sound of London - Open Window (Taken From The Jazz Mags)
Zakir Hussian - Jan Garbarck
Can - ?
Stephen Mallinder - Del Sol
The Future Sound of London - Viewed From Above

So, new FSOL material in there. Summers Dream has no 'taken from' credit, unike the others, so we're unsure. Maybe new, maybe Archive 6, maybe 2" Tape Reels.
Open Window bares the Jazz Mags parentheses. Whether this is part of the title or a forthcoming release is unknown. And of course Viewed From Above, for those of you who don't have Environments II yet.

Nice, as ever, to see FSOL collaborators and friends in there (Max Richter and Legaic this time around), and some interesting choices - there's some psych rock choices from Amorphous popping in there, and some beautifully obscure tracks like the Implog piece to go along with.

At only 45 minutes it's not the three hour show we're desperate to hear, but it's an interesting an enjoyable set and contains a couple of exciting mystery tracks. MP3s are already doing their rounds...

22/09/08 - Frisky Radio, Film Remix and Psych Bubble updates.

A quick run through what we've got at the moment:

1.

Yeah, don't forget about this on Friday, 2PM GMT. Brian informs us about a subscription service, as far as we can tell from friskyradio.com this is for on demand and download and it may be available to listen live for free. If it's missed, the show will be on The Pod Room once it opens.

2. Thanks to Ceeg for the endless research and help, this time he's come up with some interesting facts about the Sh film project. From http://www.breakthrufilms.co.uk/uk/films/sh/

Future Sound of London will takes us deeper, beyond the realm of rationale and reason, with their Sh “remix”, a 45-60 minute set featuring FSOL’s Audio-Visual Remix of the Film with an Extended Soundscape. The Sh remix is the centrepiece of a range of Music Based Audio-Visual Content that form a part of the Sh Experience (distributed on–line, in-stores and performed live as part of the theatrical premiere and music festivals, where we will seed the Sh Pod: Experience the Disease).

A very, very interesting sounding project and good to see the guys heading off into strange, unknown lands once again!

3. The last thing we read, A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble... Exploding In Your Mind volume 1, compiled and mixed by The Amorphous Androgynous was out in October on Platipus. That's still all we know, and with the release deadline nearing it might be another setback. Who knows! In the meantime, here's a jolly nice cover shot in larger detail for you...


Yes, that is a person morphing into a tree. Yes, we are scared too.

19/09/08 - Cobain, Amorphous, Live, Not Live

Yes, once again we've only found out about a live performance at the last minute - in this case, Gaz Cobain performing (no idea, probably a DJ set) at Reworks 2008 in Greece. Tomorrow. 20th September.
Read about it here if you wish.
Secondly, a gentleman by the name of Virgil Howe, who you may remember from the current Amorphous lineup, is playing in London soon. His promoters have billed it as The Future Sound of London. It is not. Amorphous obsessives may wish to note Dave Sanderson, AA's second vocalist, will be perfoming on some of his songs. This is all happening on 4th October at 93 ft East on Brick Lane in London.

More excitingly, he also informs me 'Hopefully we'll be doing a London show soon as the group'. This is likely to be the long rumoured Amorphous UK show this year. Keep your fingers crossed we find out a little sonner than that Greek performance!

Oh, and By Any Other Name/The Woodlands Of Old CDs are being shipped from FSOLDigital now, so get buying. BAON's artwork interestingly mentions something under the name 'Yage: The Movie' from 1993. This may ring bells with longtime fans. No information about it, mind.

30/08/08 - FSOL working on a film remix.

In this slightly confusing article, we find out that FSOL are working on a film with innovative production company Breakthru Films. It is not known exactly what the collaboration will entail, be it a soundtrack or actual film work. The article states:
"Breakthru’s forthcoming feature-length horror Sh – a collaboration with the band The Future Sound of London (FSOL) – will embrace creative and integrated approaches to marketing. There’ll be a tent installation at summer music festivals, offering an additional perspective that will add to people’s experience of the film. FSOL is also producing a musical remix of the film."
It all sounds incredibly interesting, and of course the phrase "the band The Future Sound of London" is always a lovely phrase to hear - what with continuing speculation from fans about the possibility of future material - but we can't help but wonder exactly what a musical remix of a film is going to be like.
Only time will tell, so keep your eyes open!

29/08/08 - Release dates for Yage and By Any Other Name!

A quick addendum to the previous update: HMV.co.jp have updated their site with release dates for By Any Other Name and The Woodlands Of Old: they are both out on 13th October 2008. The former is CDTOT61 and the latter CDTOT60.

29/08/08 - new live and radio shows, new releases!

Hello. FSOL are back and hitting us with a lot of stuff at once again.
First up, an incredibly short notice about the next live Amorphous Androgynous show: Moscow on August 31st. Online translation sites give the following information: The garden the Hermitage Moscow the Russian Federation in Moscow. Wherever that is. The lineup is:
Garry (Gaz) Cobain - electronics, vocal
Alisha Sufit - vocal
Dave Sanderson - vocal, percussoin
Gary Lucas - guitars
Virgil Howe - drums
Baluji Shrivastav - sitar, vocal
Dianne Harris - video projections
Or you can read it in Russian here.
Number 2. FSOL on Frisky Radio. Here's a straight copy of what's said on the forum:
Dj KiRA (of protonradio fame) has managed to track down FSOL once again and they will be performing an 'exclusive guest mix' on his other show, "The Genre Show" on Frisky Radio.

Show starts 2pm UK time | Friday, Sept 26

For those of you with Facebook, the event is here:

http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=28292746639

Hopefully we'll get more information nearer the time.

Third up: new on FSOLDigital!
The Pod Room is now coming soon and promises 'Transmissions, radio shows, live shows and live feeds'.
New release number 1 is the long-promised From The Archives vol. 5. This time we've got what looks like a final release cover, lining up nicely with the other four volumes. Included are a number of unheard gems, alongside some of those long-awaited 1997 sessions (Peel, Fun and Mixing It), including an unheard mix of The Shining Path, Dead Cities era favourite G Eletro, and links between almost all tracks, making it sound the most rounded of the five archives so far. It's a very, very solid release and makes the series stronger and stronger.
01. Sendero Luminoso
02. A Sweltering Heat
03. Exploded Funk
04. Private Psyche And Inner Life
05. The Exhibition
06. Yashica
07. Tif Feetal
08. Distant Memories
09. Darkness At Noon
10. Vacuum
11. Fat Spat
12. Tokyo Travel
13. Water Hole

We're never sure how opinionated to make this news section seem, but screw it: Environments II is phenomenal. The other digital release today, the album is truly epic, with strings, choirs, sea sounds, light beats and everything that made the first Environments album great, just one step up. Split into fourteen tracks, including contributions from Max Richter, Daniel Pemberton, Chris Margory, Robert Fripp, Colin Bell and Will White, the album also contains previously heard samples, Glaciar Part 2 is the guitar and percussion track from Mixing It '97, and there's also a reworking of Vit Drowning in there. Anyway, it comes highly recommended, and could work its way up to being an absolute FSOL classic.
01. Viewed From Above
02. Glacier (Part 1)
03. Serengeti
04. Colour Blind
05. A Corner
06. Newfoundland
07. North Arctic
08. Factories And Assembly
09. Ice Formed
10. Small Town
11. Nearly Home
12. Boca Manu
13. Journey To The Centre
14. Glacier (Part 2)


By Any Other Name has a new cover! Or some colours, at least, for its CD release. Yage's The Woodlands Of Old has the same cover. Both are being released on disc - Jumpin' & Pumpin', no doubt - in September, so FSOLDigital predicts. Looks like expensive times are ahead!

And rest.

26/07/08 - PBS on hold, Pod Room, and a thank you.

Thanks to Ceeg and AS Cob for this one - it looks like the PBS transmission, Electric Brain Storm 2, isn't happening just yet. Brian has confirmed it's on hold, apparently because of licensing problems.
Some of you on the forums may remember I mentioned a possibility of old transmissions making a reappearance in the future - the project has now been given a name, 'The Pod Room', where the band's old mixes and transmissions will be available for download. Obviously a project like this is pretty complex so please no requests for when it's going to happen, let's just wait.

To end on a lovely note, here's Brian's take on the 15,000+ sales of the Archives series:
"the FSOLdigital platform has performed very well - we are delighted that people still dig us - we dig you all too"

23/07/08 - Those CD releases

So, Environments is finally out on CD (unless you preordered on FSOLDigital, where copies were sent last week anyway). It's an exciting moment in FSOL history, to hold a copy of Environments in your hands. What can we say about the disc? Not much, really. The artwork is more cityscape based than perhaps the music suggests, but it all looks fabulous, and the spine and back artwork reference the disc as Environments¹, just in case people weren't aware of the forthcoming volumes. The credits are in the same position as on the archive releases, interestingly.

The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness is on CD from this coming Monday, although FSOLDigital preorders have been sent out already. The artwork is a little more... well, Amorphous Androgynous, really, with an array of bizarre fonts and strange layouts. Lyrics are present for all songs except Rocket Fuel.
Of most interest is something we've been discussing over on the forum, which is the 'Other AA albums available at fsoldigital.com' page. Alongside The Isness, The Mello Hippo Disco Show, The Isness & The Otherness and Alice In Ultraland are four apparently forthcoming releases. The first is 'A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Vol 1 - Cosmic Space Music' (which should be out in October on Platipus, we believe), but after that we're entering new territory: The New Love Poetry, 2012 and Wobbly Oozescapes. They all have cover art. Maybe one is the Amorphous Archives disc. Maybe it'll be the next Environments and they'll be release in 2022. Only time shall tell.

Oh, and congrats to the guys for selling over 15,000 copies of the Archives series on disc so far!

07/07/08 - The Peppermint Tree press release, information

We're not entirely sure exactly which label The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness is being released on. Various websites have given us Pinnacle (Jumpin' & Pumpin's distribution company) and Passion (J&P's publishers), but the catalogue number for the release is FSOLD005, which would suggest Future Sound Of London Recordings has been resurrected for the release. We'll see by the 28th.

Here's a bit more information about the disc as shown on recordstore.co.uk:
The Amorphous Androgynous is the psychedelic rock-tronic supergroup created and produced by The Future Sound Of London. Born out of a desire to balance the cutting edge production techniques they had become famous for as FSOL with the live free flowing musical improvisational performances of a vast array of musicians they had met along the way of recording TOP 10 FSOL albums like 'Lifeforms' (1993) and Top 20 album 'Dead Cities' (1996) the Amorphous project gradually evolved and took on a life of its own from 1997 onwards.

Building on the success of their previous albums; 'The Isness' (2001) and 'Alice In Ultraland' (released in 2005 on the infamous EMI Harvest label which brought us Pink Floyd) they release 'The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness' this year (2008) an epic post -modern psychedelic concept album.

'The Peppermint Tree...' features the legendary guitar skills of erstwhile Jeff Buckley and Captain Beefheart collaborator Gary Lucas along with keyboards by maestro Mikey Rowe (Oasis, Sheryl Crowe, Rolling Stones) and eastern promise by sitar guru Baluji Shrivastav plus orchestrations by Max Richter (Vashti Bunyan) and the vocals of 70s soul diva Linda Lewis along with FSOL (Gaz Cobain and Brain Dougans) themselves strumming and singing but all the while with one hand on the mixing desk.

The result is an album evoking the lysergicWith a tour of Russia in Aug/Sept 2008 the Amorphous supergroup will be sharpening their teeth in preparation to return to the UK for some dates later in the year which are expected to highs of Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd combined with the progressive rock of Amon Duul and the freak beat sitar groove of Ananda Shankar all infused with the funk sensibility of a cosmic Miles Davis. It stands almost as a compendium of all the various psychedelic and experimental music of the last 40 years. How fitting it is then that this album was completed late last year (2007) the 40th anniversary of that great psychedelic revolution. 'The Summer Of Love' of 67. Be under no illusions though, this album could only be made now... and although wearing an obvious love of the 60s/70s on its sleeve it also sounds nothing like its psychedelic peers, it is unmistakably modern. This in fact is one of the albums and the bands' greatest achievements.

Tracklisting

1. The Peppermint Tree
2. Given That We've Given
3. Have I Loved You Into Oblivion
4. Light Beyond Sound
5. In Fear Of The Electromagnetic Machine
6. Nowhere At The Edge Of Somewhere
7. Riders (On The Circadian Rhythms)
8. Carousel
9. Yantra
10. Opus Of The Black Sun
11. Marylebone Road
12. Tiny Space Birds
13. Drifter
14. Rocket Fuel
15. Listen Little Man
16. Man Is A Virus In Shoes
17. Mr. Sponge's Groovy Oscillations
18. It's A Sunshine Day (Yeah! Yeah!)

No sign of An Absurd Consequence Of Living In Absurd Times which it seems is a digital release-only track.

Bizarrely, both the old digital basic 'tree' cover, and the more elaborate psychedelic collage one have been sighted online. Once again, when the discs start being dispatched we'll see which is the official cover.

04/07/08 - Peppermint Tree on 28th July!

I've just moved house and am currently stealing wireless internet from somewhere nearby so shall have to be quick - The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness by The Amorphous Androgynous (it's hard to be quick when you're typing that) is out on 28th July 2008. Pre-order on FSOLdigital for a sooner release date, Environments is already on its way to customers who pre-ordered it!

28/06/08 - Forthcoming radio plans & Zeebox release

Those of you lucky enough to live in Melbourne, Australia, will be able to hear the next FSOL broadcast on PBS FM. No date is set yet, but the three hour show will then be able to stream through straightup.com.au.
We'll have a date for you when it's announced.
Following this is the next release on FSOLDigital - Zeebox 3: Heavily Involved In Drugs, including tracks remastered and remixed from the original 8 track masters.

21/06/08 - The moment we've been waiting for for fourteen years

21st July 2008. Environments coming to CD. Jumpin' & Pumpin'. CDTOT59.

20/06/08 - Three more ExtremeMusic tracks

Brian and Gary have submitted three more tracks to commercial music site Extreme Music, entitled Partial Law, Seven Shades and Road 2 Ruin. Seven Shades is an alternative version of Man Is A Virus In Shoes from The Peppermint Tree, while the other two are exclusives. They can be found to stream by searching by Artist, under Dougans/Cobain, in the album Dirty Breaks at ExtremeMusic.com.

16/06/08 - Electric Brainstorm tracklist

Well, things didn't go quite to plan - as far as we can make out, the show went out an hour early, and it turns out the On Demand service requires a subscription fee. But there should be a version floating around sometime soon. As for content of the show... well, there was no new new material, but a bunch of forthcoming Archive tracks (listed as Archive 6 but it's very likely this is just a mistake, alongside the spelling Amorrphous), and some tracks from Zeebox 3 (yes, it's still out there somewhere). Oh, and something called Flicker from 'Amorphik Alternatives', which we believer is the new name for The Amorphic Archives.

Here's the full tracklist, anyway:
The Future Sound of London - We Have Explosive (2" Tape Reels Version)
The Advisory Circle - Hocusing For Beginners
The Mount Vernon Arts Club - Mv3
Nocturnal Emissions - Toyota
Belbury Poly - The Hidden Door
Ems:piano - The Vessel
The Future Sound of London - Open Door
Christian Marclay - Smoker
Zeebox - Out Pot
The Future Sound of London - Hallucination-sunset Strip
David Whitaker - 1st Move
Ennio Morricone - Ninna Per Adulteri
Holger Czukay - Holger Czukay's Message To The Sales Force 1
The Amorphous Androgynous - Riders
The Future Sound of London - Environments
The Future Sound of London - Echo Interview
The Amorphous Androgynous - Flickers
The Future Sound of London - Kaaawa
This Is The Kit - Tangled Walker
The Future Sound of London - Fat Spat
Were - Download
Osho / Ems:piano - Warm Drift
Zeebox - Stillness
Eno - A Measured Room
Zeebox - Mecca
The Future Sound of London - Environments (Part 2)

Of interest are the EMS:Piano tracks. We had suspicions that these could be new FSOL related pieces, and are pleased to announce that they are! An unfinished work by Brian, containing electronics and piano (funnily enough), inspired by soundtrack work by his father. More information when it comes.

15/06/08 - FSOL on Proton Radio

>>>><<<>>><<<<

THE ELECTRIC BRAINSTORM vol.1
an EXCLUSIVE 1 hour DJ Mix
PROTON RADIO www.protonradio.com
Monday 16th June | 6am EST/11am BST
Then available via Proton's ground breaking 'On Demand' Feature

It's a little late notice, we know, but with the On Demand feature it'll be available for those not able to listen live. The band join the likes of John Digweed, Josh Wink and Anthony Pappa in providing the station and website with an exclusive DJ mix. This is the first in the 'Electric Brainstorm' series, and the cover has been provided by the band. No news on what will be contained in the show, hopefully we'll find out tomorrow!

31/05/08 - The Peppermint Tree CD available now?

The Amorphous Androgynous write on their MySpace blog...

hey hey . .

finally made a limited run of cds of the new album ' the Peppermint Tree & the Seeds Of Superconsciousness' and tis available from fsoldigital.com NOW !!

stay locked in an incredibly loose way
love the AA


There's no change on the official site, but perhaps the CD is available now for those who choose the preorder option. We'll keep you posted...

31/05/08 - The New Consciousness, Amorphous live again, samplebank, snippets of other stuff.

And so we end the most active month in memory with a huge bundle of news for you, courtesy of a certain Mr. AS Cob (those of you around on the FSOLLIST and official forum back in 2002 may remember the name). Have a look at this for some more old work (revelation of this possibly inspired by the Baboons Stomach mention lately). The New Consciousness in five parts, which Cob describes as "Brian's first band" and YouTube describes as "an art music group based in Glasgow, Scotland 1983-1984". There are also Kinetica clips on the account, interestingly. The music is in the Zeebox vein of analogue noise, badly played pianos, strange effects and a general dark sound, and the videos feature whoever it is in the band wandering about a bunch of other bizarre images. At one point Brian is seen messing with some equipment supposedly making the music.

Also confirmed are upcoming Russian live shows for The Amorphous Androgynous. Cob suggests "the coming weeks", although little else - Brian has said there are four shows coming up, so keep your eyes peeled. Nothing appears to be on Google yet. Also, we'll keep you posted on a possible UK show later in the year. No confirmation yet, but we can dream, no? More live news to be revealed at some point.

We're creating a Samplebank for the site over on the forums. The number of samples the band have used is immense, so why not waste some time trying to list them all? A few interesting and obscure ones have been uncovered already! Join up and give us a hand if you know of any more. Current list here.

And considering we're getting all the scoops, we mayaswell share a couple of snippets from the band. A possibilty of a boxset of all 5 Archives is in the pipeline (let's hope 5 gets its own release too, of course), and the band are now adding the final details to the first Psych Bubble compilation, meaning it's definitely due soon (hopefully the August deadline will be met). Ralph from Jumpin' & Pumpin' has also held back expectations on imminent CD releases, with both Environments and The Peppermint Tree currently 'work in progress'. The June date is looking a little optimistic now, but they're definitely on their way.

Oh, and the site's looking all new, if you hadn't noticed. We liked the Archive 4 artwork so much we decided it would wrap very nicely around WTTGP. Like it? Dislike it? Leave comments below!

See you in June!

24/05/08 - Another new/old remix and an even older cassette for your research

Who's heard of Osamu Sato? If the answer is 'me!', you'd better have a darn good reason for not telling us about FSOL's Face Savers On-Line remix from 1996. Frodekommode told us about this months ago and I've only just remembered. Have a look at it here. Another previously unknown remix, eh? How many more are coming out of the woodwork.
Well, none we know of, but Mr. Dougans has left us this teaser: "why has no-one come across " bacteria from a baboons stomach " - twitch/floor products - released on cassette via western bloc manchester 1986/7 - we sold a few"
This is likely to be ultra-obscure but let's get looking. Cassette release on Twitch/Floor Products (something Google doesn't seem to know anything about) from the late '80s called Bacteria From A Baboon's Stomach. I know someone out there will be able to help! Oh, and the picture you're seeing is what the guys looked like at the time.

That's about it until tomorrow when we'll uncover that Yage is actually Bryan Adams and FSOL don't actually exist. Roll on real news!

24/05/08 - Environments past & present/Archive 5

Don't worry, you'll get bored of these constant updates soon.
A little one courtesy of our message board's Ceeg, who gives us these snippets from a conversation with Brian. First up, "the Environments series will be past and then present". This is FSOL we're talking about so let's take nothing literally, but this certainly suggests that maybe Environments II will be older material (perhaps from those recent ISDN tracklists?) and Environments III will be much newer - maybe even newly recorded - material. Exciting times.
Also, further to my post last night, there is definitely a From The Archives Volume 5 on its way.
In continuation of the band's more candid nature, Decasia managed to get the following snippet from Brian:
"hold tight for the new FSOL album
shaping up to be a killer"
Let the hype begin.

23/05/08 - another oldy, Stereo MCs

Yes, even that bloody awful pseudo-hip-hop track Connected by the Stereo MC's has been remixed by FSOL. This promo 12" released in France on Gee Street in 1992 has recently been uncovered by our forum regular and bringer of obscure news frodekommode. Apparently the band aren't especially proud of the track, and given its date it's probably more in line with their early work, but it's an interesting curio nonetheless. Nobody else seems to have heard it, so if you have a copy - it's long deleted, so don't let mine and Pete's anti-piracy worries on the forum worry you - please let us know!

23/05/08 - Headstone Lane album and FSOL's future

This one snuck past us - there's a full 13 track Headstone Lane album for download on FSOLdigital. It features the 6 track mini album and 7 unreleased pieces.
01. Powder Of Sympathy
02. Fing
03. 252
04. Back In The Day
05. Knuckleduster
06. Vortexian
07. Crashed
08. The Germ
09. Neasden
10. Mole
11. Beers
12. H's Old Room
13. Garage

It's available to download for a bargain price of £5.99.

What else have we got for you? The band are "cool" and "really locked in on the FSOL sound at the moment" - yes, there really is a new record on its way at some point. Honestly. To prove there's life outside of old material on FSOLdigital, the band should be appearing on your radio sets at some point in the not-too-distant future. Just don't go commenting me asking exactly when - wait for it!
Oh, and The Woodlands Of Old will be making a CD appearance in the second half of 2008 and we've got some more archive material on its way for those who can't wait for new stuff.

22/05/08 - Brian designs Milburn artwork?

Ok, so there's technically nothing that's said Brian is the sole member of Pinhole.TV, but there's nothing that's said anyone else is involved. The contact email links to 'b', and the site's hosted by yage.co.uk, the same as all other FSOL online projects (glitch.tv, Part-Sub-Merged and of course FSOLdigital). With this in mind, could it have been Brian who created the artwork for British indie band Milburn's album These Are The Facts and assocated single What Will You Do When The Money Goes? Quite possibly.

22/05/08 - Radio 1 show tracklist

We've been lucky enough to receive this little gem from the band - a handwritten tracklist for one of the band's shows in 1994. Unfortunately the show doesn't seem to match up exactly to any of the available shows, but it could well be a 3D Headspace Tour show, or perhaps the Essential Mix, which has been cut up in bootleg versions. We're going to get around to comparing the setlist to 3D available Headspace Tour and Essential Mix recordings, as some segments certainly match up to these, and try and work out just what the tracks are. A typically FSOL sentence accompanying the files, however, is "a lot of the track titles bear no resemblance to what they've called them now". With this in mind, it seems very likely that Live In New York, Tired and FSOL/Dead Can Dance Sound Samples were originally Environments-era tracks. One thing it does confirm is that a lot of the between-track ambience on the ISDN shows was penned for Environments, and as it didn't turn up on the album there's every chance it could be present on volumes II & III. It also confirms that Deep Into Your Subconscious I Slide (then an Amorphous track) and Subliminal Aura (now a FSOL track) were once slated for use on the album too. Anyway, without further ado, here's a bunch of titles you've never heard of for music you've probably heard, hand-scrawled in what looks like Brian's writing...

12/05/08 - a billion new releases for you to get your head around.

There's a lot to take in, so here's a condensed summary of this morning's utterly insane FSOLdigital update. Get ready...

Main page
The site has a new look, a lot of things have gone and a lot of things have been added. Downloads are on the front page, with links to other sections below.

The Future Sound of London - Environments
This has a nice fancy new cover (at last). Personally I'd love it to be released with the black square seen in the Lifeforms tray, but there's every chance that was only there as no artwork had been created at the time. CD release June 2008, which can be preordered for £9.99 on the site.

The Future Sound of London - Environments II
Coming soon.

The Future Sound of London - Environments III
Yup, there's a third in the series. Again no information on whether this is new or old material. Very nice looking cover on the site.

The Future Sound of London - Environments IV
Only joking!

The Amorphous Androgynous - The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness
A nice new cover for the CD release June 2008, available for pre-order on the site for £9.99.

Yage - The Woodlands of Old
Available to download for £7.99 today! "From the deserts of the middle east to the rain forests of Brazil - odd rhythms eerie melodies".

01. The Woodlands of Old
02. An Odd Question From A Forest Bird
03. From Thunder That Shakes
04. The Yage Letters
05. The Hunters Moon
06. Mountain Cloud Descending
07. Procession
08. Crow Hushing The Floating Woods
09. The Mahogany Tree (Shelter'd)
10. He Laughed Himself To The Centre
11. Unsettling Sky
12. Humbled Before Your Presence
13. Who Had Such Foolish Care
14. Circle The Corn
15. Centipede
16. Dry Wind Blown
17. Haxaal's Dream
18. Heavily He Flies
19. The Dark Pines
20. The Sun Lends Warmth And Comfort
21. A Welcome Beneath Night's Darkness
The cover features at the bottom of the CDs page too, although there is no page.

6 Oscillators In Remittance - Cloudscraper
"6 oscillators triggered by light sensors reacting to the movement of the clouds across the sun. Recorded 26th February 2008. 6.30 soundscape where each of the 6 oscillators are fed through echoes and reverbs. Taken from the album Light Senses Dark Edges". Another Brian experiment? A forthcoming album. There's a video of a clip on YouTube. Available as a 99p download.

The Future Sound of London - 2" Tape Reels
"Various sessions - demos and outtakes from the 2" multitrack recordings & RAM studio". Coming Soon. A bizarre mix of We Have Explosive is available from this on the band's MySpace page.

Humanoid - The Original Eurotechno Soundtrack
This has a different cover to the Stakker release on Rephlex and is 'coming soon'. Probably no new material but an interesting aside.

The Amorphous Androgynous - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble
"Forthcoming compilation curated by The Amorphous Androgynous. Tracing the sound of psychedelia from past to present. Double CD". This will be the first in their mix CD series on Platypus, available August/September 2008.

The Future Sound of London - FSOLdigital mix (freeze magazine)
This is the mix CD, along with digital files of the interview and photographs, from Freeze magazine earlier in the year. £1.99 download.

Vinyl
A few more vinyls have been added to the site, including the Archived EP (re-release, I believe) and the new Tingler remixes.

Video/film
"Coming soon". Perhaps old videos, Part-Sub-Merged, the Alice In Ultraland movie. Who knows. "Short films, music videos, tutorials".

Merchandise
"Coming soon". This is an interesting one, the main page promises: "T-shirts - clothing - books - posters - art - hardware". T-shirts is a new one (there was an ISDN tour one from 1994, otherwise none we're aware of). Clothing: Dead Cities thong anybody? Books: no idea. Posters and art should be nice, and hardware will probably be a public announcement of Brian's Glitch.tv circuit bent stuff.


Right, with that, I'm off to spend four hours updating the actual site. URGH. Have fun taking it all in.

07/04/08 - Two new/old releases come to CD

Unfortunately there's no word on the Environments CD yet, but we do have two CDs coming out in the next month, one of which is a bit of a surprise. Even those of us who saw the Pulse EPs at the bottom of FSOLDigital weren't expecting a CD release of all four. It's the next FSOL compilation and comes out on 5th May 2008.
The tracklist matches the original EPs and runs a little like this:
01. Indo Tribe - Bring In The Pulse
02. Indo Tribe - In The Mind Of A Child
03. The Future Sound Of London - Hardhead
04. The Future Sound Of London - Pulse State
05. The Future Sound Of London - Stolen Documents
06. Smart Systems - Zip Code
07. The Future Sound Of London - 1 In 8
08. Indo Tribe - I've Become What You Were
09. Smart Systems - Tingler
10. Indo Tribe - Owl
11. Indo Tribe - Bite The Bullet Baby
12. Yage - Calcium
13. Mental Cube - I'm Not Gonna Let You Do It
14. Smart Systems - Creator
15. Indo Tribe - Shrink
16. Smart Systems - Space Virus
This makes it highly unlikely that a rerelease of Earthbeat will ever appear, but there are tracks here which have never been issued on CD, so it's a mixed blessing. The CD is released on Jumpin' & Pumpin' (CDTOT57). Secondly, a date for From The Archives Vol. 4 has been announced: 12th May 2008, on Jumpin' & Pumpin' (CDTOT58). Tracklist matches the online release as:
01. Hidden Sign
02. Plasmatik
03. West Path
04. 100 Baby Spiders
05. Absent With Concept
06. Wookii
07. Shingles
08. 5 Months 5 Acres
09. Mango Tree (Original)
10. Golden Burnt
11. Climbing
12. Speed Ball


Here's another surprise release for you all. Tingler is getting a re-release with new remixes. J&P are putting the 12" out (12TOT48) on 21st April 2008. Side one features remixes from Kouncil House and 30Hz, side two features the Smart Systems 'Remix' and the original version. No, we have no idea why this is being re-released. Maybe the new versions are excellent. Maybe not.

09/03/08 - even more new releases! (and a very old one)

That's right, after years of nothing, they're continuing to pile on the new music. Remember the Five Six Five track from the Freeze CD, which claimed to be from Environments II? Well, that wasn't a typing error. Here's the cover. It's described as "Where Environments 1 left off, the journey continues through dark head storms to green grass valleys future and past", covering "3 parts 59 minutes". Coming soon, this'll probably be a digital download. We know nothing of release dates, CD releases, tracklist or even whether this is old or new material. But it's pretty exciting, no? And that cover's a lot better than the awful Environments 1 cover, which we're still hoping will get an update before its CD release. Even more interesting, is a new Yage album. Yes, that alias which gave us jazzy house and minimal techno in 1992 is back. And sounds nothing like it used to. The title track to "The Woodlands Of Old" is available on the band's MySpace, and sounds much like The Amorphous Androgynous with less of an eastern influence. The band describe the album as a "New collection of tracks from FSOL's engineer/producer Yage. 19 songs 1hr 5mins". Another unexpected release. There's also a nice, professional looking cover for From The Archives Volume 4 on the page now, leading us to believe a CD release can't be that far off. This time just showing the Electronic Brain, without Shauneen Ta, it fits in stylistically with the rest of the series.

Now, in fitting with current trends, for every hundred new releases, we seem to stumble across an old Humanoid release. This Japanese import from 1988 features the same tracks as the UK version, but entirely exclusive artwork, on a special 3" CD. Thanks to (RONTXO) for finding this and for the images!

And that's about it for the minute. We're working on a nice big discography/lyrics & song info update soon to get all this information in order!

04/03/08 - ExtremeMusic tracks

It's been discussed on the forums for a while, but it's finally time to make the information known. If you check out http://www.extrememusic.com/ you'll find a heap of apparently unreleased FSOL material. Under 'X Series', in the 'Composers' section, there are a number of pieces by Dougans/Cobain. These tracks are pieces the band have hired out for commercial use, and are not available for sale, but the full tracks can all be streamed on the site. Not is all as it seems (typically), as many of the tracks are available on the Archive series anyway. Here's a brief description of what's there...

From 'Acid Breaks':
Jaw Breaker (04.32) - actually an edit of 'Speed Ball' from Archive 4
Roid Rage (03.26) - electric guitars and funky breaks
Big Max (04.20) - acoustic guitars and breakbeats
Fly & Mash (04.52) - pre-Accelerator acid
Skunk Junk (03.25) - '5 Months 5 Acres' from Archive 4
Touching Bass (04.13) - 'G Eletro' from Dead Cities era ISDN show
Swelter Skelter (04.42) - we can only think this is a very old track, hip hop brass stabs, wah guitar and squelchy breakbeats

From 'Deep Chill':
Bubble & Peak (05.22) - 'Lizzard Crawl' from Archive 1
Ice Stage (03.44) - edit of 'Cellular Control' from Archive 2
Unreality Control (04.20) - dark, minimal trip-hop
Acid Drop (04.45) - strange guitar/FX/sax soundscape

From 'Dark Trance':
Sable Empire (03.26) - sounds like an Intelligent Communication era piece
Dearth Control (04.03) - 'Plasmatik' from Archive 4
Airless Whisper (04.20) - minimal techno
Blindside Bizarro (03.50) - breaks/trance

From 'Psychedelic Air':
Eerie Query (02.46) - dark ambient drones
Polar Rinse (03.41) - strings and sub-bass rumbles
Tinted Love (02.07) - piano piece, can't work out where it's from despite its familiarity
Stark Tower (04.55) - synth ambience
Dead Ringer (01.58) - dramatic orchestral piece

There are some very interesting pieces here - Airless Whisper, Polar Rinse, Dead Ringer and Swelter Skelter aren't anything like the FSOL we know, and it's nice to hear a full studio version of G Eletro. And they're available to listen to for free on the site, and to license out for use on films &c. - keep your ears open, you might hear one on a documentary or trailer today!

21/02/08 - Crystals promo uncovered

With all of the new material appearing, we suddenly come across one of the oldest releases in the band's catalogue. The fifth single from Humanoid's Global album was Crystals, but only appeared on US label Chicago Trax. Another 12", with two 'different' versions of Crystals, has been on the discography forever, but nothing has ever been seen of it.

Until now.

Labelled as PROMO HUMT3 - putting it as a release after The Deep, not in 1988 like we prevoiusly thought - the single was never commercially released, but a DJ promo exists. Containing Crystals (Extended Version) on both sides (although not actually extended, as it is 30 seconds shorter than the album version), the 12" appeared online in mp3 form recently. Thanks to Pandemonium on the forums for uncovering this one. Once we hear it, we'll let you know the differences between this and the album version.

Time to update the discography properly...

19/02/08 - Peppermint Tree released

The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness
"A Collection Of Psychedelic Relics From The Amorphous Androgynous 1967-2007"
In the shop now! Not the interpretations of Peppermint Tree & a couple of bonus tracks we were originally promised, this is an entirely new album, recently completed from more strong tracks from the Alice/Isness sessions.
A few snippets - those of you who've been following for a while may recognise "Drifter" and "Marylebone Road" after being revealed on the official site seven years ago. "Marylebone Road" itself now makes sense of the mention in the "Goodbye Sky" credits - they both feature the same brass section (we can also finally confirm "Guru Song" was spawned from the same sessions as this collection's title track).
"Opus" - a title from the Alice sessions - may well now be "Opus Of The Black Sun".
"Oblivion" from the Freeze sampler has a full title "I Have Loved You Into Oblivion" (and features vocals from Gaz as well as that Shirley Bassey-alike). There are some superbly ridiculous titles in there too...

01. The Peppermint Tree
02. Given That We've Given
03. I Have Loved You Into Oblivion
04. Light Beyond Sound
05. In Fear Of The Electromagnetic Machine (Part 1)
06. Nowhere At The Edge Of Somewhere
07. Riders (On Circadian Rhythm)
08. Carousel
09. Yantra
10. Opus Of The Black Sun
11. Marylebone Road
12. Tiny Space Birds
13. Drifter
14. Rocket Fuel
15. Listen Little Man
16. Man Is A Virus In Shoes
17. Mr. Sponge's Groovy Oscilations
18. It's A Sunshine Day (Yeah! Yeah!)
19. An Absurd Consequence Of Living In Absurd Times (bonus track)

"Drifter" may seem familiar to some of you - the acoustic loop featured as the backing track to the Isness section of futuresoundoflondon.com mk2 back in 2002. It also features in a remixed form as the album's bonus track. Otherwise, it all sounds fairly standard Amorphous fare (at least as standard as you can get for a band who shift from Indian ragas to progressive rock and psychedelic funk quicker than you can say A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind). It resembles Alice more than Isness, with ambient interludes, densely layered tracks and emphasis more on funk and odd electronics than tablas and banjos. The first half is nicely mixed together with shorter, interlude tracks, but it becomes more song-by-song nearer to the end. The mix of instrumentals and vocals remains similar to previous releases - here, "The Peppermint Tree", "I Have Loved You Into Oblivion", "Marylebone Road", "Rocket Fuel", "Listen Little Man" and, to an extent, "It's A Sunshine Day" are all 'songs', the rest are pretty much instrumental. There's no Galaxial/Plankton style epic, although Max Richter's orchestration on "...Oblivion" leaves it sounding as epic as the intro to "Her Tongue Is Like A Jellyfish" promised six years ago.
All in all, it's a consistently good record, and will certainly satisfy fans of The Isness and Alice In Ultraland after more "PSYCHEDLIC PROG-ROCKTRONICA SAMPLERDELICA with a dash of FOLKfunkRAGA COSMIC SPACE MUSIC" (their words, not mine)

FSOLDigital.com happily informs us "cd coming soon". Hurrah!

17/02/08 - forthcoming releases update, new alias?

Thanks to geobal79 on the forums for a wonderful translation of the interview in Freeze magazine. This is the first real interview they've done during this post-Alice era of the band and it's pretty enlightening (ie we're not getting the same questions/answers as every post-Isness interview seemed to contain).
The full interview will be in our press section soon, but you can read it on the forums now. A quick recap of the interesting news regarding forthcoming releases below (all penned for 'this year'):

Two DJ mix albums: one by Amorphous Androgynous (probably the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble project), one by FSOL - this is the first thing we've heard about the FSOL one so it could be long in the future.

The Peppermint Tree & Other Seeds will be restored and newly recorded/mixed stuff, unlike the forthcoming Amorphic Archives, which will simply be untouched archived tracks.

There will be another Amorphous Androgynous album, along with another FSOL album.

Alias releases may come to FSOLDigital from time to time.


Those new tracks - Peppermint Tree is definitely related to Guru Song, to verify the Isness credits. Tiny Space Birds and KattaPilla are typical AA instrumental jam tracks, very Alice In Ultraland, similar also to Coconut and Wendover Woods (remember them?). And Oblivion... all we can say is 'James Bond film theme tune'.


A final little thing for you, this may be of interest. No real clues as to exactly what it is, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

15/02/08 - Freeze CD information

Thanks to Pandemonium on the forums for all this information regarding the Freeze magazine CD. First up, it's more of a sampler than a CD of full tracks, mixed together - not entirely unlike what you'd expect of a radio show by them, we're guessing. And, more importantly, here's the tracklist:

01 - The Future Sound of London - Lizard Crawl (2:23)
(taken from The Archive Vol.1; written by Dougans/Cobain)

02 - The Future Sound of London - Long Shadow (2:02)
(taken from The Archive Vol.3; written by Dougans/Cobain)

03 - The Future Sound of London - Brujo (1:50)
(taken from The Archive Vol.2; written by Dougans/Cobain)

04 - The Future Sound of London - Globular (2:57)
(taken from A Gigantic Globular Burst of Anti Static; written by Dougans/Cobain)

05 - The Amorphous Androgynous - Tiny Space Birds (1:50)
(taken from Peppermint Tree and Seeds; written by Dougans/Cobain)

06 - The Amorphous Androgynous/FSOL/Dianne Harris - A Tiny Point of Light (3:04)
(taken from Soundtrack to a Light Structure created by Dianne Harris; written by Dougans/Cobain)

07 - The Amorphous Androgynous - Oblivion (2:07)
(taken from Peppermint Tree and Seeds; written by Dougans/Cobain)

08 - Heads of Agreement - La Veshter Au Ombre (2:18)
(taken from The San Monta Tapes; written by Dougans/Cobain)

09 - Mental Cube - Sightings (1:52)
(taken from By Any Other Name; written by Dougans/Cobain)

10 - Stakker Humanoid - Feadz 2007 Mix (1:11)
(taken from Humanoid - Your Body Robotic; written by Dougans)

11 - Stakker Humanoid - PRM Mix (0:56)
(taken from Humanoid - Your Body Robotic; written by Dougans)

12 - The Future Sound of London - Plazmatik (2:06)
(taken from The Archive Vol.4; written by Dougans/Cobain)

13 - Polemical - Mos Son (1:10)
(taken from Hand Made Devices; written by Dougans/Cobain)

14 - Polemical - Iseum (1:40)
(taken from Hand Made Devices; written by Dougans/Cobain)

15 - The Amorphous Androgynous - Peppermint Tree (1:23)
(taken from Peppermint Tree and Seeds; written by Dougans/Cobain)

16 - The Amorphous Androgynous - Katta Pilla (1:40)
(taken from The Amorphic Archives; written by Dougans/Cobain)

17 - The Future Sound of London - Five Six Five (7:18)
(taken from Environments 2; written by Dougans/Cobain)


Of interest here - first up, it's nice to see we have some proper b-sides coming on The Peppermint Tree (not just interpretations). Also, The Amorphic Archives brings up memories of promised Isness/Alice era archives for release on FSOLDigital. Whether The Amorphic Archives will come out online, or form part of the promised Amorphous Androgynous DVD, we don't know. Yet. Also interesting to note that both Heads Of Agreement and Polemical are credited to Dougans/Cobain, even though it's been suggested they're solo projects.

As for 'Environments 2', we haven't a clue.


More news once we hear the CD!

07/02/08 - more teasers about forthcoming releases

Couple of bits and bobs for you from the band - Environments is still planned for CD, but probably May/June time "if all goes to plan". Peppermint Tree is just around the corner now. Possible CD release for that later in the year, if we're lucky.
The end of 2008 should see some more music, the word 'Isness' might make a reappearance, and finally the name FSOL may be tagged on some new music.

We could be looking at five CD releases from the band this year at this rate - let's keep our fingers crossed.

02/02/08 - new FSOL article & mix CD

Cheers to Graham as ever for this reasonably exciting news. From the forums...

The next issue of Freeze magazine (Greek based) has a big new feature on FSOL and FSOLDigital. I believe it's out on February 14th.
The magazine also comes with a special FSOLDigital mix comprising the following tracks:
The Future Sound of London - Lizzard Crawl
The Future Sound of London - Long Shadows
The Future Sound of London - Brujo
The Future Sound of London - Globular
Amorphous Androgynous - Tiny Space Birds
Amorphous Androgynous/FSOL/Dianne Harris - A Tiny Point of Light
Amorphous Androgynous - Oblivion
Heads of Agreement - La Veshter Du Umbre
Mental Cube - Sightings
Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid (Feadz 2007 Mix)
Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid (Pirate Robot Midget Mix)
The Future Sound of London - Plazmatik
Polemical - Mos Son
Polemical - Iseum
Amorphous Androgynous - Peppermint Tree
Amorphous Androgynous - Katta Pilla
The Future Sound of London - Five Six Five

He also provided some useful links which may help in trying to get a copy to purchase if you're not in Greece. Whether the article is in Greek or not we don't know yet, but once a copy is available it'll be on here!

freeze@otenet.gr
http://www.myspace.com/freezemgzn


What to make of the tracklist? Well, most of the tracks are already available on FSOLDigital, but there are some (currently) exclusive cuts here. Five Six Five is a new title, the only new FSOL track. Tiny Space Birds, Oblivion, Peppermint Tree and Katta Pilla are new AA tracks - chances are they'll all feature on the Peppermint Tree EP. Katta Pilla you may recognise as a propsective track for Alice In Ultraland, and from the AA MySpace page - KattaPill, either a remix or a classic Cobain/Dougas spelling mistake. After much waiting it looks like we'll finally be hearing The Peppermint Tree.
There'll be some more updates on this once we actually hear the CD and read the article, so watch this space...