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...