29/12/19 - December calendar track

The closing track to this year's calendar album is 'Musell' by FSOL, meaning the band's main project gets ten of the twelve tracks for the year. It's a piece of pounding electronica recorded in 2018.

And that about rounds up this decade in FSOL news. It's been a very surprising ten years: at the close of 2009, the only newly recorded material we'd had in years was The Woodlands of Old and the three side-project experiments from 2007; the second half of this decade has had them averaging 40-50 new tracks released every year. Here's to an equally productive 2020s.

26/12/19 - Rave Atlas mix: 'Planet Earth'.

FSOL's mix for Rave Atlas, entitled Planet Earth, is now available to stream. Streaming options are available on the website, along with a rough tracklist. As ever, the tracklisting is somewhat incomplete, have a gander over at the forum where we'll be attempting to complete it.

21/12/19 - We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal - Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Remix Album

The 'album length single', following the traditional FSOL/AA multiple paths approach, of 'We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal' has been given a provisional release date of March 2020. A touch later than initially hinted (unexpectedly - and it'll most likely end up later than March knowing them) but mostly unsurprising. What is surprising, and very much news, is the announcement by Gaz - as usual, buried in a Facebook comment thread - that it'll be followed in April by A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding in Your Mind) Presents: 'We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal' Remixed, featuring remixes from, and collaborations with: Stoned Freshwaters, Peter Hammill, The Amorphous Androgynous, Paul Weller, Atomic Simao, Cobalt Chapel, Regal Worm, Higher Peaks, Las Trompas De Falopian, Future Children, Sweet Jesus, The Flying White Dots and Richard E Further Out. Some of those names are rather pun-ish, so we'll do some research to find out just who's who (follow the album thread on the board for any findings. This suggests that Listening Beyond the Head Chakra will probably not be out until mid-to-late summer at the earliest. It's going to be a long - and expensive - year for Amorphous fans!

14/12/19 - A Controlled Vista coming to FSOLDigital

As predicted, the 100 copies of Touched by Silence sold out fast: 22 minutes, to be precise. And, as predicted, the digital version of FSOLDigital presents A Controlled Vista, unavailable with the full purchase, will be coming to FSOLDigital in the future. We'll keep you informed with more info when it comes in.

12/12/19 - Forthcoming FSOL mix on Rave Atlas

Online electronic music portal Rave Atlas have been running their mix series for some time now, with a number of notable guest artists and producers providing mixes. On Boxing Day, FSOL will provide a new mix to the series. As reported on the Rave Atlas Facebook page...

F.S.O.L EXCLUSIVE MIX ALERT
26/12/2019 AVAILABLE THROUGH ALL RAVE ATLAS SOCIAL MEDIA.
We are thrilled to announce that The Future Sound Of London contributed an exclusive mix for the Rave Atlas Mix Series.
Out on Boxing Day.
Keep an eye on the Rave Atlas social media brothers & sisters

FSOL were the first band to sidestep traditional methods of touring, instead broadcasting studio performances via ISDN lines.
The ISDN l.p, containing material previously broadcast live to radio stations via ISDN, was released as a limited edition (with a black cover) in late 1994, followed by a more widespread edition (this time with a white cover and an altered track list) in 1995.

The site seems to focus more heavily on electronica styles - particularly with a dance direction - so it's likely this mix will be less based around '70s and '80s experimental sounds than the EBS mixes... although FSOL aren't always known for playing by the rules, so who knows what it will be. In the meantime, you can check the Rave Atlas website here.

08/12/19 - A Controlled Vista tracklisting

Thanks to Rob who's unearthed the tracklist for the FSOL disc on Touched by Silence...

FSOL Digital presents A Controlled Vista:

1. FSOL - I Can't Find You
2. FSOL/Daniel Pemberton - Offers on the Table
3. FSOL - Closure
4. FSOL - You Will Forget About Me
5. FSOL - Organic Weapon
6. Yage - Subtle Cause
7. Yage - Across 82
8. Humanoid - Tiny Machine Birth
9. FSOL - Optical Overspill
10. FSOL - A Type of Thought
11. Synthi A - Rivers Over Roads
12. Yage - Tower City North
13. FSOL - Slope/5/a
14. FSOL - Control Vista
15. Humanoid - Mass Made
16. FSOL - The Old Coastal Path

Needless to say we're all excited about that tracklist. 16 new tracks from four projects.

07/12/19 - A Controlled Vista and Apertures on 11CD box

A Controlled Vista is the title of the FSOL album featuring on Touched by Silence, the 11CD boxset coming out through charity label Touched on 13th December 2019. The set also features full albums by Scanner, Drøn, Mick Chillage, Locust, Anders Ilar, Joel Tammik, Autumn of Communion and Eric 'the' Taylor, as well as a 2CD various artists compilation featuring the likes of The Orb, David Morley, Higher Intelligence Agency, Richard H Kirk and, notably, the debut track from Apertures, a new project by FSOL's Brian Dougans and Ross Baker (that'll be me). The box set is limited to a hundred copies and will be available to purchase from Bandcamp next week.

02/12/19 - Plaid remix Humanoid

The final volume of Detuned's DE:10 series of 12" EPs arrives with yet another Humanoid track: this time, DE:08's Stakker re-recording, 'sT8818r', has been remixed by Plaid. Listen to a clip on Bleep. It's out everywhere now on slices of toxic silver plastic, limited to 300 copies.

01/12/19 - November calendar track

November's calendar track arrived just in the nick of time, during the evening of the 30th. It's a surprisingly noisy piece from August of this year, called 'Obscured by Dark Intervals'. Possibly a hint at the sound of Environment Seven? A few people are reporting the link takes them to a download of last month's track, 'The Shed' - these people are advised to email info@fsoldigital.com with the problem which should hopefully be resolved!

28/11/19 - Black Friday sale

This year's Black Friday sale at FSOLDigital is now on. 44 items are listed on the sale page, covering the full range of the catalogue. An additional 10% off all items in the store can be achieved with by applying code fsol10 at the checkout. The sale runs through to the end of Sunday.

14/11/19 - New items on FSOLDigital.

Well this all went out rather quietly. Reminds us of ten years ago when things would randomly appear on the site without warning.

First up, the second batch of 25 SX-1s are being made, and deposits are now being taken at £150 each, from the £3500 (ex. VAT) total. They make great Christmas presents for your kids, so grab one grab one here!. Please note that build on this run is currently unlikely to commence before late 2020, so your kids might be somewhat older by the time your synth arrives.

Secondly, and the only new music in this round of releases, is the staggeringly overdue third release by Seafar. Totem was originally due for release on 12th December 2012, completing a trilogy of numerically repeating releases. Only seven years late, the album can now be bought as MP3 or FLAC, with prices at £6.99 and £8.50 respectively. The blurb states:
Melbourne based electronic artist SEAFAR delivers his new album Totem. 16 tracks of dope grade electronic weirdness – classic Seafar.
Fun Fact – Seafar takes its name from a youth hostel in glasgow Brian (FSOL) lived in while training as an electrician pre FSOL years.
Fun Fact 2 – The youth hostel also features in Gregory’s girl a film from 1981

Bad news if you don't wear 'small' sized clothes: the other sizes of this very limited hand-printed Lifeforms hoodie have already sold out. Smaller fans take note, this size is likely to sell through very quickly too. Even at £38.

Even worse luck if you fancied one of seven test pressings of From the Archives Vol. 9 (or, indeed, Archived 9, as it's labelled here), as they've already sold out. Here's the page to have a look at anyway.

We're only a few weeks away from the Touched 10CD boxset, which will feature an array of new FSOL material alongside that of other artists, so look out for updates on that soon.

01/11/19 - Listening Beyond the Head Chakra confirmed for 2020.

The Amorphous Androgynous have confirmed the title and year of release for their new album on Facebook:

Since 2020 is the year of our re-emergence with new album ‘ Listening Beyond The Head Chakra ‘ ( our first since 2005’s ‘ Alice In Ultraland ‘ ) we’ve designed a calendar ( available NOW at fsoldigital.com ) as an oracular spectacular into the year ahead ! It comes with 2 previously unreleased tracks . The calendar is a collection of some of the art ( a multidisciplinary mix of collage and traditional oil on canvas ) created in collaboration with artist Gavin Penn for our album length single ‘ We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal ‘ featuring Peter Hammill ( vocals ) & Paul Weller ( piano and guitar ) to be released at the beginning of 2020 plus the album ‘ Listening Beyond The Head Chakra ‘ to follow later in the year .

So, we can expect the 'Immortal' single in the not-too-distant future, with the full album to follow probably around the middle of the year. This will make it either seven, twelve or fifteen years since the previous AA album (depending on how strictly you define the word), which is a ludicrously long time either way, so we're extremely glad the wait is almost over! The question now: how will Environment Seven fit in with all this? It's hard to imagine both of the main projects releasing new albums within a few months of each other...

31/10/19 - Possibly Amorphous album title and tracklist.

The Amorphous calendar is out in the wild, and contains several references to the phrase Listening Beyond the Head Chakra. Is this the title? It's a bit of a mouthful, and not in an epic way, so maybe not, but you never know. More promising is a page containing what looks like a final tracklist:

She Listens to the Sun
Mother Told Me (What She Told Me)
Mantra (Crossing Over)
We Persuade Ourselves We are Immortal
The Hippie Trail
Listening Beyond the Head Chakra
The Machines of Loving Grace
A Teardrop in the Fabric of Reality
Money to Burn

Certainly six of these we've heard of, and knowing that most of the pieces recorded are very long, nine tracks does make sense. We'll get confirmation in the new year, no doubt, but this is something to get excited about in the meantime.

22/10/19 - New calendars available to order

2020 can once again be checked off with two new FSOLDigital calendars. The first is an Amorphous Androgynous calendar, designed by artist Gavin Penn alongside Amorphic Arts, using "oil on canvas to mixed media collage and paints". Calendar purchases come with an immediate mp3 download of two tracks: 'IMMORTAL Suite no. 1 HAARP' (likely to be an outtake from the We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal suite) and 'Yer Peyote Blues'. These are the first full tracks to be heard from the new album sessions.

Secondly, the now traditional FSOL calendar returns to the physical domain with twelve new (or, indeed, old) artwork images, accompanied each month by a track download, which will create the fourth Calendar Album by the end of the year. Click the above links for purchases.

03/10/19 - Humanoid tracks now available

'Uling', on Secret Rave 05, and 'St8818r' on DE:10.08 are now both available. Will there be any more Humanoid material coming this year?!

26/08/19 - Electric Brain Storms Document Twelve premiers on Soundcloud

The long-awaited EBS12 mix has finally appeared on Soundcloud. Brain explains the concept:
"In the 70s Composers of the strange found it hard to get their music heard. One of the main outlets was Radio commissions - RADIO ART - this mainly is celebrating some artists that managed to be transmitted."
The sound is much as you'd expect if you're familiar with earlier EBS mixes, with plenty of analogue and acoustic sounds mixed in with samples, field recordings, etc. The show can be streamed from the FSOLDigital Soundcloud here, and a print-your-own cassette cover can be found in the Facebook comments here.

25/08/19 - FSOL on Touched by Silence 11CD boxset

As announced here (at around 2:08), Touched Music will be releasing a massive 11 CD boxset in November called Touched by Silence. The set will include a number of albums plus compilation discs featuring standalone tracks. Included are The Orb, Higher Intelligence Agency, Scanner, Locust, Mick Chillage, Antonyme, Atom Heart, Richard H. Kirk... and The Future Sound of London.
No official confirmation yet, but it appears that FSOL's contribution is likely to be a full CD's worth of material - and there is believed to be another FSOL-related track elsewhere in the box. More news as it comes in...

20/08/19 - Humanoid remixes Karsten Pflum

Karsten Pflum's new EP is coming out in September on Touched Revolutions. The 12" will feature a remix by Humanoid. Check out Martin unboxing the records on Facebook.

09/08/19 - EMS : Piano remixes Middlemarch - now available

EMS : Piano's remix of 'The Dead Complain of Their Burial' by Middlemarch is finally available, as the remix album The Mirror and the Light is released today. The album also features a remix by longtime FSOL friend and collaborator Neotropic.

07/08/19 - Humanoid / Yage Remixes 7"

A 7" of the Humanoid and Yage remixes of B12 and Funckarma released previously on Touched Music has been released. It's also sold out, as it was a lathe cut limited to 30 copies, immediately making it the rarest FSOL-related release since Bacteria in a Baboon's Stomach. The digitals are still available from the label.

24/07/19 - More Humanoid compilation material on the way

If Built by Humanoid was a surprisingly short album for its gestation period, Brian is more than making up for that by bringing out a large amount of material from the same sessions on EPs, calendar tracks and compilations. The latest announcement is for the track 'st8818r', which is due to appear on DE:10.08 - part of the same series of 12"s that just gave home to FSOL's 'Skinny Xam' - in October of this year. The track is a dramatic reworking of 'Stakker Humanoid' - little remains of the original other than the main vocal sample - and is one of four tracks on the 12", alongside new works from Mike Dred, Luke Vibert and Air Liquide. Clips can be heard here.

05/07/19 - New Humanoid track on Secret Rave 05 this September / 'Skinny Xam' out now.

The Humanoid revival continues with a new track, 'Uling', coming on the 3x12" compilation Secret Rave 05, to be released by Art-Aud in September. More news soon.

And speaking of compilations, the DE:10.06 12" on Detuned, featuring the new FSOL track 'Skinny Xam', is out now.

25/06/19 - Humanoid Interview in next month's Electronic Sound magazine

There's not too much else to add at the minute other than the title. Looks like it'll probably be Issue 55.

25/06/19 - Zip File Fu*k Up

Some people are having trouble unzipping the full version of the Humanoid album. This appears to be because of the asterisk in the title of track five 'Fu*k It', which is not a valid file name character on PCs. The band are aware and will be updating the file ASAP.

24/06/19 - Built by Humanoid now available!

Built by Humanoid is now officially available from FSOLDigital. Copies will be shipping this week, and downloads are available. All copies bought direct from the site will receive a four track bonus EP to download, featuring the tracks 'Spore', 'Quantel', 'Co-Pilot' and 'Hull'. It's very good.

29/05/19 - Built by Humanoid album & t-shirts now available to order

With an official release date of 7th July - but likely earlier shipping, as per usual with FSOLDigital - the new Humanoid album Built by Humanoid is available to pre-order now from FSOLDigital. The order page offers CD, LP+MP3, MP3 and FLAC versions. A colour design of the cover on black is the first of two related t-shirts, while a text version on black or white is the second. From the runtimes given, it appears the album is 43 minutes long.

29/05/19 - Change.org petition for deluxe Lifeforms

Regular news finder and contributor Rob Cagni has started a petition to hopefully let Universal know there is a demand for deluxe editions of FSOL's albums, starting with Lifeforms. You can sign the petition here. While the request for Universal to revert the rights to Gaz and Brian is unlikely, the label are reportedly interested in re-purposing the band's '90s catalogue, so this kind of attention will hopefully re-enforce that.

25/05/19 - Built by Humanoid, out in June

Thanks to forum member ronniedobbs for finding this link with information about what appears to be the long-awaited new Humanoid album, Built by Humanoid. The tracklist runs as so:

1. Orfan Atmosphere
2. Polymath
3. Blokd
4. Traktion
5. Fu*k It
6. To Function Autonomously
7. Post Humans
8. A.p.e.
9. N-Droid

Needless to say this is exciting news! There will undoubtedly be an official announcement very soon to confirm the date (Red Eye have it as 7th June, Amazon have it listed as 20th June), and as the label is FSOLDigital, copies will be available from the official site on or before release day. CD and LP editions will be made available.

24/05/19 - Genocide Dolphins update

Genocide Dolphins, the computer game FSOL are helping soundtrack, posted an intriguing Facebook update today:

"Finally received multiple officially licensed remixes of Papua new guinea from Future Sound Of London. These no one will hear until they play GD.... or watch the trailers :) Trailers coming xmas 2019. PLUS GD will feature once again in a new FSOL production coming up in the next week."

Although it's all quite vague, there are a couple of things we can take from this: the PNG remixes look like they might be new, unheard versions, and the coming in the next week section suggests GD visuals might accompany a teaser for a new album. Whether this will be the long-awaited Humanoid album, Environment Seven, or something else, we don't yet know...

23/05/19 - Lifeforms turns 25

Happy birthday to Lifeforms, released 25 years ago today. Some lovely comments, tributes and discussion happening on both Brian and Gaz's Facebook pages as they both celebrate the album's anniversary. Needless to say without the album, this page wouldn't be here, and I'd have a very different perspective on music, so a huge thanks to the band for creating such a masterpiece.

18/05/19 - May Calendar track and Little Chill

This month's calendar track is called 'Cellular Glitch', and is described in the FSOLDigital email as so:
"The May 2019 calendar track release comes in the form of a variant version of 2010 Environment 3 classic ‘A Glitch in Cellular Memory’

This track was never released until now but has been dusted down and cleaned up."

A more rhythmic, almost aggressive sounding version of the euphoric original, the track is an unexpected curio and an intriguing look into the band's creative process. Check your inboxes now!

In other news, Gaz is lined up as a 'to be confirmed' DJ at a potential reunion of the Big Chill event (at which he DJed twice in 2001), named The Little Chill. Crowdfunded tickets can be purchased here, although it must be stressed that Gaz's participation is yet to be confirmed.

28/04/19 - EBS12, Humanoid album

The Electric Brain Storms Document 12 is due for release / broadcast / transmission / beaming directly into your brain in the coming weeks. The reason behind the uncertainty of transmission is that the promotional image given for it bears the layout of a cassette J-card - could this be the first tape release on FSOLDigital? Brian is very much a fan of the format, so there's every chance. Here's a look at the cover:


In other news, it appears the Humanoid album is complete and due for release a some point in the summer. It's been a very long wait for this one, so that's pretty exciting. With Amorphous stuff still due (albeit probably not until the end of the year now), and Environment Seven similarly awaited, it looks like a very busy year ahead...

28/04/19 - Another Humanoid compilation track

Humanoid - this time under the guise Stakker Humanoid - is due to release the new track 'Far Point' on the forthcoming compilation Repeat, issued by electronic artist The Gasman. The compilation is a 2CD set that also features a huge number of other IDM and acid artists, and will be available from The Gasman's Bandcamp at some point in May.

22/04/19 - Yage 2019 now available from FSOLDigital.

Standard CD and download editions - as well as a limited supply of the RSD LP version - of Yage 2019 are now available from FSOLDigital. The download, which also comes with the vinyl, features all 13 tracks as included on the CD. Get those orders in now!

20/04/19 - EMS : Piano remixes Middlemarch

The EMS : Piano project is given the opportunity to provide its first remix, of the track 'The Dead Complain of Their Burial' by Middlemarch, from their forthcoming remix record The Mirror and the Light. The album is available as CD and digital from Carpe Sonum Records, with a release date of 18th July. The album also features a remix by long-time FSOL collaborator Neotropic, as well as FSOLBoard members Off Land and cubus.

12/04/19 - Yage 2019 samples

As has become the norm for such things, clips of all tracks from the Yage 2019 LP can now be heard from Decks. It's a pretty varied set - arguably more so than last year's My Kingdom release - with everything from twinkly new age synths to full-on post-Dead Cities funk. The clips also confirm what was already suspected: 'Rhodesia' is indeed the 'Beijing' mix (from Electric Brain Storm 2), and 'Ayahuasca' is once again the name for 'Hallucination'. No clips of the two CD bonus tracks yet, of course, although they'll likely turn up before release.

The LP will be available at various shops participating in tomorrow's Record Store Day, with a handful of copies turning up on FSOLDigital in due course, no doubt.

On the subject of FSOLDigital, a limited stock of the Future Massive 12" compilation, featuring the bizarrely censored Humanoid track 'Fu*k It', is available from the store now. Interestingly, the press release for the album cites the track as a Dougans/Cobain composition, suggesting the pair have a Lennon/McCartney-style publishing deal that covers whatever they work on together and alone. And, for reasons of completeness, as I shamefully forgot to mention it last month, all three volumes of the Ramblings of a Madman series are available as a bundle on the site.

23/03/19 - March updates

Bit late on some of these but here we go. A few days ago, subscribers received the March Calendar Album track, 'Artificial Placement of Emotion', an archived piece from 2017, suggesting something from the Environment Seven sessions (likely from an early version of the album). Secondly, there's a new Amorphous t-shirt on FSOLDigital, orange text on white, very retro-psych looking. And on the subject of Amorphous, those hoping that the "mid 2019" date for the new album would be met (ha!) will have to wait a bit longer, as the album is now due in the second half of the year. They're recording the choir for 'We Persuade Ourselves We are Immortal' next month... in the meantime, a clip of some synth work recorded as 'Path 2' of the '...Immortal' multi-part single is now viewable on Facebook and Instagram to keep our appetites very much whetted.

06/03/19 - Ramblings Book 3 now available.

From FSOLDigital:
This is volume three of the Ramblings book series. It is a 96 page A6 full colour zine – text / images / stories. Created and produced by FSOL. “Reality as foretold by a panoply of characters within the FSOL metaverse”

Once again the book includes a new 6 track EP download (320kbps mp3) and comes in a SEALED metallically shielded anti static bag. Also available is an optional unique one off A3 print (the original proof copies supplied to FSOL) – no two are the same – limited amount available.

Finally a hand screen printed hoodie is also available as part of the package. Available in Medium, Large and XLarge.

EP TRACKLISTING:
01 – Turbulent Haze
02 – Restricted Conversation Between Occupants
03 – Take Umbrage
04 – Outsourced
05 – Viewed from the Pedestrian’s Angle
06 – Disseminate

Grab it here.

03/03/19 - Humanoid on Future Massive compilation

Opening up new label Future Massive is a compilation - Future Massive: Volume 1 - which features a new Humanoid track, 'Fu*k It'. The track, complete with video, is available to stream on Facebook, and pre-orders of the digital and 12" editions come with an immediate download of the track from Bandcamp.

01/03/19 - Yage 2019 for Record Store Day

Following the success of last year's 'My Kingdom' mini-album, FSOL have cast their eye on another Dead Cities track for this year's Record Store Day:

In 1986 iconic group The Future Sound of London released the UK Top 40 chart album "Dead Cities", from which came a track "Yage". Such has been the interest in this masterpiece of electronica over the years that the guys have been back into the studio to revisit it. Here, on this limited edition, individually numbered LP press exclusively for 2019' s Record Store Day comes the results. "Yage 2019" takes the core of the original and rebuilds it. All together there are eleven tracks reconstructions and interpretations, woven together (as FSOL do) into a 42 minute dreamscape journey across the 2 sides of vinyl. Only 1000 copies of this release will be pressed on vinyl.

According to Amazon, a CD edition featuring two extra tracks will follow two weeks later on 26th April. The CD tracklist is:
1. Yage 2019
2. Floating Into Focus And Then Moving Away
3. Purged
4. We Flew Together
5. Yage (Rhodesia)/Insulin
6. Voodoo Doll
7. Earth Spirit
8. Ayahuasca
9. Slowly Stumbled
10. The People Of Yage (Humanoid Rebuild)
11. Yage Sunset Strip
12. A Sensation Of Vagueness
13. The Images Were Simple And Few

18/01/19 - No new album called Nordwand

Quite a few people have spotted that there's a new FSOL album listed on Google called Nordwand. Sadly, this is simply Google's automatic listing getting confused by the fact that there are many, many acts called Yage, one of whom - a Norwegian rock group - have just released an album called Nordwand.

04/01/19 - 2019 Calendar Album

"Yes, it’s back. But this time there is no actual calendar. However, as before, a FSOLdigital track is delivered each month to make a new 12 track album.

The first track is ready and waiting for 2019 – The Future Sound Of London – DAK 5053 TMY

Enjoy"

Well, that's a nice surprise. Grab your copy from FSOLDigital for £6.00.