02/12/21 - new Humanoid mix tomorrow night, next FSOL charity compilation track

De:Tuned Records's regular show on We Are Various will feature an exclusive mix by Humanoid, tomorrow (3rd December 2021), between 3-4PM GMT. Click here for a link to stream.

FSOL have provided 'Sand Dunes' for a wonderful charity compilation Project OO, which can be purchased from from Touched Music here.

12/11/21 - New releases announced: Environment Seven: Rituals, Earthbeat, Mind Maps 3

After the first play of Mind Maps 2, an announcement on the Touched Mixlr station informed listeners of forthcoming releases, including Environment Seven being a trilogy, the first part, 'Rituals', is due for release in the first quarter of 2022. Following its CD reissue this week, Earthbeat will be out as a double vinyl reissue in the new year. And in the chat, Martin informed us that Mind Maps 3 is on its way for next year.

Meanwhile, Mind Maps 2 can be purchased from the Touched Bandcamp, and on the FSOL Bandcamp, Mind Maps 2 hoodies and t-shirts can also be bought.

12/11/21 - Earthbeat reissue

Earthbeat, the compilation of early Jumpin' & Pumpin' tracks, has been reissued on CD. Copies can now be purchased from the FSOL Bandcamp page.

06/11/12 - Mixlr Show to launch Mind Maps 2

As is now common practice, Touched Music will host a Mixlr night to launch Mind Maps 2, next Friday at 19:30 GMT. This will include a mix of FSOL tunes before a play of the album, followed by the album's release. Here's the Facebook event, and a link to where the stream will take place.

05/11/21 - Mind Maps 2 out next week

The second volume in the Mind Maps series will be released as a CD on Touched Music next week, 12th November 2021. The mix album is described as "Another journey through uncharted soundscapes with The Future Sound of London, Humanoid, Yage, Synthi A, Apertures, sT8818r and B Dog."

11/10/21 - Humanoid - sT8818r Humanoid out in December

'Stakker Humanoid' has been remastered and will feature as the A-side to a 12" single on De:Tuned. The B-sides include remixes of 2019 update 'sT8818r' by none other than Autechre, Luke Vibert and Mike Dred. An incredible line-up, and a really worthy set of artists to see Humanoid get the remixes it deserves! The 12" and digital single will be released on 3rd December, pre-orders are now available from Bandcamp, with copies arriving at worldwide stores in the coming weeks.

06/10/21 - New Pemberton / FSOL collab track

A new track credited to Daniel Pemberton & FSOL, entitled 'Behind the Eyes', is due to be released on 19th November 2021, as part of an ambient compilation mixed by Coldcut and Mixmaster Morris called @0. The compilation can be pre-ordered as CD, 2LP and digital from the Coldcut Bandcamp.

02/10/21 - 14 Songs now on Bandcamp

Humanoid's 7 Songs with 7 bonus songs is now available on Bandcamp as digital download and CD. The CD is the first FSOLDigital release to come in a digipak.

01/10/21 - Mind Maps 2, 7 Songs x2, Calendar track delay

Mind Maps 2, a follow-up to the hugely popular mix CD released earlier this year, will be out on Touched Music in November. Not, as suspected, the hour-long mix that was broadcast on the night of the first mix, this is in fact an entirely new mix of unreleased FSOLDigital material. More news soon.

The expanded version of Humanoid's 7 Songs, with an added seven songs, is now available on CD. Juno has copies, and FSOLDigital / Bandcamp versions should be online in the very near future.
September's calendar track is running a tiny bit late - things are busier than ever behind the scenes - but should be with subscribers today.

14/09/21 - More NFT animations

Over on NFT marketplace OpenSea there are two previously unspotted collections of FSOL animations: Confirmation Bias, with some short loops, and Thought Pattern, a series of generative animations created using Brian's eDDi device, previously encountered on Polemical's Hand-Made Devices and the only glitch.tv website.

12/09/21 - Run Wrake animations on FSOL Foundation page

Three new animations, to be sold as NFTs, are now on the FSOL Foundation page. They appear to be the first three in a series of eight animation loops depicting art by the late Run Wrake, which will be familiar to FSOL fans as parts of the 'We Have Explosive' music video. Reserve price is 3.00 ETH.

Six of the previously released FSOL artworks have now been purchased.

10/09/21 - 7 Songs coming out on CD

The currently vinyl-only Humanodi album 7 Songs will be getting a CD release on 19th November, according to Proper Music. Amazingly, the album has doubled in length, featuring a further seven bonus tracks. These include the previously release 'Tower', 'Co-Pilot' and 'Far Point', as well as four new tracks! The CD will be released on FSOLDigital, with a catalogue number of CDTOT 83. Given that this is the next number up from We Have Explosive 2021, this seems like confirmation that Environment Seven won't be out until 2022 now.

31/08/21 - New Humanoid remix out on Friday

Well, we almost got through a month without news! Min-Y-Llan, aka Martin Boulton of Touched Music, is releasing a new album this weekend on the label. It is due to contain a Humanoid remix. Here's a Facebook link. Speaking of Touched, there is, apparently, a Mind Maps 2 due for release on the label at some point in the coming months. More news soon...

30/07/21 - New Humanoid out now

Humanoid's 7 Songs is now out, available from Juno, Bleep, Deejay and numerous other good online retailers. To celebrate the release, this month's Calendar Album track is more Humanoid, and most interestingly, it's a cut from the soundtrack to the defunct film Shh - remember that one?

26/06/21 - Mind Maps on FSOLDigital

Last night's Touched Music release of Mind Maps sold out in a few hours. The good news for anyone who missed it is the CD is now available on FSOL's Bandcamp. There's still no digital edition - given the number of remixes on it, we're guessing licensing reasons behind that - but plenty of copies seem to be left.

25/06/21 - Mind Maps CD now on sale

The Mind Maps CD is now available from Touched Music. Copies are limited so grab yours now. There are no current plans for a digital release of this album.

23/06/21 - Mind Maps Mixlr Mix

To celebrate the release of Mind Maps on CD, Touched Music will be hosting a stream of the full album, followed by another new hour-long mix, on Friday evening at 7:30PM. Most Touched releases come out straight after Mixlr shows, so expect the album to drop around 9:30 on the Touched Music Bandcamp.

21/06/21 - Mind Maps out on Friday

Last November's Touched Music Mixlr exclusive Mind Maps is getting its long-rumoured release this Friday, 25th June. A CD edition of the 60 minute mix will be released on Touched Music. Given the record's Controlled Vista-like 'mix' nature, it's likely to be released as a single track. To mark the occasion, as is usual with Touched releases, there will be a new Mixlr show previewing unreleased FSOLDigital material.

20/06/21 - Record Store Day releases on Bandcamp

As expected, a week after RSD the three releases are now for sale on the Amorphous and FSOL Bandcamps: The World is Full of Plankton, We Have Explosive, Accelerator.

20/06/21 - FSOL NFTs

FSOL at Foundation.
So the official FSOL Twitter seems to have pushed this, even though it's not on Facebook, Instagram or FSOLDigital yet. As FSOLBoard admin mcbpete spotted the other day, there's a FSOL page on Foundation, the Etherium-based blockchain art site. The profile describes FSOL as: Avant-garde Visionaries

Electronic Sound Pioneers

Creators of the first internet music download

..Digital Artworks 88..

Future Sound of London
Stakker Humanoid
The Amorphous Androgynous

There are 12 digital artworks available as non-fungible tokens (NFTS), each of which features a loop of animation and audio. All the audio appears to be exclusive, although some of the tracks are radical reworkings of known pieces (the strangely atmospheric version of 'In Solitude We Are Least Alone' is rather nice). There are also two with morphing faces of Vit and Shauneen.

The page looks to have been up for a while, with the oldest five artworks given an auction reserve price (some of them quite high), while later works seem to have no reserve. All of the pieces can of course be viewed for free, but the winning bidder will have official ownership and resale rights, as per the NFT format.

02/06/21 - News blog update

In response to an issue that arose earlier today, I have removed the comments feature from the blog. I'd like to make it clear that the issue - if true - is something I take very seriously, and if the person who made the comment wishes to discuss it further with me, I can be contacted through the Discussion Forum (linked on the right). However, this particular blog isn't the place for such a discussion.

A combination of international crises and increasingly negative, polarising use of social media has made using the internet a difficult and often unpleasant place in recent years, especially the past twelve months. For my own personal reasons, I've recently been drastically cutting back my use of the internet and simplifying that which I do use. I'll still be updating this blog to keep everyone informed about everything FSOL, Humanoid, Yage and all their friends, but I may be somewhat quieter in other areas of FSOL discussion online. Don't worry, I'll probably just be here listening to Lifeforms and pretending it's still the mid '90s.

26/05/21 - We Have Explosive out now!

In a surprise development, the re-recording of 'We Have Explosive' is out now. CD and digital versions are now available from Bandcamp. The vinyl edition is still due to follow next month on Record Store Day.

Long-time followers will be very happy to hear that the 2" Tape Reels version of the track is indeed on the album, under the title 'Detonation'.

19/05/21 - New Humanoid EP, Orfan Atmosphere, now available

In a move that recalls the early days of FSOLDigital, a new Humanoid EP has appeared out of the blue. Orfan Atmosphere features an alternate version of the track originally released on Built by Humanoid, and three new tracks. The digital-only EP is now available from Bandcamp.

1. Orfan Atmosphere txk
2. Octant Atmosphere
3. Savage Elements
4. UY - a.p.e.

18/05/21 - 7 Songs delayed

According to a post by De:tuned on WATMM, the new Humanoid album 7 Songs is now due for release on 30th July.

15/05/21 - Upcoming Gaz radio interview

There'll be an interview with Gaz on KSFR 101.1FM Santa Fe Public Radio, next week on 19th May. Times are as so: 12am-1am MT / 7am GMT. The interview should be streamable from the KSFR website.

15/05/21 - Calendars CDs & downloads on Bandcamp, vinyl coming soon

Music for Calendars is now available as CD and digital on Bandcamp; pre-orders for the LP edition are now available from the main album page. The album is also now available from FSOLDigital, with, for the first time, a free MP3 download when purchasing the CD. They are expecting the LP edition by the end of the months, after numerous Covid-related setbacks.

12/05/21 Humanoid - 7 Songs out in July

A new mini-album from Humanoid will be out on 5th July on the De:tuned label. De:Tuned, of course, have released numerous FSOL and Humanoid tracks over the past couple of years as part of their compilation albums and EPs. 7 Songs includes, unsurprisingly, seven tracks. As with De:tuned, there will be no CD release, but the album will be available digitally, as well as a 12" and 10" 180g vinyl double pack. There will be a standard edition and a limited edition pink marbled version. Here's the tracklist:

A1. "Truc" A2. "Last Seen" B1. "Pyramid 17" B2. "Swerver" B3. "Osculated" C1. "Hed Set" D1. "Seen Last"

Here's the cover:


And here's the blurb:
Humanoid invades De:tuned with a new and highly anticipated 7 song album of classic acid cuts. Flashback to the '88 acid-house spirit! Brian Dougans embarks on another journey of 303 breakbeat euphoria followed by fast, frantic and beat driven productions. The additional 10" completes the hallucinating trip with 2 floating acidic corkers.

Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!

FSOLDigital will undoubtedly have copies for sale. Otherwise, it can be preordered at Juno, Deejay, and no doubt various other stores in the coming weeks.

05/05/21 - WHE2021 CD news

Confirmation of the art and tracklist for the CD release of the 2021 reworking of 'We Have Explosive'. In addition to the 11 tracks on the LP, the CD and digital versions will also feature tracks 'Slide Door' and '5cam'.

The CD will also feature slightly different artwork, which will look like this:

The CD should follow a few weeks after Record Store Day.

20/04/21 - Music for 3 Books is shipping this week.

After a number of Covid-related delays, Music for 3 Books will be shipping from the band this week, ahead of its international release next month. Copies can be ordered from the FSOL Digital Bandcamp.

15/04/21 - Dead Cities lithograph print and new Gaz interview

Recordstore.co.uk are apparently offering a limited number of Dead Cities 2LP reissues with a lithograph print. There's no info about what this is a print of - our guess would be the front cover - but here's a link for anyone who wants to find out. Secondly, on the AA front, there's a fascinating interview by Jim Christopulos from Vandergraafgenerator.co.uk, which, unsurprisingly, talks at length about the Peter Hammill-starring '...Immortal...' single, but also the history of FSOL, Amorphous, and the future of things. It's the first lengthy interview with Gaz for quite a few years, and is well worth a read. Have a peek at is here.

11/04/21 - Fractional Difference blog

Between 2001 and 2014, I ran a fansite with the catchy name Welcome to the Galaxial Pharmaceutical, although it was generally known by my domain name, Second Thought. I also had a FSOL wiki for a few months in 2018, before accidentally deleting it. Many readers will know this blog from being part of the Second Thought site.
Anyway, preamble aside, I've recently started a new page called Fractional Difference. The aim is to go through every release, and every track, and provide some analysis of each, both objective and subjective. Each release will also be linked from a general Discography page, which is something that I don't think exists elsewhere on the internet at the moment and is much needed.
You can read and follow the blog at https://fractionaldifference.wordpress.com/

11/04/21 - Listening Beyond the Head Chakra not due until 2022

Replying to a Facebook question about whether the new Amorphous album will be out this year, Gaz replied "I doubt it". So we still have some time to wait for that. However, the longform Mantra single is now expected later this year, rather than after Head Chakra. So, small mercies.

09/04/21 - We Have Explosive and Accelerator tracklists revealed

We Have Explosive has some very to-the-point titles...
01. We Have Explosive 2021
02. Implosive
03. Abandoned Housing Blocks Of Prypiat
04. Vaporise
05. Detonation
06. Herd Killing (2021)
07. Stasis Field
08. Waiting Your Return
09. Mib1
10. Exploding
11. Exotype

Accelerator is just the same album split over four sides, so basically an audiophile version. Given that the sides are meant to be played gaplessly, this version does seem a little pointless.

07/04/21 - Record Store Day 2021

This year, Record Store Day partially follows the pattern of last year's staggered format, with two drops. The first is on 12th June, and this will include a record three releases by Dougans and Cobain. The first, and most interesting, is the latest in the series of re-imaginings of the band's '90s tracks. This time, We Have Explosive is in the chair, with a set of new re-interpretations of the track. Given that the last two releases have featured archival works among the new tracks, it's possible that tracks like 'Exploded Funk', 'Abandoned Housing Blocks of Prypiat' and 'Blue Green' may be among the tracks here, but in general expect a series of new tracks based around the band's second-most-famous piece. An expanded CD version a couple of weeks later is, at this point, a near certainty. Interestingly, the cover and given title lists no 'Re-Imagined' or '2021', as with previous releases.

Secondly, The Amorphous Androgynous tease a forthcoming reissue of Alice in Ultraland with a 10" EP, with The World is Full of Plankton as the title track. The b-side will feature two as yet unknown tracks, apparently from the album too. This is clearly more for the collector, although taken on its own, it's really nice to see 'Plankton' get its dues as one of the finest compositions in the Dougans / Cobain ouvre. The album itself, of course, passed back into the band's posession last year at the end of their contract with Harvest; a reissue is overdue, and one hopes a bonus disc in the style of The Otherness will accompany it. No release details have been revealed for the reissue yet.

The third and final release is the most curious: Accelerator is coming out again, this time on its 30th anniversary (the minor issue of J&P delayed the 1991 release until the start of 1992 notwithstanding). There are no details on the Record Store Day page (linking, annoyingly, to the WHE page), but the full listings have it down as a double LP, suggesting there'll be some extra material here (a 12-minutes-per-side 2020s style release seeming unlikely, given it being mixed to play as two gapless sides). One assumes it's likely to be a set of 'Papua New Guinea' remixes on the second disc - possibly the same set as the 2001 reissue, given a vinyl release at last - although given the amount of archived material being regularly uncovered over at 9LW, it's not impossible that we're getting a whole album of Accelerator-era outtakes. The cover provided is the same 'remixed' version from the 2016 RSD release, so it's not totally impossible that it's actually a 12" + 7" pack as we had then, simply mislabelled by the people at RSD. We're going to do some digging, but either way we'll find out in the next few weeks...

07/04/21 - FSOL on Twitter

There's a new FSOL Twitter page for those who use it - follow @FSOLYage for news and updates.

05/04/21 - 3 Books and Calendars news

The release of Music for 3 Books and Music from Calendars has been put back a little due to inevitable Covid-related manufacturing delays. Wider distribution is expected to commence on 14th May, which means we should be expecting copies purchased from Bandcamp to be shipping this month at some point. The good news is we now have a tracklist for the Calendars compilation, and news that it will be released on CD as well as LP, catalogue number CDTOT80/LPTOT80.

Since 2017 FSOL have released whats called Calendar albums, which are digitally delivered monthly tracks that form a 12 track album by the end of the year. This release picks the best tracks from the last 4 years and brings them together in a seamlessly mixed 50 minute journey - 11 songs from FSOL, Humanoid and Synth-a engineered and mixed by Yage at FSOL's 9Lwest Studios.

Frozen Air
Near Field
Surrounding The Garden Is A Fog
Alertions
Artificial Placement Of Emotion
Riverbed
Blacked Out Windows
Obscured By Dark Intervals
Commensalism
Propagate
Memories Of Yesterday


Music for 3 Books has the catalogue number CDTOT81, and is described in the blurb as:
Over the past 5 years The Future Sound of London have released three A6 booklets - stories of FSOL's past - images and text. When purchased the books were accompanied by 20 mins of music - These have now been put these together to form a 1 hour seamless journey

The artwork for both releases has changed slightly from the Bandcamp editions:

19/03/20 - Roel Funcken to host FSOL Megamix

Tomorrow afternoon, between 1 and 5PM GMT, Roel Funcken (Funckarma, Cane, Mystery Artist) will host a four hour FSOL Megamix on his Mixlr channel. What will be of particular interest is that he promises to play some unreleased tracks. Tune in here!.

12/03/21 - Exclusive AA edit on Ray Fenwick compilation

Guitarist Ray Fenwick releases a career-spanning anthology, Playing Through the Changes, on 30th April. The 3CD set closes with an exclusive new edit of 'We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal', on which he plays lead guitar. The official blurb describes Amorphous as an 'electronica act', showing once again that, 20 years after the first announcement of the psychedelic project, people can't tell the difference between AA and FSOL.

12/03/21 - Dead Cities reissue out 16th April

The long-awaited 2LP reissue of Dead Cities will be released on 16th April by Universal.

26/02/21 - New Humanoid compilation track tonight

This evening, a 3CD charity compilation with all proceeds going to Dogs Trust, will be released on new label Pulse State. Included among the 33 tracks is the wonderfully named 'Oeeeoou' by Humanoid. Check the Pulse State Bandcamp later today for copies!

22/02/21 - Dead Cities 2LP reissue on its way, apparently.

Somebody has found a copy of a 2LP reissue of Dead Cities. In a small record shop in Tel Aviv. The catalogue numbers and label credits are correct for a forthcoming Virgin / Universal release... the question is, who has broken the embargo? We're not sure if it was an overexcited distributor or a shop unaware this isn't due out yet. The rest of you won't be seeing this release until a few months time... Here are the photos in the meantime:

12/02/21 - Cascade 2020 Video

Cascade 2020 now has an official music video, created by North Kingdom + Visual Magic. Featuring elements of the original Cascade video from 1993, filtered or reimagined, plus a heap of new visuals, it feels like a modern update to the classic trippy FSOL video style. Watch it on the FSOL Facebook now!

05/02/21 - Music for 3 Books, Calendar Albums & Music from Calendars on Bandcamp

Music for 3 Books, an album compiling all 17 tracks from the first three Ramblings zine download-EPs, is now available to buy from Bandcamp, as a digital album, and also as a CD! Grab it here for immediate download; the CD is shipping on 15th March. The 2017-2020 Calendar Albums are now also available on Bandcamp. On each Calendar Album page you can also pre-order a vinyl release called Music From Calendars, described as "what was considered the best tracks have been selected from the 4 calendar albums and reassembled on the 180g vinyl", shipping on the same day.

30/01/21 - 2021 Calendar Album out now

Another last minute appearance, but the 2021 Calendar Album is finally available from FSOLDigital. The album opens with an old/new FSOL track, described on FSOLDigital as:
Hey People

Hope you’re doing good ..
Welcome to 2021 calendar album everyone
January kicks off with a track that has been rebuilt in 2018 – the original extends back to the 90s – re mixed and some additional sounds and sequences added FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON – IDULKO BRIDGE

No sign of a Bandcamp version, so looks like it's just an MP3 album once again.

20/01/20 - 2021 Calendar Album due in the next few days.

12/01/20 - New track on forthcoming Touched compilation

Touched Music are organising a compilation for the Project OO charity - more information in this video. Among the artists who have already contributed is The Future Sound of London. The album will be out in August.

07/01/20 - Min-Y-Llan Humanoid remix out now

Humanoid's remix of Min-Y-Llan's beautiful 'Lot-E M5' is out now. The 7" has already sold out, but the track is available digitally, alongside the Karsten Pflum remix.