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!