Monday, 25 August 2014

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

20/08/14 - Environment Five tracklist + info

Although there's been lots of speculation around the previous records, all of the Environments albums have been marketed as 'lost albums' from their '90s period, despite the very clear progression into newly recorded material as the series has gone on. Still, even volume 4 had 'Fibrillation', which has its origins in 'Glacier', and potentially more old stuff we don't know about. It is, then, with some excitement, that we can share the album description of Environment Five...

Following on from the themes of the first 4 Environments albums, Five explores the space / time / dimension that exists when we die. The moment of departure. It includes appearances from Daniel Pemberton (BAFTA nominated / Ivor Novello winning composer), Raven Bush (Syd Arthur) and Riz Maslen (Neotropic). The Environment series originally began as an archive of previously unreleased recordings but Environment Five features thirteen all new songs recorded in the first half of 2014.

So yes, confirmation that this is the new FSOL album. So that's a nice way to start the day. Also, this is the first time an album has been given an official description. Whilst both Lifeforms and Dead Cities had their concepts discussed in interviews, this time we have a definite theme: the space / time / dimension that exists when we die. This theme is very much explored in the tracklist, as listed below...

Disc: 1
1. Point Of Departure
2. Source Of Uncertainty
3. Image Of The Past
4. Beings Of Light
5. In Solitude We Are At Least Alone
6. Viewed From Below The Surface
Disc: 2
1. Somatosensory
2. Multiples
3. Dying While Being Held
4. Machines of the Subconscious
5. Dark and Lonely Waters
6. The Dust Settles
7. Moments Of Isolation

Despite both the vinyl and CD editions being listed as single disc editions, both feature a double disc tracklist. Given the knowledge that it's going to be a long album, it's likely that it's a single CD, double LP edition, and this tracklist is for the vinyl. There's a lot of potentially interesting stuff to read into the tracklisting... firstly, again, the theme. Unlike the previous Environments records, which have very much had vague descriptive titles ('North Arctic', 'The Empty Land', 'River Delta', etc.), here there's a definite sense of cohesion between the track names. Secondly, it's great to see the 'Viewed from...' series make a return after its absence on the previous volume. Lastly, no sign of the three titles we'd previously been supplied with: 'Five G' (from the Seafar teaser in early 2012); '******' and 'Strange Glare' from the FSOLDigital Sampler 2. It's possible that these have been renamed; it's equally possible that the 'first half of 2014' remark in the description is true, and this wholly new record replaces an earlier incarnation of the album - in which case, we'll probably see those tracks appear on a future Archive record.

20/08/14 - Environment Five vinyl

Environment Five will be the first major FSOL release to come out on vinyl since Alice in Ultraland in 2005. This is exciting news.

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

19/08/14 - Environment 5 out 15th September

All this time I've been looking for information on Environments 5, I never stopped to consider that the album could really be called Environment 5. Then again, this Amazon release date of 15th September suggests otherwise...
Less than a month to go!

Monday, 18 August 2014

19/08/14 - Environments 5 clips

Two clips from Environments 5 have appeared on Brian's STAKKERHUMANOID account this afternoon.
"In Solitude At Least We Are Alone":

"Source of Uncertainty":
 The former is reminiscent of the Amorphous-tinged sound of Environments 4, whilst the latter is a moody piano piece, with hints of Environments 3. Yet they both sound fresh and new, too. Which is all we can hope for. Other than Gaz saying he's finally back in full-on FSOL mode:
"very proud of this upcoming FSOL album.. some very deep personal synchronicity behind it which feels like i've reconnected with my former self at the same time reconnecting ( here via facebook ) with some incredibly important people from my past. Don't quite know why i let such people leave my life and don't quite know why i left FSOL behind when it represents such a huge emotional aspect of my personality but there you go...we are a mystery unto ourselves sometimes......love this track featuring the wonderful RAVEN BUSH with a majestic violin performance 'IN SOLITUDE WE ARE LEAST ALONE ' can't wait for people to hear the whole track and album..."

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

22/07/14 - Gaz on Facebook: Australia release and Environments 5

A couple of remarks about the future from Gaz on Facebook - in reply to a question about Australian releases, he hinted at a future release 'devoted to Australia' that they're just finishing up.
He also said that a little thing called Environments 5 will be out 'next month', contains 'new material' and that he's 'very proud of this album' - so that's exciting. The wait is almost at an end, it seems!

Monday, 7 July 2014

07/07/14 - Monstrous Psychedelic DJ set + news forthcoming

From the Amorphous Facebook page...

"Looking forward to spinning some cosmic grooves with our sitar maestro Jonathan Mayer on the magic pumpkin in a couple of weeks time...haven't done one of these in a while, yes, a Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble DJ set in Finland with live sitar no less no more.
& seems timely to dig out this one at the Green Man ha ha
This comes ahead of some very exciting new MONSTROUS Psychedelic Bubble news forthcoming shortly..ah..a psychedelic tease eh?!"

What this news will be - the rumoured covers + remixes album, the new Amorphous single "Mother", the long forgotten FSOL volume of the series or, most likely, something we've not heard of yet - remains to be seen, but given the group's definitions of words like "shortly", we'll probably know by the end of the year...