12/12/23 - E7 Trilogy on Bandcamp

A digital compilation entitled E7 Trilogy has been added to the FSOL Bandcamp. An option for future buyers to pick up all three volumes in one fell swoop, no doubt? Pretty much, although there's a bizarre change to the Rituals section, with an index change at the end of 'Time Cone' - that track's closing environment is given its own track, and named 'Solar Signal', thus pushing every track back by one, and resulting in 'Only in Memories' being given the new title 'ext tx'. This is unusual, and possibly an error. Still, costing £5 less than buying all three digital albums separately, it's a good price, if a little confusing.

04/12/23 - Pulse Five out in January

The fifth volume in the Pulse series arrives on 26th January 2024, only 32 years after the fourth. This is an eight track double LP, coming out on De:Tuned, who released the last few Humanoid records.

01. The Future Sound of London - Honesty
02. The Future Sound of London - Dialectics
03. Yage - Sun Risen
04. Mental Cube - Big Lie
05. Smart Systems - The Nu Generation
06. Indo Tribe - Obstinta
07. The Future Sound of London - Reasonable Aquiries
08. Yage - Man Shall Be Conditioned

Stylistically, the record is mostly along the '92/'93 end of things, similarities with releases like Fuzzy Logic, Accelerator and Tales of Ephidrina, although the Smart Systems track does hark back to the group's full-on rave days. Strictly Kev has provided gorgeous artwork, itself inspired by Buggy G Riphead's original Jumpin' & Pumpin' covers, with new mini-logos for each of the artists involved.

The opening and closing tracks can be heard on De:Tuned's Bandcamp, where the album can be pre-ordered now. For those in the UK, Bleep have the album in stock, and as part of their Advent season, they are also selling 50 hand screen-printed posters of the cover, each with a postcard of one of the new artist logos. There's also a Bleep-exclusive orange vinyl, as well as the clear and black editions.

As the previous De:Tuned Humanoid records all came out later through FSOLdigital as expanded CD and digital versions, this can't be ruled out here, although there's no news on this either way as of yet.

24/10/23 - Environment 7.003 now available on Bandcamp

Downloads of the full album are now available!

20/10/23 - So This is Love out now

The 12" reissue of So This is Love is now available from Bandcamp. The download version comes with two previously unreleased mixes of the track, 'Santa Monica Mix' and 'Pacific Beach Mix'.

19/10/23 - So This is Love reissue, 7.003 updates

So it appears the next 12" from the band's early years to get a reissue will be Mental Cube's 'So This is Love', which is due for release on 27th October, according to Horizons Music.

In other news, the same store has provided us with an oddly worded press statement on Environment 7.003, plus track times and confirmation that the LP will contain 12 tracks, and the CD/download 15 (although track 15, 'One Solar Radius', is seemingly unlisted on the CD).

"Going deeper and darker than the previous two albums, the flavour here harping back with memories of the groups 90s sounding pre “Dead Cities” album. On this release they have swamp laden electronics dripping from cavernous breakbeats weaving in and out of otherworldly chords and strings firmly back in the driving seat."
1 Future Testaments (4:13)
2 Resting Point (2:16)
3 A Desolate Stretch of Night Road (5:50)
4 Where All Is Ending (4:37)
5 Overwrite (4:11)
6 I'm Eating Here (4:01)
7 Echos of Inherent Sense (1:21)
8 A Space in the Subsequent Familiar (4:23)
9 Drift Incline (4:52)
10 Trichome (4:19)
11 Absence of Solution (4:23)
12 Kwaahu (5:02)
CD Bonus Tracks
13 Ruler (4:14)
14 Awkward Shape (4:04)
15. One Solar Radius (4:24)
LP time: 49:28, CD/download time 62:10.

13/10/23 - Environment 7.003 out 1st November

The first time a new FSOL release hasn't been first discovered through an external online seller, Environment 7.003 is the final part of the Environment Seven trilogy. Yes, that means the first two parts have their own titles, while this reverts to the more traditional titling. Always confounding and confusing, FSOL. The art looks like a direct homage to ISDN, from the plain white cover with FSOL text, to the layout of the tracklist and the 3D grid shape. There's no news on exactly what the vinyl tracklist is, although the CD art seems to omit the final track, 'One Solar Radius', from the printed tracklist. This is, of course, the one offered as a preview on Bandcamp (it's a lovely uplifting piece). It's likely the LP will be around 12 tracks, as per the previous two albums, although it's certainly possible that the album is a shorter one like some of the earlier volumes. And here's the Bandcamp link.

07/09/23 - Pulse EP reissue

1991's The Pulse EP, featuring the first ever tracks by FSOL and Indo Tribe, has been reissued and is available to pre-order from Bandcamp now. Release date is 21st September.