purlieu

I think I've listened to it twice, I only really bother with the instrumental disc. I'm hoping some of them will be like the Zola Jesus and Alison Goldfrapp features, going for wordless textural vocals rather than actual songs. Other than the two Grant Fulton ones in the '90s I don't like any of their past attempts at doing 'proper' songs (Illuminate, Frenetic, Wonky, all the stuff on 8:58, this new thing), so my hopes are really low. Which makes the idea of spending £40 on it for the bonus disc even less appealing.

Christ, that new single was the longest three and a half minutes of my life. Hopefully the bonus disc will be instrumental versions. Although I still resent having to pay £37 to get it.

Last time I was wary of a new Orbital record it was Wonky which turned out to be good, so this could still be fine. But... 1. Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat. The Mediaeval Baebes) 2. Day One (feat. Dina Ipavic) 3. Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles) 4. You Are The Frequency (feat. The Little Pest) 5. The New Abnormal 6. Home (feat. Anna B Savage) 7. Dirty Rat – With Sleaford Mods 8. Requiem For The Pre Apocalypse 9. What A Surprise (feat. The Little Pest) 10. Moon Princess (feat. Coppe) Almost all vocal tracks? Not sure about this at all. All bundles come with a limited edition bonus CD, but there's no word on what it contains, and it won't be available separately. So if you want it, you have to buy a bundle with the CD and vinyl. As someone who just likes buying music because I actually listen to it, I'm not keen on the idea of being formats I won't actually listen to just to get the bonus. £37, great. Singles with Sleaford Mods: Still, it's got John Greenwood artwork, which is... something.

I might buy a new CD player with a remote for when the album comes out.

Well, we have a new contender for Worst Orbital Song. Orbital & Sleaford Mods - Dirty Rat, out tomorrow. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj0gkKDuaaA/

It does feel a bit weird knowing they've got both new material and reissues coming along.

Wasn't expecting them to start teasing more stuff so soon! I notice they've finally put the Radiccio EP on streaming, which feels like a very slow introduction to the reissue campaign.

I'll keep on misspelling him until he does those reissues. You hear that, Gier?

Or you could just throw yourself in at the deep end.

In terms of the FSOLDigital material, the main albums have been focused on the Environments series. The first three have recognisable '90s material which makes them a bit less essential for some people (although E2 is my second favourite behind Lifeforms), but you can't really go wrong with E4 onwards. They're as varied in style and mood as the '90s albums are. Environments The long lost 1994 album. Most of it will be familiar to anyone who's heard their 1994 ISDN transmissions, but if you want a new album that sounds like their classic era, you could do a lot worse. Environments II A mixture of archived material from 1993-1997 - both unaltered and remixed/enhanced in 2008 - plus some new tracks, it introduces a very new modern classical/organic side to their sound. Environments 3 An extension of the above with a mood like a more mellow, ambient version of Dead Cities. Very abstract and minimal in places. Environments 4 A few '90s sounds in there but about 95% new material, quite a live/organic sound, possibly their least overly electronic album. Gorgeous stuff, though. Environment Five The first 100% new album since Dead Cities, mixes proggy stuff with modern classical and bleepy electronic bits. Very melancholic, recorded shortly after the death of Brian's father. Life in Moments Free album that came with the Most Important Moments of a Life book, it features a few digital bonus tracks plus a bunch of new material from the E5 sessions with a more obviously electronic sound. Environment 6.5 Actually makes sense in this order, this combines the proggier sounds of the previous two with an IDM slant rarely heard in their earlier material. Environment Six A very dark and intense record, even further into IDM territory, a series of 23 miniatures. Archived : Environmental : Views A weird 3LP release combining previously release and newly recorded material as three albums. The middle section, Environmental, is from the same sessions as the previous two, and has a very cold, stark sound; the CD version includes that full album plus new bits from the other two. Music for 3 Books An album split over three download EPs that came with three books, later issued as a standalone album. Continues the evolution of the sound with more textures and chuggy drum loops, and works very well as an album in the middle of the five year gap between the Environment 6 and 7 trilogies. Rituals First of the Environment Seven trilogy, and the first Environment to have a standalone name. More complex IDM mixed with chugging beats reminiscent of the ISDN era. A Space of Partial Illumination As per this thread. Music from Calendars A sort of 'best of' collection compiled from their yearly Calendar Albums (a track is sent to subscribers every month); the albums sometimes feature sketches, experiments, mixes and previews of forthcoming releases, so this compilation is worthwhile for non-hardcore fans. I helped select the tracklist. There are also new longform singles of reworked '90s tracks, and a bunch of archive albums which have a lot of solid material (especially the later volumes), as well as alias releases and mixes under the FSOLDigital Presents... banner, but I'd say the above are the best way in.

Some of them are definitely just slightly more stripped down mixes, but others are quite different, especially those with drum loops. I think there's enough for an EP of notable versions, although I don't blame him for filling it out to do the whole album. I'd struggle to justify paying for a 2LP edition, but it'll definitely get some listens from me.

Here are my initial track-by-track thoughts: A Space of Partial Illumination - Water and birdsong, leading into mellow glitchy ambience with some tape hiss. Incredibly minimal. Not sure there are any real comparison points to previous FSOL tracks. Lovely, although not very direct and a strange choice for one of the streamable tracks on Bandcamp. If That Were to Occur - Chunky drums, this is immediately reminiscent of the ISDN-leaning sound of Rituals, right down to the haunting ambient textures in the background. Some bitcrushed noises. "Where are you going?" Intents and Purpose - IDM, slightly acidy, very Humanoid. Once more, the Rituals-style thick background layers bring it a certain sense of ambience, despite the hectic fast beats. Embodied Cognition - Acoustic guitar, midtempo beats, very melancholic. Like a less epic 'Long Shadows'. Some familiar electronic noises in the background. Beautiful, my favourite track so far. "Something's wrong here..." Long Green Field - Pemberton collab, from Mind Maps 2. Works really well following the last track. Some field recordings from the opening track present. Again, an odd choice for preview track as it's nothing like the bulk of the album so far. Temporal Aliasing - Moody ambient intro, suddenly into some frantic breakbeats. Darkest track so far, begins to brighten a little with some melancholic synth pads, making it much airier. Definitely ISDN-reminiscent again. Distorted synths come in and it's all quite intense. Goes into an outro environment of rain, reversed sounds and dramatic, synth strings. Fades to almost silence, for the side-flip, but I think the digital version is technically gapless still, with a minuscule crossfade into... In Solitude We Are Least Alone (Waltz) - Unsurprisingly the version from Mind Maps 2 and the NFT. Piano and violin from the original, given a more electronic arrangement. Female wordless vocals in the second half. I'm still not sure how I feel about versions of the same track appearing on two different albums, although this is more FSOL and less Amorphous, so I'm immediately more disposed towards it. Frozen Light - Stuttering breakbeats, really gorgeous synth arpeggios and pads. Beautiful, immediately my favourite track now. Choral sounds. "Wait!" Informal Horizon - Field recordings from the first track seem to still be present, recurring as a theme throughout the album. Back into IDM territory again here, this reminds me a little of early Locust records, very dark ambient techno. Reminiscent of some of the heavier Calendar Album material. Ephemeral - Starts with some dark synth pads, but moves into Pemberton piano work around the minute mark. These E7 Pemberton tracks feel much more electronic than the previous Views collabs; this one has pulsing synths and chopped up pianos. Lovely stuff. All This Has Happened Before - More piano chords, although these don't feel like Pemberton. Deep bass, thudding live drums, electric violin. This one has Gaz written all over it, very heavy proggy Amorphous vibes. This is really great, like a darker and more melancholic take on the Amorphousy material on Environment 6.5. Think there's a sound from 'Hallucination' in there (or something Dead Citiesy), the first '90s sound I've noticed on this album so far. I could honestly listen to an album of this kind of thing. Outro environment of gurgling sounds and hisses. How Forests Think - Tinny drum machines, hypnotic synth arps, lots of weird noises going on in here. Voicemails! "Helicopter, £450..." An odd choice for the end of the vinyl album, but FSOL album closers have often been unusual. Mangy Burger - The third Bandcamp preview and another that's a strange choice as it's another fairly minimal piece. Single kick drum, lots of textural sounds, some synth pads, chopped up acoustic guitar note. It's a good atmospheric piece in context of the album, but... let's say it's not exactly single material. Also that title... A Stationary Air Mass - More ambience, reverberating glitches and hi-hats, slowly a mid-tempo acoustic drum loop and some pensive melodic stuff. EMS sweeps for the first time in a while. Chunky beats bring back that ISDN sound again, with some dubby delay. Noisy synths, some electric guitar noise, then wobbly synth pads and pianos bring in a much brighter, warmer sound. A very strange beast, but definitely a beast. Exists to Remove Doubt - Track from 47:02 into Mind Maps 2. A hint of 2016-2019 sound here, very bleepy, some crunchy and clicky beats. A brief brighter moment as a breather just before the final track. "Can you hear us? Answer us! Follow my voice..." Sophies Path - Track for Brian's cat. Synth pads, arps and melodies. Very dramatic, ending the album on an incredibly sad note. This is a much stronger album closer than 'How Forests Think'. Some of the synths here are heavily reminiscent of the more melodic Synthi A material, lovely old analogue sequences. Really beautiful stuff, another highlight. Closing environment of birdsong heavily reminiscent of the very start of the album, bringing things nicely full circle. On the whole, it's not quite as different from Rituals as I was expecting, stylistically, with a similar mix of chunky breaks, IDM and ambient textures, but the overall mood is somewhat different. It feels less claustrophobic, much airier, if still retaining a certain darkness. There's a nocturnal feel, and the closest I'm getting, atmosphere-wise, is maybe the very first Environments album; for me that always had the feeling of being outdoors, at night, maybe on some alien planet, and that's quite similar here. Stylistically it's obviously very different, but tonally I think the two are comparable. The main difference from Rituals, I think, is the real lack of the shorter bleepy tracks that were familiar from the E6/6.5 era. That sound feels like it's gradually been phased out, with more emphasis on Humanoid-style hectic IDM and more live sounding drums again. I have to say, I immediately prefer it to Rituals, which I never quite got into the way some people have. This one is slightly more melodic and spacious sounding, so it's automatically going to be more my kind of thing, but I think it's very slightly more consistent, too, lacking some of the slightly jarring tonal shifts that Rituals had. Favourite tracks: Embodied Cognition, Temporal Aliasing, All This Has Happened Before. Least favourite: Exists to Remove Doubt.

Out now! A Space of Partial Illumination E7.002 by THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON

Expect this from Bandcamp sooner than I anticipated.

Stores are now carrying dates of 14th, 18th and 21st October - a Bandcamp release will come along before that, so probably the next couple of weeks. Not sure if the tracklist previously given was an early draft of the album but this is the correct one, with a different running order and a renamed track: 1. A Space of Partial Illumination (5:30) 2. If That Were to Occur (3:16) 3. Intents and Purpose (4:06) 4. Embodied Cognition (4:03) 5. Long Green Field (2:24) 6. Temporary Aliasing (5:16) 7. In Solitude We Are Least Alone (Waltz) (2:38) 8. Frozen Height (3:07) 9. Informal Horizon (5:27) 10. Ephemeral (2:58) 11. All This Has Happened Before (5:42) 12. How Forests Think (4:56) CD/digital will have four extra tracks and different artwork.

Oh awesome, I'm glad you found a home for this eventually! Congrats ?

Out now on Bandcamp! https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/creator-warehouse

Jean-Michel Jarre, in his 70s, making dark techno in homage to Pierre Henry. These truly are strange times. It's alright. Not anything I'd buy.

I'd say the difference between Smiley and Spicy is that Smiley is a nostalgic recreation of the rave scene that Orbital were part of in the first place, so there's a feeling of genuine fondness there (I also wouldn't put it anywhere near the top of a Recent Orbital Tracks list, but it's solid), while Spicy is a piano house remix of the Spice Girls, which doesn't feel like it has anything to do with Orbital. The actual sounds used just don't sound like any other Orbital track, other than the little breakbeat snippets in the background. It just reminds me of their Doctor Who theme and Beelzedub, in that they're probably very fun live inclusions, but as actual home listening entities I don't think they work at all. I certainly don't hate Spicy, I just don't really want to listen to it. I don't really want to listen to anything with Geri Halliwell on. She's got a fucking foghorn for a voice and is a proper nails down the blackboard sound for me.

Dude looks pretty great for 74. A diet of instrumental synthpop and OTT light shows must work wonders. Will wait for proper clips before making any judgments, but between this and Amazonia it's nice to know he's working outside of his comfort zone again after quite a few years of chart chasing and navel gazing.

While I like or love all eras of their output, I agree that they're far too good at slower, more melodic stuff to be focusing largely on dancier material. Monsters Exist is great, but there's still slightly too much emphasis on four-to-the-floor type stuff on there. Not entirely convinced by two of the new tracks on that mix above having guest spots either, but we'll see how it goes. I'm sure there'll be lots of decent stuff on the album at least. Regrettably, I've only played 30 Something twice so far. The first disc, that is. The second disc once.

At worst, this will be an interesting curio. At best it'll be a real insight and an enjoyable alternate version. Either way, Gier always gets my £££ so definitely buying it. That said, where is Autour de la Lune reissue? He skipped from Shenzhou to Dropsonde. I want my 2CD Autour. I've been putting off re-buying the CD for years because I know one is coming at some point. I'll take a 2CD N-Plants while you're at it, Gier.

Why have they done a '90s piano house remix of the Spice Girls? I mean I kind of like the way they've made it sound quite melancholy, but it doesn't even sound like Orbital. I'd love to know what the In Sides-era Hartnolls would have made of this.

Phil's Hard Trax > Paul's Novelty Trax