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The Future Sound of London thread / song-by-song blog

purlieu

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toaoaoad Grand Master

toaoaoad

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Gotta jump in and say @purlieu you're doing incredible work here, this is very impressive indeed. I think somewhere in a corner of my mind I knew this video existed, but hadn't actually seen it until now. Charmingly dated but impressive as hell for its time. And it was cool to revisit Lifeforms the album - which was as influential to me as it sounds like it was for you - with all this new info and insight. I actually did a bit of a listen-along.  On a personal note, FSOL were one of the first acts I got into in my journey into the electronic music world as a kid (arguably THE first, if you don't count gateway artists like Bjork and Portishead, lol but I digress), and sometimes I forget how massively influential they really were/are. I was a kid in a coastal town exploring rocky beaches and tidal pools listening to Lifeforms all those years ago. I'd go way out and find all sorts of wild stuff. Spent most of my teens that way, listening to all kinds of electronic music, but it began with FSOL - first I had the PNG remixes on a tape someone gave me, then Dead Cities shortly after, Cascade EP and then Lifeforms, and around that point was when we moved to that town and the intertidal studies began...  For what it's worth, you talk of savannah imagery in Lifeforms a lot but for me it's the pulsing and writhing collective life form that is a rocky beach at low tide. Anyway, keep up the good work, it is not going unnoticed!

 

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purlieu
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Every time there's a new release there's normally a fair bit of discussion in the relevant thread, so I thought it was about time to start a general FSOL thread. Also, I just started a new blog called

purlieu
purlieu

And a wrap-up.   An End of Sorts Well, it’s taken me almost a year, but I’ve reached the end. When I started this blog, I had a lot of thoughts going around in my head, and I was hoping

purlieu
purlieu

Ok, it's 1991, who's ready for some actual FSOL? Indo Tribe & The Future Sound of London - The Pulse EP -Indo Tribe - Bring in the Pulse (MFK Mix) -Indo Tribe - In the Mind of a Child (F

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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That's the wonderful thing about FSOL, for all their imagery, their music was always open-ended. It's something I've tried to get across with these posts, no matter what my own views, there's no literal, objective way to take what they do, hence the titles all being weird phrases and self-deprecating insults they came up with in the studio. The only real message is: life is weird, here's our weird take on it, make of it what you will. 

They're an incredible group to discover at a young age, though, because their music is so visceral. The properly IDM end of stuff, the Aphex/Ae strand of electronic music, is quite cerebral at times, but stuff like FSOL can really appeal to the overactive imaginations of youth and lead on to the more overtly complex IDM stuff later. It's all squelching sounds and field recordings and trippy weirdness, everything a young mind can get carried away with. I always consider myself blessed to have discovered them when I was 12!

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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lifeformspaths.jpg

Lifeforms Paths
-Path 1
-Path 2
-Path 3
-Path 4
-Path 5
-Path 6
-Path 7
-Radio Edit
-Alternative Radio Edit
-Radio Edit 3

And, to round out the Lifeforms era before moving on, two compilation tracks from June 1994:
-Bring Me Home
-Deep Into Your Subconscious I Slide

And with that, Lifeforms is done. A run which started with the first Kiss Test Transmission back in September 1992, three and a half months ago my time. I'm actually really looking forward to the change of pace coming with ISDN.

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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-Smokin Japanese Babe
-You're Creeping Me Out
-Eyes Pop - Skin Explodes - Everybody Dead
-It's My Mind That Works
-Dirty Shadows
-Tired
-Egypt
-Are They Fightin Us
-Hot Knives
-A Study of Six Guitars
-An End of Sorts

And to round out 1994:
-Apollo 440 - Liquid Cool (Future Sound of London Remix)


1995 up next, which should take considerably less time, with only 9 new tracks, two releases, three transmissions, a video and a soundtrack to cover.

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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ISDN (White)
-Kai
-Amoeba
-Snake Hips

And, rounding out the ISDN era, the 1995 remixes & compilation tracks (& some overall thoughts on the Virgin-era remixes, given as these are the last)

-Far-Out Son of Lung - Cow
-Jon Anderson - FSOL Deseo Reconstruction
-Jon Anderson - FSOL Deseo Reconstruction #2
-Jon Anderson - FSOL Deseo Reconstruction #2 (Radio Edit)
-Osamu Sato - Face-Savers On Line (F.S.O.L. Remix)

That marks the end of the ISDN era and, pretty much, the end of a run of transmissions and releases that started three years earlier. Dead Cities begins next.

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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Cheers! Brian is reading and giving me the odd correction, as well as answering a few questions as I go along.

Dead Cities, then...

Herd Killing
Dead Cities
Her Face Forms in Summertime
We Have Explosive
Everyone in the World is Doing Something Without Me
My Kingdom
Max
Antique Toy
Quagmire
In a State of Permanent Abyss
Glass
Yage
Vit Drowning
Through Your Gills I Breathe
First Death in the Family
Punk City / Dead Cities Reprise

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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And rounding out the Dead Cities tour...

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Groove Radio 22/01/97

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Fun Radio 27/02/97

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ISDN Show / ISDN Live CD promo
And the exclusive tracks on that CD (the others I'll get to when I hit the Archives)
-My Kingdom (Live Version)
-Her Face Forms in Summertime (Live Version)
-War Machines (Live Version) / Tingler '96
-Santana (Live Version) / Carlos
-Everyone in the World
 
 
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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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We Have Explosive
-Part 1
-Part 2
-Part 3
-Part 4
-Part 5
-Oil Funk Remix
-Mantronik Plastic Formula #1
-Oil Dub
-7" Edit
-Mantronik Plastic Formula #2
-Mantronik Plastic Formula #1 Edit


And the series of transitional ISDN shows that moved from Dead Cities to the first Isness demos:
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Mixing It 25/03/97
John Peel Session 08/05/97
Essential Festival 25/05/97
Fun Radio 08/06/97

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol. 1 Kiss 102 FM (08/97)

1997 Remixes
-Neotropic - Ultra Freaky Alarm Clock (Bin Dogs Remix)


And then silence for nearly four years. The first decade of FSOL is over, and it's been a long, fascinating journey. I'm away for a week, so, fittingly, there'll be a bit of a gap before we pick up in a new century with some very different music.

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