The Future Sound Of London - Environments 3

[Guest jsd]

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/Environments-Volume-3/391468-01/

Clips of all 18 tracks, artwork scans. Shipping Monday, apparently!

Those clips are freakin' sweet. I got my credit card on standby for Monday!

[purlieu]

If Summer's Dream isn't my song of the year there's something amazing coming out.

[Rubin Farr]

this sounds amazing, like a true follow up to Dead Cities.

[karmakramer]

this sounds amazing, like a true follow up to Dead Cities.

 

\holy shit

[purlieu]

Just got mine in the post (thanks Juno!), artwork looking mint, off for a listen now.

[purlieu]

Ok this is excellent. A couple of ambient leftovers from Dead Cities and a lot of newer dark, melancholy pieces with some neoclassical elements. Viewed From An Obscure Angle is a beautiful Max Richter-esque opener and the strings at the beginning of End Of The World are astonishing.

On a pretentious note (well, it is FSOL), it sort of sounds like the remains of the Dead City - a similar mood but more somber and reflective instead of loud and violent.

 

edit: the sleeve announces the forthcoming Environments 4... Er.

[Guest margaret thatcher]

edit: the sleeve announces the forthcoming Environments 4... Er.

 

i assume we'll have to wait 15 years for that then.

[Rubin Farr]

now available for pre-order on fsoldigital.com digital release date May 24.

[Guest jsd]

I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy... and I've had the chance to listen to this a few times in advance of the release date. It's really good! Maybe not as strong as Environments II but then again maybe it just takes a little time to grow into. For the most part it sounds like new material - there is one track that reuses the drums from "My Kingdom" and another track which has a familiar guitar lick (ISDN maybe, or one of the Archives), but overall it does not sound like a bunch of old leftovers. Overall the mood is spacy, ambient, very chilled. Not a lot of beats. I love the idea of "sonic environments" ala the Eno ambient series, and this really lives up to that.

 

"Summer's Dream" is an early standout for me - what sounds like gamelan percussion, some choir samples, and a generally relaxed but yet somehow creepy vibe.

 

"Sunken Ships" is kind of a modern reworking of the Vangelis Blade Runner score. Big bold synth drones, some Michael Stearns Baraka-esque birdcalls. Powerful and ominous.

 

Anyway, real nice. I can't wait to get my own copy of the real CD.

[purlieu]

Accompaniment For Melodious Expression is a Dead Cities era piece (Womb) which has the acoustic guitar bit at the end, it also featured on the We Have Explosive EP. There are a couple of ISDN pieces in the second half, and a few sounds in the last song are from the Dead Cities tour. Otherwise I think it's all new music.

 

Summer's Dream has been one of my favourites since they previewed it on a mix for Proton Radio in 2008. Astonishing creepy piece of music.

[Rubin Farr]

finally listening to this, can't believe how Vangelis/Blade Runner it is. lovely indeed.

[Guest ruiagnelo]

I have it already. Going to have a listen later. How is it compared to From The Archives series and the other Environments?

[purlieu]

Better than any of the Archives albums, I think I prefer Environments 2 as it's one of the best structured albums I've ever heard, but most people seem to prefer this one. It's sort of Environments 2 meets Dead Cities in style and mood.

[azatoth]

gave this one a listen and is indeed a good one. i must say i wasn't really impressed by environments II. this sounded much nicer to me, but maybe i'll give the whole environments series a listen and see if anything else pops up.

[Guest ruiagnelo]

Listening to it now. So good.

It seems to be a solid work, when compared to the previous volumes. They didn't limit themselves to make a compilation of old tracks, but rather created an order.

[purlieu]

I felt the other two volumes were pretty strong as albums too, much better than the Archive series which flitted from era to era too much. Mind you, only 6 of these tracks are old, think there are 12 new ones.

[Redruth]

finally listening to this, can't believe how Vangelis/Blade Runner it is. lovely indeed.

[YEK]

i thought they turned shite?

[Guest Apeofnaples]

Lovely album. Sitting here listening to it after a 40 mile bike ride. I'm fucked, knackered. The album is loverly, I think my favorite of the Environments series.

[Guest ruiagnelo]

Lovely album. Sitting here listening to it after a 40 mile bike ride. I'm fucked, knackered. The album is loverly, I think my favorite of the Environments series.

 

What about listening to it during the bike ride? Would have sound good too :)

[Redruth]

i thought they turned shite?

 

 

they tried to do the whole beatles-go-to-india-get-enlightened-and

make-music-thing.

 

it didn't work-but their back now

[Guest ruiagnelo]

i thought they turned shite?

 

 

they tried to do the whole beatles-go-to-india-get-enlightened-and

make-music-thing.

 

it didn't work-but their back now

 

Yea but it seems that Amorphous Androgynous is the real thing now, at least gaz seems to be focused on that. These Environments and Archive things look like keeping fsol alive only. I would love a new LP. Nothing like Lifeforms or anything from the past, but something like if they had been working on a new fsol style.

[purlieu]

Gaz has seemed more enthusiastic about FSOL in recent interviews, certainly it seems like they're splitting the tracks more evenly now. Isness and Alice In Ultraland had a few FSOL-style moments, but there were none on The Peppermint Tree, which was much more 'band' sounding. If you compare The Wicker Doll from Alice to The Oldest Lady on Environments 3, they were obviously recorded in the same sessions. But there is a lot of evidence to suggest Gaz is pushing Amorphous as a band and Brian is pushing FSOL.

You could 'make' a new album out of tracks from Environments 2 and 3 and the Globular Burst Of Anti-Static EP, and apparently there's at least another album's worth of new material waiting in the wings so it's just a case of being very, very patient I suppose. Meantime we've got another Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix CD this summer so Gaz will be back flying the Amorphous flag soon I'm sure.

[Guest ruiagnelo]

Gaz has seemed more enthusiastic about FSOL in recent interviews, certainly it seems like they're splitting the tracks more evenly now. Isness and Alice In Ultraland had a few FSOL-style moments, but there were none on The Peppermint Tree, which was much more 'band' sounding. If you compare The Wicker Doll from Alice to The Oldest Lady on Environments 3, they were obviously recorded in the same sessions. But there is a lot of evidence to suggest Gaz is pushing Amorphous as a band and Brian is pushing FSOL.

You could 'make' a new album out of tracks from Environments 2 and 3 and the Globular Burst Of Anti-Static EP, and apparently there's at least another album's worth of new material waiting in the wings so it's just a case of being very, very patient I suppose. Meantime we've got another Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix CD this summer so Gaz will be back flying the Amorphous flag soon I'm sure.

 

And what are those new Live ISDN transmissions they release in mp3 files? I checked their discogs page and there are like 9 or 10 of them released just after E3.

[purlieu]

They were released in February and March (Discogs orders stuff in alphabetical order), various transmissions from the 1990s, they're slowly putting their entire live transmissions and radio mixes series onto their website. All the Kiss FM mixes from 92/93 are there along with the Essential Mix shows and their more recent Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble series and the Electric Brain Storms mixes.