The Future Sound of London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Future Sound of London | ||
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 Brian Dougans (left) and Garry Cobain.
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| Background information | ||
| Origin | Manchester, United Kingdom | |
| Genre(s) | Range includes: Dance IDM Electronica Ambient |
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| Years active | 1988–present | |
| Label(s) | Jumpin' & Pumpin' Astralwerks Virgin |
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| Website | www.futuresoundoflondon.com | |
| Members | ||
| Garry Cobain Brian Dougans |
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The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated to FSOL) is a British electronic music band, the duo of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans.
Although often labelled as ambient, Dougans and Cobain usually resist being pigeon-holed into any one particular genre. Their work covers most areas of electronic music, such as ambient techno, drum and bass, trip-hop, ambient dub, pure ambient, and often involves extreme experimentation. They have also garnered a reputation as remixers, transforming the work of a variety of different artists, including Curve, Robert Fripp, David Sylvian, Gary Lucas, Jon Anderson, and Apollo 440. The results are often novel and complex, and in some instances the original track is barely recognisable.
The artists are notoriously enigmatic.
As well as composed music their interests have covered a number of areas, including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics and animation, the Internet, radio broadcasting.
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[edit] History
FSOL was formed in Manchester, England, in the mid 1980s. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time when they first began working in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases. Stakker Humanoid re-entered the UK chart in 1992, followed by the breakthrough ambient dub track "Papua New Guinea" featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample, which was their first official release. Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and quickly signed them. With their new found contract they immediately began to experiment, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album, released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias.
Lifeforms followed in 1994 to critical acclaim. The new work was almost entirely free of percussion and was truly ambient across both discs; the synonymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. The album was a top 10 hit on the UK album chart.
1994 also saw the release of ISDN, which was as close to a live album as most electronic acts get - it featured live broadcasts FSOL had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide and to The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York. Its tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms.
In 1996, they released Dead Cities. The new material was a curious mix of ambient textures and hard, gritty dance music. This album also featured a collaboration with the composer Max Richter. However, critics suggested that the duo's musical output seemed to dry up following this release, save for a few 12" singles and remixes. "We Have Explosive (Radio Edit)" was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, released in 1997, and on the video game Wipeout 2097, along with the track "Landmass".
After a four year hiatus, and rumors of mental illness, Cobain and Dougans returned in 2002 with The Isness, a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's seminal track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press, with many claiming the band had gone overboard and moved from what they did best, while others called it a masterpiece of modern psychedelia and one of the most exciting and unique albums of its time, such as Muzik magazine, who offered the album a suitably over the top 6/5 mark.
Three years on, Dougans and Cobain followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but more favourable among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost a hundred musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables, from 2005 onwards.
[edit] Aliases
- Aircut
- Amorphous Androgynous
- Art Science Technology
- Candese
- Deep Field
- Homeboy
- Humanoid
- Indo Tribe
- Intelligent Communication
- Mental Cube
- Metropolis
- Q
- Semtex
- Semi Real
- Smart Systems
- The Far-out Son Of Lung
- Yage
- Yunie
- Zeebox
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles/EPs
- (1988) Crystals (Brian Dougans)
- (1988) Stakker Humanoid (as Humanoid)
- (1988) Stakker Humanoid (Part 2) (as Humanoid)
- (1989) Slam (as Humanoid)
- (1989) Tonight (as Humanoid featuring Sharon Benson)
- (1989) The Deep (as Humanoid)
- (1990) The Tingler (as Smart Systems)
- (1990) AST (as Art Science Technology)
- (1990) Mental Cube EP (as Mental Cube)
- (1991) So This Is Love (as Mental Cube)
- (1991) Q (as Mental Cube)
- (1991) Principles of Motion EP (as Intelligent Communication)
- (1991) Papua New Guinea (EP/12")
- (1992) Papua New Guinea (CD)
- (1992) Fuzzy Logic EP (as Yage)
- (1992) Stakker '92 (as Humanoid)
- (1992) People Livin' Today (as Semi-Real)
- (1992) Metropolis (as Metropolis)
- (1993) Liquid Insects (as Amorphous Androgynous)
- (1993) Cascade
- (1994) Lifeforms (feat. Elizabeth Fraser)
- (1994) Expander
- (1994) The Far-Out Son of Lung and the Ramblings of a Madman
- (1995) ISDN (Remix)
- (1996) My Kingdom
- (1997) We Have Explosive
- (2001) Papua New Guinea 2001
- (2002) The Mellow Hippo Disco Show (as Amorphous Androgynous)
- (2003) Divinity (as Amorphous Androgynous)
[edit] Albums
- (1992) Accelerator
- (1992) Earthbeat (compilation of their early releases using several aliases)
- (1993) Tales of Ephidrina (as Amorphous Androgynous)
- (1994) Lifeforms
- (1994) ISDN
- (1996) Dead Cities
- (2002) The Isness (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the U.S.A.)
- (2005) Alice in Ultraland (as Amorphous Androgynous)
- (2006) Teachings from the Electronic Brain (remixes and radio edits)
[edit] Specials
- (2003) The Otherness (Bonus 14-track album on The Isness & The Otherness, a 2-CD special limited edition)
- (2006) A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static
[edit] Remix work
- (1991) Loleatta Holloway, "Do That To Me (Set Me Free)"
- (1992) Unity, "Unity"
- (1992) Inner City, "Praise"
- (1992) Prefab Sprout, "If You Don't Love Me"
- (1993) Curve, "Rising"
- (1993) Bryan Ferry, "I Put A Spell On You"
- (1993) The Shamen, "Re:iteration"
- (1993) David Sylvian/Robert Fripp, "Darshana"
- (1994) Apollo 440, "Liquid Cool"
- (1995) Jon Anderson, "Deseo"
- (2001) Robert Miles, "Paths"
- (2007) Day 403
[edit] See also
[edit] Media
- "Room 208" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- From the album Lifeforms.
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] External links
- Future Sound of London.com - official website
- FSOL Digital - official on-line music store with exclusive series "From the Archives"
- FSOL discography and reviews at the All Music Guide
- FSOL discography (versions, editions, variants, remixes, lone tracks) at Discogs
- [1] - The Making of A Gigantic Globular Burst of Anti-Static (QuickTime)
