The Future Sound Of London — From The Archives 1-9 (2007-2018)

Boundary-pushing electronic duo and technological pioneers the Future Sound of London have charted a magnificent, unpredictable course throughout their multi-decade career, rag from early rave staples to ambitious excursions into ambient soundscapes, psychedelic rock, modern classical, and more. Prodigiously releasing club records under various pseudonyms since the late \’80s, Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans launched FSOL with the breakbeat house classic \»Papua New Guinea\» in 1991, following suit with the Accelerator full-length. After signing with Vi Records in 1992, the duo began releasing more expental, atmospheric material, including the highly regarded 1994 double album Lifeforms. They also sidestepped traditional methods of touring, instead broadcasting studio performances via ISDN lines. Following 1996\’s Dead Cities, the duo went on hiatus, re-emeg with the 2002 psychedelic opus The Isness, one of several releases credited to their Amorphous Androgynous alias. Much of the duo\’s subsequent output as FSOL has been dedicated to archival material and their ambient Environments series, with releases such as 2017\’s Archived: Environmental: Views exploring neo-classical styles. The duo met during the mid-\’80s while attending university in Manchester. Dougans, who had already been making electronic music for several years, joined the audio-visual group Stakker in 1988, and produced the single \»Stakker Humanoid\» (as Humanoid) that year. A breakthrough for the British acid house scene, the track hit the U.K. Top 20, and the full-length Global followed in 1989. Cobain contributed to the album, and he teamed up with Dougans on various breakbeat hardcore and techno projects such as Mental Cube, Indo Tribe, and Yage. However, it was their work as the Future Sound of London that made the biggest impact. \»Papua New Guinea,\» a lush, haunting single which sampled Dead Can Dance vocalist Lisa Gerrard, became an era-defining smash hit, and the Accelerator full-length followed. FSOL signed to Vi in 1992 and began providing transformative remixes for a wide array of acts, including Prefab Sprout, Curve, Inner City, and Jon Anderson. The duo initiated their Amorphous Androgynous project with the elegant Tales of Ephidrina album in 1993. As FSOL, they released the six-part Cascade single that year, which set the stage for the instant-classic double album Lifeforms in 1994. The release was a critical and commercial smash, charting in the Top Ten of the U.K. album charts. The album\’s title track spun off into a subsequent EP, which featured Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. ISDN, containing material previously broadcast live to radio stations via ISDN, was released as a limited edition (with a black cover) in late 1994, followed by a more widespread edition (this with a white cover and an altered track list) in 1995. The more dystopian Dead Cities followed in 1996; the album contained the duo\’s highest-charting single, \»We Have Explosive,\» which peaked at number 12 in the U.K. All three of these full-lengths were important stopping points on the road of rabid hybridization characteristic of post-rave European expental electronica (ambient, jungle, trip-hop, ambient dub, etc.), and the pair\’s somewhat punk rock attitude (despite their success) did much to underscore the scene\’s underground roots. After a lengthy hiatus marked by rumors of mental illness and a cottage lifestyle, Cobain and Dougans returned in 2001 with Papua New Guinea Translations, an album of newer interpretations of their 1991 signature hit. This was followed in 2002 by The Isness, a record heavily influenced by \’60s and \’70s psychedelia, which was released under the Amorphous Androgynous banner worldwide but as FSOL in the United States. Related releases The Mello Hippo Disco Show and The Otherness followed. Another Amorphous Androgynous album, Alice in Ultraland, appeared in 2005. Teachings from the Electronic Brain, a compilation of FSOL\’s most well-known material, appeared in 2006. Also that year, FSOL composed a 5.1 Surround Sound piece titled A Gigantic Globular Burst of Anti-Static for Life Forms, an exhibition at the Kinetica museum. The music was self-released as a digital album in 2007. Also in 2007, the group began issuing several albums of unreleased material as part of a series called From the Archives. Four volumes (as well as a double-LP compilation) appeared by the end of the year. They also revisited their early rave days with By Any Other Name, a compilation of older tracks recorded under pseudonyms such as Mental Cube and Yage. In addition, they also released the first installment in a series of ambient/soundscape releases with the long-shelved album Environments. Both series continued in 2008, while studio album The Peppet Tree and the Seeds of Superconsciousness appeared under the Amorphous Androgynous banner. By 2010, they were up to Environments 3 and From the Archives, Vol. 6. They also issued numerous Live ISDN Transmission releases recorded during the mid-\’90s, as well as newer podcasts called Electronic Brain Storms. Environments 4 followed in 2012, the same year the group began working on a collaborative album with Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, but the album was scrapped. By the release of Environment Five in 2014, only a few tracks from the sessions had appeared, all released on Gallagher\’s B-sides. In late 2015, FSOL released a scrapbook titled The Most Important Moments in a Life, which was packaged with a full-length CD called Life in Moments. Archived 8 also appeared, and Environment Six and Environment 6.5 were simultaneously released in October 2016. Archived: Environmental: Views appeared in 2017, followed by Archived 9 and My Kingdom Re-imagined in 2018. For 2019\’s Record Store Day, the group released Yage 2019, an album of reinterpretations of the Dead Cities track \»Yage.\»

Future Sound of London — From The Archives Vol.1 (2007)

01. Future Sound of London — lizzard crawl (5:19)

02. Future Sound of London — Hallucination (7:42)

03. Future Sound of London — Field of Flowers (5:20)

04. Future Sound of London — Enviroments — birds (0:17)

05. Future Sound of London — Still Flowers (5:16)

06. Future Sound of London — Enviroments — gong (0:36)

07. Future Sound of London — Woodland (4:48)

08. Future Sound of London — UU (0:52)

09. Future Sound of London — Turn Around (7:23)

10. Future Sound of London — Is this Real (1:49)

11. Future Sound of London — Mouth Muse (2:30)

12. Future Sound of London — Hazey day Girl (4:21)

13. Future Sound of London — wt Pavement (0:38)

14. Future Sound of London — Head Hunter (7:05)

15. Future Sound of London — Arrived (3:05)

16. Future Sound of London — Pale Moon (4:16)

17. Future Sound of London — Nuru Device Send (5:23)

Future Sound of London — From The Archives Vol.2 (2007)

01. Future Sound of London — Brujo (5:38)

02. Future Sound of London — Distant Nebulus (4:32)

03. Future Sound of London — Wanting (5:26)

04. Future Sound of London — Environment Thunder (0:40)

05. Future Sound of London — Cellular Control (5:20)

06. Future Sound of London — Insected (3:04)

07. Future Sound of London — Night Lapsed (2:20)

08. Future Sound of London — Slow Of Motion (1:22)

09. Future Sound of London — Head Kick (4:16)

10. Future Sound of London — Dark Matter (2:43)

11. Future Sound of London — Mas x-xx-xx 2 (3:29)

12. Future Sound of London — Skinny Ribbed F**Ker (4:15)

13. Future Sound of London — Fractional Difference (4:23)

14. Future Sound of London — Offerings (3:37)

15. Future Sound of London — Mains Interrupt (1:46)

16. Future Sound of London — Futura (2:18)

17. Future Sound of London — Museum (5:09)

18. Future Sound of London — Nadir (3:35)

19. Future Sound of London — Were Not Here (3:07)

20. Future Sound of London — Mumble (3:23)

21. Future Sound of London — Insulin (2:29)

The Future Sound Of London — From The Archives Vol. 3 (2007)

01. The Future Sound Of London — Empires (3:40)

02. The Future Sound Of London — Long shadows (7:35)

03. The Future Sound Of London — Considered (4:52)

04. The Future Sound Of London — Mango tree (4:11)

05. The Future Sound Of London — The teeth of the wind (4:29)

06. The Future Sound Of London — Room 207 (5:58)

07. The Future Sound Of London — Environments t1 (0:49)

08. The Future Sound Of London — Insides (4:09)

09. The Future Sound Of London — La tronik 1 (2:07)

10. The Future Sound Of London — Space squids (6:26)

11. The Future Sound Of London — Stomach Acid (5:28)

12. The Future Sound Of London — Dream Sequence 4 (2:09)

13. The Future Sound Of London — Made Contact Internal (3:23)

14. The Future Sound Of London — Rotation (3:48)

15. The Future Sound Of London — Hardhead (3:50)

16. The Future Sound Of London — Popadom (5:08)

17. The Future Sound Of London — i a i a i a i a i a (2:41)

The Future Sound of London — From the Archives, Volume 4 (2007)

01. The Future Sound of London — Hidden Sign (8:06)

02. The Future Sound of London — Plasmatik (4:05)

03. The Future Sound of London — West Path (1:50)

04. The Future Sound of London — 100 Baby Spiders (5:09)

05. The Future Sound of London — Absent With Concept (5:48)

06. The Future Sound of London — Wookii (4:16)

07. The Future Sound of London — Shingles (4:53)

08. The Future Sound of London — 5 Month 5 Acres (2:46)

09. The Future Sound of London — Mango Tree (original) (5:09)

10. The Future Sound of London — Golden Burnt (3:55)

11. The Future Sound of London — Climbing (1:18)

12. The Future Sound of London — Speed Ball (5:37)

The Future Sound of London — From The Archives Vol.5 (2008)

01. The Future Sound of London — Sendero Luminoso (5:53)

02. The Future Sound of London — A Sweltering Heat (1:57)

03. The Future Sound of London — Exploded Funk (3:13)

04. The Future Sound of London — Private Psyche And Inner Life (5:41)

05. The Future Sound of London — The Exhibition (4:23)

06. The Future Sound of London — Yashica (4:19)

07. The Future Sound of London — Tif Feetal (2:53)

08. The Future Sound of London — Distant Memories (4:06)

09. The Future Sound of London — Dream One (3:25)

10. The Future Sound of London — Vacuum (0:57)

11. The Future Sound of London — Fat Spat (2:42)

12. The Future Sound of London — Tokyo Travel (8:29)

13. The Future Sound of London — Water Hole (5:42)

The Future Sound of London — From The Archives Vol. 6 (2010)

01. The Future Sound of London — March of The Money Men (4:37)

02. The Future Sound of London — Light Fog (2:56)

03. The Future Sound of London — Coast Line (4:18)

04. The Future Sound of London — Cross Winds (4:18)

05. The Future Sound of London — Gyrated (3:05)

06. The Future Sound of London — She Fell Backwards (2:43)

07. The Future Sound of London — Jelly Legs (2:26)

08. The Future Sound of London — Then Departed (5:22)

09. The Future Sound of London — Protractor (3:12)

10. The Future Sound of London — Camel (3:18)

11. The Future Sound of London — Abandoned Incoming (1:45)

12. The Future Sound of London — Induced Coma (1:30)

13. The Future Sound of London — Swarm (3:33)

14. The Future Sound of London — Linear Block 5 (1:52)

15. The Future Sound of London — Unassumed (2:43)

16. The Future Sound of London — Elation (1:01)

The Future Sound of London — From The Archives Vol. 7 (2012)

01/14. The Future Sound of London — Lost in the Mists of (2:01)

02/14. The Future Sound of London — Temples (3:18)

03/14. The Future Sound of London — Outer Heaven (5:18)

04/14. The Future Sound of London — Many Moons Away (4:00)

05/14. The Future Sound of London — Shifting Sands (4:41)

06/14. The Future Sound of London — Walls of Thought (3:38)

07/14. The Future Sound of London — War Machines (3:34)

08/14. The Future Sound of London — Flygon (1:26)

09/14. The Future Sound of London — Earth\’s Twin (5:04)

10/14. The Future Sound of London — Switzerland (3:39)

11/14. The Future Sound of London — Must Be Mistaken (3:33)

12/14. The Future Sound of London — Old Train (3:15)

13/14. The Future Sound of London — Heat Distortions (2:15)

14/14. The Future Sound of London — Exchanged (4:28)

The Future Sound of London — Archived 8 (2015)

01. The Future Sound of London — Sorrow (3:53)

02. The Future Sound of London — Acturum Esse (4:06)

03. The Future Sound of London — Blue Green (2:53)

04. The Future Sound of London — Crawler (3:56)

05. The Future Sound of London — Forlorn (4:34)

06. The Future Sound of London — Haloi Slope (4:23)

07. The Future Sound of London — Unfurl (1:40)

08. The Future Sound of London — Still Motion (5:06)

09. The Future Sound of London — Plazmatical (3:49)

10. The Future Sound of London — Spacial Freak (4:59)

11. The Future Sound of London — Long Exposure (3:51)

12. The Future Sound of London — Standing Room (6:14)

The Future Sound Of London — From the Archives Vol. 9 (2018)

01. The Future Sound Of London — Ocea (6:38)

02. The Future Sound Of London — Semi Conscious Participant (2:27)

03. The Future Sound Of London — Silent Midnight (4:12)

04. The Future Sound Of London — Halfer (4:34)

05. The Future Sound Of London — Embodied (3:47)

06. The Future Sound Of London — Super Tide (3:22)

07. The Future Sound Of London — Without You It\’s Meaningless (5:15)

08. The Future Sound Of London — Osaka Traveller (3:46)

09. The Future Sound Of London — Slow Moving World (1:53)

10. The Future Sound Of London — Propagate (3:42)

11. The Future Sound Of London — Photographs of an Object (2:41)

12. The Future Sound Of London — A Constantly Chag Mind (3:42)

13. The Future Sound Of London — Confirmation Bias (3:53)

14. The Future Sound Of London — These Days (4:32)

15. The Future Sound Of London — Riverbed (3:14)

16. The Future Sound Of London — Extruded (3:30)

17. The Future Sound Of London — Views of an Empty Sky (3:32)