Future Sound Of London, The

The partnership of the two FSOL'ers has been nothing short of the meeting of two futuristic sound geniuses. Papua New Guinea, despite having found influences from Meatbeat Manifesto's - Radio Babylon, is without any shadow of a doubt the best dance record ever. The drug extacy was invented for this record and everyone should own a copy. Nowadays they are releasing from the back catalogue the kind of records which defined ambient and took many of todays electronic artists into a new era of melodies and atmospheric soundscapes. You will find their other incantaton of Amorphous Androginous more on the psychodelic rock vibe these days as one half got mercury poisoning from his fillings and almost died, following this event he relaunched his contribution to the pairs sound being more influenced by the sound of live instruments you would expect an lsd user from the 70's to be playing and the other half stayed with the electronic sound of previous releases, an interesting combination. Stick with their 90's sound and you won't go wrong.

In 1992-1993, Brian Dougans and Gary Cobain from The Future Sound Of London made quality live-acts witd a broader, bolder and absolutely avant-garde musical perspective.

Their ouvertures were composed by a large range of amazing samples: "I suggest that you... reach deep down inside yourself there and tryin' find something that will keep you awake a while longer because this transmission comin' up may just... recandle your way to live..."

The English duo knew very well how to build up their personal signature. It was very common to hear quotes such as: "Your are listening to a test transmission for a new form of information transfer. Not only are you receiving audio, but you are also receiving image and text data. Test transmission begin..." on their live-acts.

Their repertory was the result of all you could get from futuristic Ambient to high-level Techno, cleverly influenced by Dub. You could hear from The Future Sound Of London tunes from that time to their creations under the guise of Amorphous Androgynous like "Liquid Insects" or "Mountain Goat", a Hi-Tech Ambient anthem with very powerful dub waves.

The way they manipulated the vocals inside the whole context was equally amazing. From the timbre to the effects used in it, you could hear the sound of new, like on the well-known quote "For further information on any aspect of this board cost contact Pier Box 1871 W10FZL. Copyright has been retained in sound and visual."

Movies, radio stations, declarations, everything could be transformed into vocals inside the FSOL live. There was a very famous one used on their Essential Mix live act in 1993 with a statement from a detective from a movie of that time, saying something like "Nuh, we gotta work together on this ok? Now I want the name of all the places you lived, all the schools you went to, friends, ennemies, acquaintainces, good memories and bad...", followed by odd synthesizer lines.

The imaginary thoughts and feelings were also constant on their works. "I used to imagine what it might be like... used to imagined what it might be like..." fit naturally on the ensemble, probably because the main idea was something different, obscure, uncertain, upcoming. Among the most strange quotes was one saying "You can travel in Space, You can grab the Space..." with very, very strange synth effects, creating a unique ambiance - definitely a mark on FSOL's lives of that time.

Probably that's why their slogan was the robotic vocoder sound "Moving further to the future! The Future Sound Of London!"

The best collaboration artists on the planet. They are so far beyond their time its not funny. With jaw dropping tunes such as "Everyone in the world is doing something without me" and "Expander", they paved the way for future electronic artists.I suggest you search high and low for their "teachings from the electronic brain" or "lifeforms" videos, highly entertaining visual/audio trip-out. Great music act.

Future Sound of London were part of the Big Five (Orbital, Prodigy, Underworld, Chemical Brothers); of British electronic acts that were spawned from the Acid House period of 88-90. While they have not gone on to achieve the commercial success of the other 4, they have created some of the most brilliant electronic albums and pieces of music of the decade (90's). Their music will certainly stand the test of time and they will always be remembered as true electronic pioneers, RESPECT.

I think it's hard to over estimate what a massive impact FSOL have made on dance music.
They brought us kicking and screaming into the modern music age, straight through from the late 80's with stakker (humanoid), then to accelerator with their FSOL incarnation, Accelerator is like looking into a crystal ball, the future is all there for everyone to see, total visionary soundscaping at it's very best.
Accelerator was released in 1992, and even now doesnt sound dated.
FSOL cannot really be judged, because they never stuck to the rules, they can only ever be revered.

FSOL cleverly push the boundaries of electronica, whilst imbuing their music with a sense of the past: "Dead Cities" evokes the early '80s industrial scene in places; "The Isness" (under alias Amorphous Androgynous) is an album that Pink Floyd could have only dreamed of making. Their 'singles' often manage to pierce the mainstream charts, but play more like mini albums and with their remixes, often mediocre tracks by the likes of Bryan Ferry, Curve and Prefab Sprout are transformed into beautiful aural sculptures. If you're new to FSOL, pick any piece of work at random and you will not be disappointed.