The Future Sound Of London – Lifeforms

Bought my copy second hand and it was absolutely filthy from what looks like when it was pressed. I still need to give it an Ultrasonic cleaning but so far the pressing sounds horrible. Pops and clicks throughout the entirety of both vinyls. This is getting really old spending insane amounts of money on garbage pressings. Five stars for the actual music though, but you already knew that.

In an interview FSOL did with Music Tech in early 1994 (published in Music Tech March 1994 issue) it is stated that "A new single, featuring the Cocteau Twins' Liz Frazer on vocals, released on 21st February, with a new FSOL album, Lifeforms, to follow on 14th March".
The Lifeforms album didn't not chart until late May 1994 and the EP with Liz Frazer not until August 1994. So it seems the releases got delayed for some reason or other.

No issues with pressing quality for me. Bought second hand and cleaned. Forgot how could this album is.

Great silent pressing with lots of dynamics and depth and download code that works. Reference album of FSOL and essential for fans of The Orb as well.

Whether or not now is the right time to splash out on this album is down to you. If you're at the stage where you are still out nailing the clubs, then you may want to hold out buying this for a few years. Everything is fairly downtempo, much more trip hop, ambient and, like an electro symphony. This definitely moves in a more orchestral way, with lots of wave like pianos, choirs and, enormous sounding string sections.

There is definitely no absence of big beats though, but think booming hip hop drums and very 90s british feeling tribal rhythms, not fast jungle breaks or four to the floor techno or disco flavours. Samples abound as do what must be original gorgeous flowing synthesisers and spaced out, beautiful guitar work. This is probably most like eno, massive attack's blue lines, gus gus' album, polydistortion and cold cut. in fact, if you like cold cut, i'd say it's virtually impossible not to like this - at least after a few listens.

But, there is definitely more here. This really is one of those perfect and uniquely innovative post modern journeys into the total fusion allowed by modern technology and the cut and paste mentality that really took hold as electronic music evolved. From a compositional view, think of this as essentially reinventing classical whilst keeping choirs and orchestras but adding, dreamy airy effects, modern synthesisers, sampling.

Essentially, this is a great album that everybody should like but if you simply prefer faster more aggressive electronics this is not for you.

If you really like the laid back aphex twin stuff like volume 1 of selected ambient works and tracks such as, Alberto balsam, just go for it. Some of the reviews here say it takes repeated listening, while it could be regarded as challenging, i enjoyed from the get go - its hard not to with something this melodic, beautiful, strange, innovative.

Brilliant doesnt begin to come to describe what the duo set forth on the masses. This wasn't dance music(nor focused on that mal-abused genre) tho it's tentacles wrapped around danceable beats but at a greater depth and with more eloquence than anything of its time and since.
Lo-fi samples and synthesizers in the hands of audio alchemists. After Papa New Guinea's brilliance we captive listeners where privileged to experience electronica that was light years ahead of anything in the 90s. Mood,texture, pulse and dynamics all dripping with mystique. After the 90s I really could care less for their output EXCEPT for Yage which was krautrock influenced silicon based musical yumminess!

Brilliant album, with Omnipresence, Lifeforms and Cascade as the stand out tracks. Both Lifeforms (especially track 4) and Cascade (just... all of it) EPs are excellent; I really feel FSOL were at their best at this time. However I might just be saying that because I stopped buying their music after being so disappointed with both ISDN and the My Kingdom EP. Papua New Guinea will forever live in my heart though!

Got the system set up behind my arm-chair, this is perfect in the background when watching the TV.

Yes as said in the comments although it is sealed, the vinyl surface needs to be cleaned which is surprisingly dirty. But then when it’s done it's happiness, the basses are very deep, the details are there, dead silent background, the sound density is higher than on the CD and yes thanks for not remastering the vinyl digitally. The Pachelbel's Canon can be found in the track "Domain". Great copy from 2018 as it was in 1994. Go for it!

Another bad pressing from Optimal. "Non-fill" all over every side of my copy; if you've got "surface noise" its probably because of this. Mastering sounded great to me, only problem to my ears was the pressing quality. I guess I'll wait for the XXth anniversary release and hope they go with a different plant or save up for the OG.