The Future Sound Of London – Dead Cities

This is a collector's item (at least for the connoisseurs).

Do we know where the vocal of Rebecca Caine Come from ? It is an improvisation but from what ? Love this part.

Silent copy, sounds amazing! Very dynamic and surrounding sound! Side b is a little bit noisy 🤔

Everything has already been said... In my opinion, FSOL presented her best work with Dead Cities! After that, a long creative period of rest took place!
If you listen carefully to this album, you can't blame them!
The album still sounds as modern today as it was over 10 years ago and is undoubtedly one of the best “Electronica” works of all time!
Even if you don't get along with the ambient sound of FSOL, you should definitely listen to it!

My 2nd favourite album of all time after 'lifeforms'. It is almost the anti-lifeforms in the sense that it is utterly dark and dystopian compared to the verdant,lush soundscapes of lifeforms.
That said,I would totally respect anyone who would choose dead cities over lifeforms. Just a time and place thing I suppose.

Bought this back at the time in 1996. Have tried again and again to revisit and find something to like about it, but I find it is filled with interludes, there is little real "meat" on it at all. And the awful "We Have Explosive" gets on my nerves every time.

'Dead Cities' is by the Manchester originated 'Future Sound of London', pioneers of electronic music.

The duo actually are in the Guiness Book of Records for the first digital tour ever for their 'ISDN' album The music on the album is edited together from various live broadcasts that the band had broadcast to radio stations all over the world using ISDN, which at the time was a relatively new and expensive technology.

Their most famous singles include 'Pappa New Guinea' which I have on 7" single, as well as 'We Have Explosure' and 'Stakker Humanoid' which was released under the 'Humanoid' artist name although being originally created by the same two people.

A lot of their music, including this album, is quite ambient and electronica based and not necessarily dance-floor orientated at all. This was a breakaway at the time from the electronic music scene which mostly produced tracks designed for the dancefloor, not for home listening at all.

"When we signed to Virgin, we literally had all the power," says FSOL mouthpiece, Garry Cobain, "I don't think they really understood it. They viewed [signing us] as their incursion into this new demographic of dance music. Of course, we got there courtesy of Papua New Guinea. Our plans via that track were just, 'Fuck the pop, let's go deep now'. - https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/classic-album-the-future-sound-of-london-on-lifeforms-606889

This record paints a darker soundscape than 'Lifeforms' did, but it is still very ambient, experimental, and built using a combinations of samples, synthesizer FX, with soaring pads and strings. For me it is still as impressive now as it was in 1996 - as in - very.

I didn’t appreciate how great this album was when it came out. A combination of the art work and not liking the We Have Explosives track put me off it.
Listening to it properly again for the first time in over 20 years, I know realise i missed out on another FSOL master piece. There’s so many complex layers to every track with influences from all over the place.
I think it’s aged better than Lifeforms, and I’d now rate it as their best album. Wonderful stuff.

Absolutely top pressing. Fantastic sound quality, rich and dynamically the best I've heard so far on vinyl compared to its origin pressing back 1996. No klicks or other annoying noises. Highly recomended.

Fantastic reissue and pressed nicely (had a few issues out of Optimal recently but this is pretty much flawless). Sound is great, nicely balanced, good depth and width to the sound stage. Even the bass on the longer sides does not seem to suffer.

Played on a Clearaudio Concept, Satisfy Tonearm, Hana ML Cartridge, ifi iphono2 pre into a Rogue Audio Pharaoh amp.