New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

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epitome
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by epitome »

Very much enjoying the FSOL CD, which is pleasingly weird in places :) The actual wooden box is really nicely done - straight to the top of my music collectibles!
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Ross
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by Ross »

It's a single track mix that lasts 49:22, for anyone interested.
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by Ross »

Definitely intended as a 'mix' rather than an album, lots of the usual audio watermarks from their mixes. Whether this means it's FSOLDigital Sampler 3 with material from future albums, or actually all exclusive, remains to be seen. Here are my guesses at timestamping. As ever, with FSOL stuff it's pretty difficult to spot exactly where one starts and one ends, especially as there appear to be a few unlisted environments here, so this might be wrong:

00:00 FSOL - I Can't Find You - Dark, percussive piece, some synth pads, lots of spoken samples, the usual answerphone messages, etc. Ends on a length environment, some guitar chords, oboe sample from Glacier. Dark opening
04:44 FSOL / Dan Pemberton - Offers on the Table - Jazzy track, sinister snakey melodies, more answerphone stuff. Outro environment from Hidden Sign. First heard here at 6:44:
10:00 FSOL - Closure - Skittering, glitchy beats. Reverb, various background effects, some ISDN-era sounds. Tonally quite similar to Environmental.
13:52 FSOL - You Will Forget About Me - Very creepy environment, dog barks, flutes, gurgling sounds. Repeating spoken sample reciting the title. This is really fucking dark stuff so far.
16:05 FSOL - Organic Weapon - Sounds like something from the Globular sessions, those Eggshell chords, some vast reverby EMS stuff. IDM-ish beats come in, more Environment Six-style stuff. Very dark again. Closes with the Vit opening environment, bizarrely...
19:36 Yage - Subtle Cause - This sounds nothing like other FSOLDigital-era Yage material. Maybe a touch of Blackhill Transmitter in its analogue, slightly krautrocky sound.
21:05 Yage - Across 82 - Eastern sounding bagpipes, melancholic synth pads, more lo-fi analogue sounds. I wonder what NAM 71 is going to sound like, because this isn't what I was expecting.
22:36 Humanoid - Tiny Machine Birth - Fast, crazy beat stuff, but with unusually very warm, melodic synth stuff going on in the background. Suits the name very well. Easily the prettiest Humanoid track to date.
25:40 FSOL - Optical Overspill - Stark, occasional clanging beats and a lot of what could best be described as 'wibbly' noises. Reminds me of some ISDN-era stuff, which is probably a comparison that suits the mix in general so far, certainly in terms of tonality, if not exactly style.
27:50 FSOL - A Type of Thought - Pads overlap with the previous track. Fast past, slightly jazzy drums, moody synth pads. A very long, field recording-based environment follows.
29:55 Synthi A - Rivers Over Roads - A brief snippet of quiet, melodic EMS stuff followed by some spoken samples.
30:45 Yage - Tower City North - Scuzzy beats and some very pretty string-like synths. Again, extremely different to previous Yage material. Twinkly synth environment outro.
36:53 FSOL - Slope/5/a - Lively track, slap bass-ish samples a la WHE pt 2 and Lizzard Crawl, light beats, some strange sounds.
38:24 FSOL - Control Vista - Quite an airy percussive track. Hard to tell if this is archived or modern, it has a mixture of the chunkiness of '90s FSOL but the subtler programming of newer material. Quite a haunting, melancholic environment outro with female vocals.
42:55 Humanoid - Mass Made - Very fast stuff but strangely calming and hypnotic at the same time.
46:38 FSOL - The Old Coastal Path - Early '90s sounding drum machine with some brooding synth pads. Quite a sparse track, which makes it a bit of a palate cleanser after the very dense tracks before.


Not an easy listen, that. Stylistically quite similar to the past couple of years' releases, with the mix of percussive tracks and glitchy IDM bits, and tonally again I'll go with the ISDN era's dark, claustrophobic, heavy going vibe. With a couple of exceptions - strangely, the first Humanoid track, there aren't any really light moments, and the 'euphoric sadness' is notable largely by its absence. It's very textural, with lots of crunchy, crumbly sounds playing throughout, particularly in the linking environments and ambient tracks. I'm really enjoying how strange and disorienting it is in places: a world away from the earlier Environments albums which were much more conventional and down-to-Earth sounding (by FSOL standards, at least).
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by Trigga Bo »

Yes, Ross, based on your description of the release, I think it's a mix of aka 'FSOLDigital Sampler 3'
and the name of the mix 'A Controlled Vista', can talk about 'Vista' (maybe, some tracks from future releases of FSOL or their other projects)
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by mcbpete »

Ross wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2020 3:32 pm00:00 FSOL - I Can't Find You - Dark, percussive piece, some synth pads, lots of spoken samples, the usual answerphone messages
Did you notice the full length version of 'How come you're not around anymore' sample at 0:45 from the middle of The Galaxial Pharmaceutical (release version) ?
Ross wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2020 3:32 pm 16:05 FSOL - Organic Weapon - Sounds like something from the Globular sessions, those Eggshell chords, some vast reverby EMS stuff. IDM-ish beats come in, more Environment Six-style stuff. Very dark again. Closes with the Vit opening environment, bizarrely...
Thinking this one might be in the Cascade 2020 RSD release
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Ross
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by Ross »

That Galaxial answerphone sample has been used in the past somewhere - quite possibly one of the Touched mixes - so I didn’t mention it, but yes I certainly spotted it. I have a feeling the earlier version might be even longer.

Interesting thinking about Cascade - still no news on whether this material is exclusive or not, but that does make sense.
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Ross
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by Ross »

Here's the official timestamps for A Controlled Vista as confirmed by Brian. The track previously believed to be Yage - Tower City North is actually Synthi A - Rivers Over Roads, otherwise previous estimates were correct, give or take environmental intros/outros.

00:00 FSOL - I Can't Find You
04:32 FSOL / Dan Pemberton - Offers on the Table
09:57 FSOL - Closure
14:19 FSOL - You Will Forget About Me
16:30 FSOL - Organic Weapon
19:36 Yage - Subtle Cause
20:56 Yage - Across 82
22:30 Humanoid - Tiny Machine Birth
25:39 FSOL - Optical Overspill
28:27 FSOL - A Type of Thought
30:40 Synthi A - Rivers Over Roads
34:51 Yage - Tower City North
36:53 FSOL - Slope/5/a
38:24 FSOL - Control Vista
42:55 Humanoid - Mass Made
46:36 FSOL - The Old Coastal Path

The actual runtimes are:
FSOL - I Can't Find You (04:32)
FSOL / Dan Pemberton - Offers on the Table (05:25)
FSOL - Closure (04:22)
FSOL - You Will Forget About Me (02:11)
FSOL - Organic Weapon (03:05)
Yage - Subtle Cause (01:22)
Yage - Across 82 (01:32)
Humanoid - Tiny Machine Birth (03:08)
FSOL - Optical Overspill (02:47)
FSOL - A Type of Thought (02:12)
Synthi A - Rivers Over Roads (04:10)
Yage - Tower City North (02:02)
FSOL - Slope/5/a (01:31)
FSOL - Control Vista (04:29)
Humanoid - Mass Made (03:40)
FSOL - The Old Coastal Path (02:46)
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Ross
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Re: New FSOL album on Touched 11CD boxset

Post by Ross »

Now on FSOLDigital, alongside volumes 2.7 and 5.6!
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