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Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2020 6:52 pm
by Ross
Loads of places online selling remaining copies now - Google will probably be easiest, although according to the FB group it seems most have sold out already.

FSOLDigital will have their copies, as well as digital versions and CD edition of Cascade next weekend.

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 5:54 pm
by ronniedobbs
Will the vinyl copies of MPB on fsoldigital come with download codes?

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:49 am
by Ross
I'd be extremely surprised if they didn't.

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:46 pm
by Blinker
So, I picked up all of the RSD stuff. Annoyingly I forgot I didn't need the 7" because it was already in the Accelerator reissue they did a few years back, never mind eh... I have one on black and one on white now!

What can I say without spoiling anything...? Basically, Cascade 2020 is superb. There are parts that are very surprising and it's definitely a darker take than the original versions from 1993. I really think you're all in for a treat! The Amorphous record is excellent as well. I'm a bit of late comer to the psych stuff but this is a strong record. Overall it flows so well, it feels more like a long form single than a remix collection. When the new Amorphous album is out it'll be a day one purchase for me I think. I'm also looking forward to the Cascade CD release as well, it'll be interesting to hear the extra tracks and how it flows with no gap in the middle!

TLDR; Brian and Gaz knocked it out of the park and you're in for a treat!

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2020 9:29 am
by Ross
All three are now available from FSOLDigital (which is running slowly and seems to have ground to a halt).

In other news, Bryan White, who worked on the Amorphous record, mentioned on Facebook that there is a CD edition of the album coming along in the future... Maybe it'll feature the Rabbit in the Moon remix?

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:35 am
by Chris3d
After lots of clicks and refreshes, I managed to get the Cascade 2020 download. Listening now. Some interesting versions and does go quite dark in places. And I knew I heard 'What Falls Away Is Always' before... It's also an hour long, so a decent length to get your teeth into.

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:41 pm
by Ross
Yeah, I noticed the track times are all much longer than most recent FSOL releases, averaging around five minutes, which is nice. My CD's on its way so I'll be waiting for that to have a listen.


Listening through to Immortal now. Immediate thought is just how weird it is to be listening to a 50 minute remix album of a track that's not actually been released yet.

Despite there being ten different artists reworking the tracks here, it's amazing just how well this flows as one piece. The artists have all been well selected to match the tone of the AA sound, to the extent that most of these tracks could easily pass as Amorphous originals. The largely unvarying tempo and (almost) gapless play make it almost sound like two 25 minute tracks rather than 14 separate pieces. I'm sure this is somewhat down to Gaz and Brian mixing the whole thing together in that way. I was writing a track-by-track as I often do for a new release, but frankly there's little point - most of the tracks either move through various sections, or are merely short interludes. Plenty of moody ambient bits with organs, synth sweeps and choirs, bolted between punchy drums, the odd overdriven guitar section and sax solos. The vocals are kept to a minimum, especially in the case of Gaz's lead vocal, which is barely existent at all: choir backing and the odd bit of Falling Down-style children speaking aside, it's instrumental. The actual Amorphous tracks are both just over a minute long. The Stoned Freshwaters track, 'Everything is Easy With a Little Persuasion', is assumed to be a remix by Brian, and it's possibly my favourite here: quite spacious, atmospherics over some acoustic sounding drums, not a million miles away from some of the Yage material or Sand Sound Folly.

I do worry that with this and the multi-path single that's coming ("in a few months", according to Gaz), we'll end up with We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal fatigue. Two hours of the same track is a bit overwhelming.

Going back to my initial point, it's a weird record because we've not yet heard the original track, and as it's the one I was looking forward to most on the LBTHC, I'm not so happy about hearing the whole thing deconstructed beforehand. I'll probably leave further listens until after the original version is released. So I can't make a normal judgment on it. But there's a lot to enjoy throughout.

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020 12:25 pm
by Ross
Cascade Part 1 Recreated - Ok, this is definitely less of a faithful recreation than Yage 2019, it feels a bit sparser, a less chunky mix, a few different aspects in there (notably the water sounds in the intro), different structure... lacks the section starting with the synth arp.
Flood of Reflection - A remix of Cascade done in the Environment 6 style. Hardware synth jam with elements of the original in there.
Amid the Overwhelm - Slow pounding drum loop, 808 squelches, quite a dark groove going on here. Lots of snippets of animal and voice samples used on Lifeforms appear throughout.
Cascade Part 6 - Lots of flutes, a synth loop which could be based on the main melody from the original track. A couple of familiar sounds in the background, but oddly this appears to be the least connected to the original so far.
Cascade Part 4 Recreated - Closer to the original than Part 1, a slightly punchier mix and some new sounds added around the halfway mark, but otherwise very similar to the 1993 version.
Dark Hours of Your Being - Glitched breakbeats, lots of sounds from the original filling out the mix. A very dark and heavy remix.
Sluice - More pounding breaks, high pitched ringing, weird rumblings. Sounds like something from ISDN rather than Lifeforms.
Multiple Falling Objects - Fast paced IDM beats, random notes of the main plucked melody of Cascade thrown in, lots of background ambience. Lovely soaring piece.
Deep Sea of Clouds - Gurgly bloopy synth melodies, some choir samples, piano and strings in the second half. Very watery feel which matches the title. Really beautiful piece, a highlight.
What Falls Away is Always - And now we have a title for the Cascade-based Berlin School section of Environments Part 1! Works really well here, well enough to excuse the repeated material. First CD-only track.
Brief Silence in the Distance - DnB track! Totally unlike anything they've done before. Really beautiful though, lots of gorgeous background ambience. Some flutes. Vocal sample from the original. Stunning.
Things That Mattered - More slow breaks, some melancholic melodies, a bit of Environments 1 ambience near the end. CD-only track 2.
Cascade Part 7 - Ok, this is worth the CD purchase on its own. A strange lo-fi looped section of Part 1's melody, some slow beats, then gorgeous strings come in. More synth pads come in. Gets really epic with some slightly Amorphousy drums and flutes from the original. A stunning way to end the release, and the LP version is sorely lacking without this. Best track on the album.

At nearly 60 minutes it's quite a long record by modern FSOL standards - it's longer than Environments 1, 2, 4 and Five - and almost all the songs run to four or five minutes, which means none of the interludes and separate environments we've had on recent releases. It's also the first completely gapless FSOL release since Environment Five. We're never going to get Lifeforms II, but it definitely feels like that era reimagined in the modern FSOL style. Has all the organic weirdness of that era mixed with the heavily electronic 'synth jam' style of the past five years. Overall it's a touch darker than the original Cascade single, but I'd say it retains a fair amount of that record's oceanic ambience. It feels much more like a natural sequel to the original Cascade than My Kingdom did a couple of years ago - that always had a very different atmosphere to the 1996 version to me. A couple of the breaksy tracks aside, it's a really beautiful record, the 'euphoric sadness' of both the original and the Environment Six era blending perfectly. On first listen I think it could easily be my favourite of the three recreations so far, and probably my favourite FSOL record since Environments 4.

Art is by Brian and his brother Alan, which means we seem to have lost Buggy again (he didn't do any art for Yage 2019 either). Generally seascape photography with computer manipulation, the new spike model, and symbols. Which is nicely fitting as the single version always made me think of the sea.

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020 1:21 pm
by fsolish
I am absolutely loving this, incredible stuff!
Thank you FSOL! :)

Excellent writeup Ross, as usual !

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2020 6:42 am
by Trigga Bo
"Amid the Overwhelm" aka Humanoid "Hull" remix by FSOL :)

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2020 12:56 pm
by Ross
They're similar but I wouldn't say it's a remix. The main 303 loop is different.

Some of the background sounds in the track were apparently recorded at Earthbeat - a band playing nextdoor overheard through the not-very-well soundproofed walls.

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2020 11:50 am
by Ross
The AA release will be on CD. Gaz mentioned on Facebook they'll probably do a 2CD edition featuring the longform single on one disc and the MPB remix on the second disc.

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:58 am
by mtnsportr
Ordered Cascade and We Persuade Ourselves on vinyl and got the full downloads. Listened to both on the weekend, love Cascade! It will take several listens to absorb, which is the way I like FSOL albums to be.

I was worried the AA remix album might taint the full release/track but it lacks the main vocal so I think of it as "variations on a theme". Should be fine. I am one of those "I prefer the original mix" types but the full We Persuade should be fresh, however probably won't give this many listens until the actual album is out.

Glad to have some new music!

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 7:05 am
by epitome
Hoping my Cascade CD will show up soon, really looking forward to hearing it! They should give downloads with CD purchases too, then I don't have to wait! :D

Re: RSD 2020 - Cascade 2020, We Persuade Ourselves... MPB Remixes, PNG (Weatherall Remix)

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:45 pm
by Dennis
Ordered CD and download (along with the last 3 calendar albums :) ) Can't wait to listen in the evening (hopefully)

There is so much stuff I missed out over the last few years, will definitely get my hands on the Black Hill Transmitter stuff finally (shame on me for still havent got this...), and this "controlled vista"-thingy also.