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Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 5:13 pm
by Ross
Nothing from the reworked singles has been released elsewhere.
A:E:V is a very frustrating record because, as you say, the 1st and 3rd LPs contain a lot of already released material, but also a lot of exceptionally great material that's only available there. A lot of people think the 'Views' disc is one of the best things they've ever done (I'd possibly agree), but it does include versions of five tracks that have already been released. The CD version is 100% exclusive material (well... 'Silence in Her Eyes' is an alternative mix of the Environment 6 vinyl-only bonus track 'Silence Around Them').

'I Turn to Face the Sun' appeared as a digital bonus track with the LP of Environments II, then on the Artworks EP, then on Life in Moments. The complete Archived 8 bonus EP ('Bring', 'Sea + LSD' and 'Grindatone' is also on Life in Moments. 'Abandoned Housing Block of Prypiat' was a digital bonus track with From the Archives vol 7.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 4:12 pm
by gabo86
Ok Ross, so we agree on this: FSOL make some kind of separation between "official albums" and "all the rest". For example, the Artwork EP, the bonus tracks etc. then ended up onto "official" albums (Life In Moments), for example.
Anyway, on discogs Papua New Guinea Translations, My Kingdom Re-imagined, Yage 2019, Cascade 2020 and the four calendar albums are all listed as "albums", so I think I'm going to add them on my collection.
Well...eight new albums for me, all in a sudden? I'm quite shocked...I'll approach them slowly, I think.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:59 pm
by Ross
I mean, the whole Archives and Environments series at this point definitely suggest that they've moved away from the standard album thing, and then the reworkings, Life in Moments, Archived : Environmental : Views, 6 and 6.5 being linked but separate albums, Ignition of the Sun having different CD and LP versions, the calendar albums being released over twelve months... they're certainly not making it easy for someone who wants to follow the conventional album route!
But yeah, those eight albums should offer a good amount of new material and comparatively little familiar / repeat stuff for you.

I did have a thought - does this mean you're not familiar with the single/video versions of Cascade, Lifeforms and My Kingdom? If not, Cascade 2020 will be a nice surprise for you, given just how different Part 1 is from the album version.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 11:32 pm
by gabo86
I don't know how much they've moved away from the standard album thing (as you called it, and it's a perfect description), because in any case each of these records (archives, enviroments), are album-length, include (almost) only new tracks, at least tracks that have not been issued on any official album, so for me it's like a new record. I mean, ok, Archives and the first Environments include many old tracks, but for me these have been "new", because I've never heard them before.
For Ignition Of The Sun...yes, the two versions seem very different, but I have the cd version and it's almost unlistenable to me, so I don't think I will bother to buy also the other one :D
And, for Archived : Environmental : Views, this is the only istance of a real "move away" from the standard album thing, at least for the vinyl version (for the reasons that we discussed some post ago), but then the CD version came, with 24 new tracks, so I have that version and for me it's all "new".

No, I'm not familiar with those three singles. I'm not familiar with anything not listed in the post I've previously written, and with anything that is not an "album". I will listen to the reworkings/2019/2020 new versions for you described me as "albums", but I don't know if I will go to those old singles...the last thing I want to listen to is the same song repeated over and over, as much as I can like it. I know, it's my limit, but I don't really want.

I don't know how to thank you, Ross. Really.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:33 am
by Ross
The LP version of Ignition of the Sun is definitely the more listenable of the two - the extra tracks are very melodic and unlike the dark, noisy tracks that make up the rest of the album. Probably still too little though if you find the CD version unlistenable.

I shan't try and convince you to buy the singles (Cascade, My Kingdom and WHE are probably a tiny bit too repetitive overall for their short runtimes), but if you have a spare ten minutes or so, I'd honestly recommend giving the following three radio edits a listen, just to hear how different the single versions are...
Lifeforms

Cascade

My Kingdom

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:49 am
by gabo86
About Ignition Of The Sun, for me is really too much. Also the three Zeebox and Hand-made Devices, but Ignition Of The Sun is like listening to torture sounds...everytime the record finishes I fear being brainwashed :D

About the three videos you posted, well, Lifeforms is really different, is seems a completely different song, if I hadn't read "Lifeforms" on top I would have not guessed. Cascade seems a different edit, with some new parts, while My Kingdom is pretty similar to the album version.
I am not the greatest fan of Lifeforms (the album), while I am of Dead Cities, so My Kingdom always touches my heart, even though I know it very well.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:40 pm
by mcbpete
If yer into Dead Cities you really need the two spinoff singles/eps if only for the definitive (IMO) versions of My Kingdom and We Have Explosive




Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:49 pm
by Ross
gabo86 wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:49 amAbout the three videos you posted, well, Lifeforms is really different, is seems a completely different song, if I hadn't read "Lifeforms" on top I would have not guessed.
Yeah, there are numerous shared samples over all seven paths of the single, but all the tracks are totally different... this one ended up as the radio / video version, despite being 99% different to the album mix.
Cascade seems a different edit, with some new parts
When I first got Lifeforms I was so surprised that Cascade was a single because the album version is so minimal - the single one has all the breakbeats, flutes, kotos, synth sequences and such, it almost feels like a different track to me.
while My Kingdom is pretty similar to the album version.
Interesting, for me it's the synth section that starts at 2:10 that makes the track and really elevates it beyond the much darker album version. I've always found the Dead Cities version totally underwhelming in comparison to the single one.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 4:27 pm
by mcbpete
Ross wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:49 pm Interesting, for me it's the synth section that starts at 2:10 that makes the track and really elevates it beyond the much darker album version.
Ohmygosh yes, the first time I heard that bit was in the EP and I still remember the tears I had in my eyes at the prettiness of the synth bubbles (2:29 of the video - that coincidentally is the section where synthetic bubbles appear). I wish I could emotionally engage with music nowadays like I did in my late teens/early 20s.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 12:04 pm
by Ross
Oh, me too. Back then I got goosebumps and shivers and tears and utter joy from music all the time. These days it's a very rare occurrence.
The 11 minute Part 1 version is my all-time favourite piece of music, and when that synth section with all the synth bubbles and all sorts comes in I do still get that sensation. Then it fizzles out to near silence, the big whoosh sound comes and Mary Hopkin's vocal fades in as if out of a bank of fog... it's absolutely the most 'epic' (in the true sense of the word) moment I've ever heard in a piece of music.

So yeah, gabo86, I doubt the 1996 My Kingdom EP will be for you - three of the five tracks are based on the album version - but definitely worth listening to the Part 1 video above just to experience that revelatory moment at least once in your life!

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 11:09 am
by molo
I got hold of the picture disc this week, loving it. But there are so many pieces/snippets that I'm sure I've heard before, maybe in the original Kiss transmissions. It could just be the segways between tracks. Has anyone done a breakdown of the tracks at all?

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:06 pm
by Ross
Timestamps given to me by Brian:
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)

And yeah, there are quite a few snippets in the between-track environments (and some overlaid on the tracks themselves) that appeared in the '90s.

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 3:46 pm
by gabo86
Ross wrote: Wed Dec 09, 2020 12:04 pm Oh, me too. Back then I got goosebumps and shivers and tears and utter joy from music all the time. These days it's a very rare occurrence.
The 11 minute Part 1 version is my all-time favourite piece of music, and when that synth section with all the synth bubbles and all sorts comes in I do still get that sensation. Then it fizzles out to near silence, the big whoosh sound comes and Mary Hopkin's vocal fades in as if out of a bank of fog... it's absolutely the most 'epic' (in the true sense of the word) moment I've ever heard in a piece of music.

So yeah, gabo86, I doubt the 1996 My Kingdom EP will be for you - three of the five tracks are based on the album version - but definitely worth listening to the Part 1 video above just to experience that revelatory moment at least once in your life!
I will, I promise. I love "revelatory moments", and I have to admit that, despite being over 30, I am still able to have goosebumps, for music I already know and also for new music that gives goosebumps.

Anyway, I started to listen to the "FSOLography", that means "all the albums in chronological order" (that's how I listen to them, and that's why all their albums have the same number of playings...I know that may sound weird, but I listened to Lifeforms the same amount of times I listened to Ignition of the sun), and I finally got to PNG Translations. I knew the original version, of course, and I knew The Lovers (from The Issness). It's nice how the second translations is a "bridge" between the first one and the third one. There are snippets of the original version, but sometimes is almost unrecognizable.
I'll see in the future...

Re: Forthcoming FSOL picture disc vinyl on Touched Revolutions

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 11:35 pm
by molo
Ross wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:06 pm And yeah, there are quite a few snippets in the between-track environments (and some overlaid on the tracks themselves) that appeared in the '90s.
Thanks, I thought it was the case. I really like that aspect as it makes the new seem already familiar. I listened to it yesterday while working, and again today. It's a great LP.