Well hello, it's me again, your resident FSOL historian
Welcome to 2007 - the year when FSOL went independent, opened the FSOLDigital.com web-shop and released 20+ releases in the first year alone! It just got more insane in the years after, and we're still riding this mad wave of output music at nearly 10 releases per year.
So when the shop opened on March 19th 2007, it instantly had two volumes of the Zeebox project (web-only), a stereo version (also web-only) of the 5.1 surround sound project, the first three volumes of the incredible Archives series, a free single (A Tiny Point of Light), a new enhanced version of the old Metropolis EP and three new aliases represented by three new albums (Head of Agreement, Polemical and Part-Sub-Merged). As if this wasn't mind numbing enough, the next month we got a vinyl of PNG remixes, and the month after that also a 4 track promo vinyl called Archived EP. In October a fourth volume of the Archives was released.
In November there was a celebration - 20 years Stakker Humanoid - a double CD of old and new remixes and a web version that was almost entirely different from the CDs. Also, another compilation was released called
By Any Other Name that was basically an archive of all the aliases FSOL used in the 1990-1992 period. (I already reviewed this one, because the material was early '90s even though it first appeared in 2007).
And last but not least for 2007, the Environments album appeared - full 14 years after its scheduled release (the fans were speechless...) - and better yet, it continued it's life in a series of insanely awesome albums. Aside from their own shop, a bunch of their tracks (some of them still unreleased) appeared on compilations on a licensing music site called extrememusic.com.
Although FSOLDigital.com opened on 19.03.2007, some of the releases were registered a bit earlier. Some sources (Discogs included) say that Zeebox Vol.1 was registered on 01.03.2007 and Zeebox Vol.2 was registered on 04.03.2007. These two releases are reviewed in the very
first post of this thread - their awesomeness is what inspired me to chronologically review the works of Dougans/Cobain, and two-and-a-half years later we arrive at this post.
One important bit of news that lots of fans don't know (and it's coming from the man himself): It's been confirmed that a
rare Zeebox vinyl has been pressed for Rephlex. It was probably a very limited test pressing, and it probably happened in 2003, when Rephlex released remasters of the Humanoid Sessions and the Stakker Eurotechno project. But who knows, maybe they'll appear some day on eBay bidding for thousands of dollars...
And while we're talking rare and old 80's stuff, we need to mention
the very first band that Dougans and Cobain formed, called Twitch. It happened in Manchester in 1986/7. The band consisted of three people, the third member was Ian McArthur, a Scottish guy who played bass. The release they recorded was called
Bacteria from a Baboons Stomach, they even sold a few cassettes in Manchester, but this ultra-rare release has never surfaced on the net, yet... I can only assume this band played some hybrid of industrial experimental electronic stuff. Also a few videos from those sessions are in existence (and what would we give to see those today!). Twitch soon fell out, McArthur left and Dougans/Cobain moved to London - and the rest, as they say, is history.
Anyway, since the Zeebox project is reviewed, next in line is:
FSOL - A Gigantic Globular Burst of Antistatic EP (05.03.2007)
fsoldigital.com - FDIG06
One release from the initial dozen on FSOLDigital.com stood out with it's mysteriousness. Everything else was labeled as archived material or new experimental alias or a remix, but this one seemed brand new material under the name The Future Sound of London, and it had an awesome name too. So, clocking at almost an hour (57:27 to be more exact) - was this the NEW FSOL album? At the same time, it looked like an EP, or something like a well-known FSOL longform single.
We never got a clear message what this release was - but it certainly wasn't the new FSOL album we've been waiting for 11 years. And it's actually a good thing this wasn't their comeback album because it's one of their weakest works, and the reason for that is - they made it with surround sound in mind. And I've spoken my mind about surround sound in the previous review-post about
the Kinetica event and the Stereo Sucks documentary.
Making music with surround in mind has proven difficult in literally every piece of music I've heard. It becomes all about the effects and nothing about the music. It's all about - Oooh look what the effects are doing, they can bounce around your head and you feel them coming from different directions - while the music, theme, melodies and almost everything else gets lost and/or neglected. While it works good as a soundtrack, and the music/melodic parts are very good (only there are so few of them) it just doesn't live up to the FSOL name and standards we're used to.
The original project that was meant to be the soundtrack for the Kinetica event was called Heads of Agreement, and later it became an alias and the album/soundtrack got a new name, The San Monta Tapes (we'll get to that one soon). Globular should've stayed in the Heads of Agreement concept, in my opinion. In the Ukashan directory, which is still active at
http://futuresoundoflondon.com/ukashan/mp/ there was originally another directory with 5.1 mixes, which I didn't download (I know Ross didn't either), so any help from the readers for completists like us would be greatly appreciated.
Tracklisting:
1 - Globular (Longform) (31:12)
- Well, I was actually talking about this track since I started writing about this release. But please don't get me wrong, reading those not-so-positive comments about this one, it's actually a decent track, but it would've been underwhelming presented as new FSOL material or new FSOL album. When it's not bouncing effects around (around after the 9 minute mark) it gets pretty cool string melodies reminding of Eggshell (from Lifeforms). The next good part is after the 15 minute mark, and again it gets really good after the 20 minute mark and it goes strong until the end.
2 - Globular (Shortform) (11:23)
- An edit of the previous mega-track. It probably sounds a little better because there are less large chunks of (dare I say) boring surround effects - but on the other hand, some of the best parts are edited out...
3 - Globules (11:36)
- This is definitelly the best track here, chunks of Polemical mixed with Amorphous details (piano, guitar, violins). The opening effects prove that stereo is more than enough for good music - this is some of the best stereo wizardry that I've ever heard.
4 - Glob (3:16)
- A short experimental synth piece (well, short compared to the previous lengthy beasts). I really don't know what to make of this one... except that it sounds like a soundtrack for some whacky not-for-kids cartoon.
PS - Globular has possible samples from Coil - How to Destroy Angels (either the original from 1984, or more possibly the remixes from 1992). [further digging is required]
Next stop - From The Archives Vol.1 - can't wait...
