Pande-reviews: 2007.5 (the 2007 enhanced re-releases)
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:04 pm
FSOL & AA feat. Dianne Harris - A Tiny Point of Light [single] (19.03.2007)
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
Besides Glubular and Heads of Agreement, this experimental spoken word piece was also made for the Kinetica event in London. The spoken words are by Dianne Harris (Gaz's significant other), and it is unclear weather this track is by FSOL or AA, or both - though it is usually considered an FSOL piece.
The ambient was conceived as a soundtrack to a light and sound projected sculpture (see the video below) created by Dianne Harris with involvement of both aliases (FSOL & AA). It's a pretty cool mantric piece that it remained basically unreleased because I don't think we can count the free download that appeared for a very short time on fsoldigital.com, and it was in weak 128kbps MP3 quality.
1 - A Tiny Point Of Light [6:24]
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Metropolis - Metropolis [remastered single] (19.03.2007)
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
The Metropolis single was released on Union City Recordings (a short-lived label) in 1992, and FSOL somehow kept the copy-rights and re-released Metropolis in 2007 on their new web-shop, with a tracklist that looked rather different than the original single on the first glance, but actually I think it's only the last track that was unreleased before.
Tracklist
1 - Metro 1 [3:34]
- Actually an edit of the original metropolis track, with a differently mixed outro.
2 - Hyper Real 1 [4:59]
- This one is the same with the Hyporeel track released on the original single.
3 - Hyper Real 3 [4:58]
- And this one is the same with the previous track (?!?) I really can't hear the difference between these two. Maybe it's me or maybe it's some sort of mistake.
4 - Metropolis Alt [3:37]
- This is the new version (or an alternate take) of the original Metropolis that was unreleased before. It's a good ride version - the latin themes are all stripped down and this is just a pure ride old-skool 4/4 beat.
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FSOL - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White Remixes) [single remixes] (23.04.2007)
Jumpin' & Pumpin' - 12 TOT 45
Like the initial dozen releases weren't enough to start the fsoldigital.com shop, the next month another release appeared, 12" only. It was out-of-the-blue-no-jubilee-required new remixes of Papua New Guinea, the ambient techno anthem from 1991.
And who the hell are Herd & White?? To tell you the truth, listening to these mixes today (including the fact that we have no info whatsoever of these guys 7+ years later) I'm starting to think that these mixes were actually done by FSOL. Something like a trial run of acid for the forthcoming Humanoid - Your Body Robotic release. Who knows... maybe they'll shed some light some day.
Tracklist
A1 - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White Remix) [7:52]
- Very very good acid version of the track. It's a bit lenghty and it rides the usual PNG madness for about 5 minutes, then it builds for a whole additional minute into a head-bangin' acid that reminded me of some Josh Wink classics.
B1 - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White No Acid Mix) [7:52]
- The same mix without the acid madness, just pure ride.
B2 - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White Radio Mix) [3:07]
- Radio edit of the first track. Not bad but I often wonder why do these radio mixes exist on releases that are ment for DJs anyway. Industry habits I guess...
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Oil - Slight of Hand EP [remastered] (08.05.2007)
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
The original Slight of Hand EP was a 12" only release on FSOL's own EBV label in 1997. So 10 years later it got an expanded digital release.
The first three tracks are ISDN classics (being mixed on so many ISDN era transmissions). Ranging from electronic funk to industrial breakbeats, the 'new' tracks here go on in those elements. Big Car is a beautiful (Herbie influenced) electro-funk track that was in a too-good mood for the original (darker) release from 1997. The Dub version is lyricless, and more heavily mixed, but still in a good joint-ride mood. Mouth is also a groove-rider - that bassline is just killing all over. It's one damn funky release.
Tracklist
1 - Slight Of Hand [5:19]
2 - Psychocrab [4:00]
3 - Incubus [5:30]
4 - Big Car (Vox) [4:23]
5 - Big Car (Dub) [4:25]
6 - Mouth [4:13]
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Headstone Lane - Back in The Day [album, remastered & expanded](08.05.2007)
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
While the Oil release got expanded, the Headstone Lane Knuckleduster EP got expanded into a whole proper album that should've been released 10 years earlier.
The original tracklist that appeared in 2007 had the tracks shuffled, new and old, but in the 2012 overhaul (as seen today) a new tracklist appeared that had the new tracks as the A-sides and the old tracks as B-sides. Both tracklists work just fine, but I like the newest one better.
This album is very well produced indeed - and I wonder if FSOL put their hands on some kind of post-production before releasing this.
01 – Powder Of Sympathy (5:01) - one of the best breakbeats around - I've mixed this one countless times.
02 – Fing (3:37) - cool groovy low tempo ride with woodwinds and environments.
03 – 252 (4:02) - cool drum'n'bass track that touches the glitchy IDM side.
04 – Vortexian (4:59) - plain weird... and it does sound a little unfinished.
05 – H’s Old Room (4:24) - awesome feel to this one - looks like something FSOL would make in their ISDN era.
06 – Neasden (2:04) - and this one looks like something mixed in the MPB series, that saturated guitar is spot-on psychedelic.
07 – Mole (3:27) - weird doesn't exactly cover it, so I'm gonna go with ultra trippy weird. It's so slow and powerful that warps your brain between the headphones and/or shakes your insides on good speakers.
The original 1997 EP starts here as the B-sides:
08 – Knuckleduster (4:51) - often reminds me of Aphex Twin, but not in a 'copied' way - this is one badass track!
09 – Back In The Day (3:26) - cinematic breaks piece with guitars and spooky atmospheres all around.
10 – Beers (4:27) - it's basically a punk track, slowed down and electrified.
11 – Crashed (4:46) - another mind-numbing drum-break.
12 – Garage (2:47) - glitchy ambient stuff...
13 – The Germ (3:30) - A proper slow but powerful groove-rider ending.
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FSOL - Archived EP (28.05.2007)
Jumpin' & Pumpin' - 12 TOT 46
Just to mention this one - no new tracks here, just 4 tracks from the Archives series pressed on vinyl to promote them further. The initial pressings included a full color artwork booklet.
Tracklist
A1 - Brujo (circa 1994) [from Archive 2]
A2 - Lizzard Crawl (circa 1996) [from Archive 1]
B1 - Space Squids (circa 1993) [from Archive 3]
B2 - Mouth Muse (circa 1996) [from Archives 1]
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FSOL - From The Archives LP (28.05.2007)
Jumpin' & Pumpin' - LP FSOL 1
Another 'just-to-mention' vinyl compilation (that is actually out of print now). The first three Archives got compiled into a 12 track double 12" release. The selection is very good, but I can't help but notice some true gems missing - like Head Hunter, Pale Moon, Wanting... OK I'm gonna stop now.
Tracklist
A1 - Lizzard Crawl (circa 1996) [from Archive 1]
A2 - Hallucination (circa 1995) [from Archive 1]
A3 - Woodland (circa 1994) [from Archive 1]
B1 - Mouth Muse (circa 1996) [from Archive 1]
B2 - Turn Around (circa 1993) [from Archive 1]
B3 - Hazy Day Girl (circa 1995) [from Archive 1]
C1 - Brujo (circa 1994) [from Archive 2]
C2 - Long Shadows (circa 2001) [from Archive 3]
C3 - Dark Matter (circa 1996) [from Archive 2]
D1 - Distant Nebulus (circa 1995) [from Archive 2]
D2 - Space Squids (circa 1993) [from Archive 3]
D3 - Mango Tree (circa 1996) [from Archive 3]
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
Besides Glubular and Heads of Agreement, this experimental spoken word piece was also made for the Kinetica event in London. The spoken words are by Dianne Harris (Gaz's significant other), and it is unclear weather this track is by FSOL or AA, or both - though it is usually considered an FSOL piece.
The ambient was conceived as a soundtrack to a light and sound projected sculpture (see the video below) created by Dianne Harris with involvement of both aliases (FSOL & AA). It's a pretty cool mantric piece that it remained basically unreleased because I don't think we can count the free download that appeared for a very short time on fsoldigital.com, and it was in weak 128kbps MP3 quality.
1 - A Tiny Point Of Light [6:24]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Metropolis - Metropolis [remastered single] (19.03.2007)
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
The Metropolis single was released on Union City Recordings (a short-lived label) in 1992, and FSOL somehow kept the copy-rights and re-released Metropolis in 2007 on their new web-shop, with a tracklist that looked rather different than the original single on the first glance, but actually I think it's only the last track that was unreleased before.
Tracklist
1 - Metro 1 [3:34]
- Actually an edit of the original metropolis track, with a differently mixed outro.
2 - Hyper Real 1 [4:59]
- This one is the same with the Hyporeel track released on the original single.
3 - Hyper Real 3 [4:58]
- And this one is the same with the previous track (?!?) I really can't hear the difference between these two. Maybe it's me or maybe it's some sort of mistake.
4 - Metropolis Alt [3:37]
- This is the new version (or an alternate take) of the original Metropolis that was unreleased before. It's a good ride version - the latin themes are all stripped down and this is just a pure ride old-skool 4/4 beat.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FSOL - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White Remixes) [single remixes] (23.04.2007)
Jumpin' & Pumpin' - 12 TOT 45
Like the initial dozen releases weren't enough to start the fsoldigital.com shop, the next month another release appeared, 12" only. It was out-of-the-blue-no-jubilee-required new remixes of Papua New Guinea, the ambient techno anthem from 1991.
And who the hell are Herd & White?? To tell you the truth, listening to these mixes today (including the fact that we have no info whatsoever of these guys 7+ years later) I'm starting to think that these mixes were actually done by FSOL. Something like a trial run of acid for the forthcoming Humanoid - Your Body Robotic release. Who knows... maybe they'll shed some light some day.
Tracklist
A1 - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White Remix) [7:52]
- Very very good acid version of the track. It's a bit lenghty and it rides the usual PNG madness for about 5 minutes, then it builds for a whole additional minute into a head-bangin' acid that reminded me of some Josh Wink classics.
B1 - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White No Acid Mix) [7:52]
- The same mix without the acid madness, just pure ride.
B2 - Papua New Guinea (Herd & White Radio Mix) [3:07]
- Radio edit of the first track. Not bad but I often wonder why do these radio mixes exist on releases that are ment for DJs anyway. Industry habits I guess...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oil - Slight of Hand EP [remastered] (08.05.2007)
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
The original Slight of Hand EP was a 12" only release on FSOL's own EBV label in 1997. So 10 years later it got an expanded digital release.
The first three tracks are ISDN classics (being mixed on so many ISDN era transmissions). Ranging from electronic funk to industrial breakbeats, the 'new' tracks here go on in those elements. Big Car is a beautiful (Herbie influenced) electro-funk track that was in a too-good mood for the original (darker) release from 1997. The Dub version is lyricless, and more heavily mixed, but still in a good joint-ride mood. Mouth is also a groove-rider - that bassline is just killing all over. It's one damn funky release.
Tracklist
1 - Slight Of Hand [5:19]
2 - Psychocrab [4:00]
3 - Incubus [5:30]
4 - Big Car (Vox) [4:23]
5 - Big Car (Dub) [4:25]
6 - Mouth [4:13]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Headstone Lane - Back in The Day [album, remastered & expanded](08.05.2007)
fsoldigital.com - no cat.num.
While the Oil release got expanded, the Headstone Lane Knuckleduster EP got expanded into a whole proper album that should've been released 10 years earlier.
The original tracklist that appeared in 2007 had the tracks shuffled, new and old, but in the 2012 overhaul (as seen today) a new tracklist appeared that had the new tracks as the A-sides and the old tracks as B-sides. Both tracklists work just fine, but I like the newest one better.
This album is very well produced indeed - and I wonder if FSOL put their hands on some kind of post-production before releasing this.
01 – Powder Of Sympathy (5:01) - one of the best breakbeats around - I've mixed this one countless times.
02 – Fing (3:37) - cool groovy low tempo ride with woodwinds and environments.
03 – 252 (4:02) - cool drum'n'bass track that touches the glitchy IDM side.
04 – Vortexian (4:59) - plain weird... and it does sound a little unfinished.
05 – H’s Old Room (4:24) - awesome feel to this one - looks like something FSOL would make in their ISDN era.
06 – Neasden (2:04) - and this one looks like something mixed in the MPB series, that saturated guitar is spot-on psychedelic.
07 – Mole (3:27) - weird doesn't exactly cover it, so I'm gonna go with ultra trippy weird. It's so slow and powerful that warps your brain between the headphones and/or shakes your insides on good speakers.
The original 1997 EP starts here as the B-sides:
08 – Knuckleduster (4:51) - often reminds me of Aphex Twin, but not in a 'copied' way - this is one badass track!
09 – Back In The Day (3:26) - cinematic breaks piece with guitars and spooky atmospheres all around.
10 – Beers (4:27) - it's basically a punk track, slowed down and electrified.
11 – Crashed (4:46) - another mind-numbing drum-break.
12 – Garage (2:47) - glitchy ambient stuff...
13 – The Germ (3:30) - A proper slow but powerful groove-rider ending.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FSOL - Archived EP (28.05.2007)
Jumpin' & Pumpin' - 12 TOT 46
Just to mention this one - no new tracks here, just 4 tracks from the Archives series pressed on vinyl to promote them further. The initial pressings included a full color artwork booklet.
Tracklist
A1 - Brujo (circa 1994) [from Archive 2]
A2 - Lizzard Crawl (circa 1996) [from Archive 1]
B1 - Space Squids (circa 1993) [from Archive 3]
B2 - Mouth Muse (circa 1996) [from Archives 1]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FSOL - From The Archives LP (28.05.2007)
Jumpin' & Pumpin' - LP FSOL 1
Another 'just-to-mention' vinyl compilation (that is actually out of print now). The first three Archives got compiled into a 12 track double 12" release. The selection is very good, but I can't help but notice some true gems missing - like Head Hunter, Pale Moon, Wanting... OK I'm gonna stop now.
Tracklist
A1 - Lizzard Crawl (circa 1996) [from Archive 1]
A2 - Hallucination (circa 1995) [from Archive 1]
A3 - Woodland (circa 1994) [from Archive 1]
B1 - Mouth Muse (circa 1996) [from Archive 1]
B2 - Turn Around (circa 1993) [from Archive 1]
B3 - Hazy Day Girl (circa 1995) [from Archive 1]
C1 - Brujo (circa 1994) [from Archive 2]
C2 - Long Shadows (circa 2001) [from Archive 3]
C3 - Dark Matter (circa 1996) [from Archive 2]
D1 - Distant Nebulus (circa 1995) [from Archive 2]
D2 - Space Squids (circa 1993) [from Archive 3]
D3 - Mango Tree (circa 1996) [from Archive 3]