FSOL - Archived 8

[Dennis]

OK, it took me a few listens, but now I 'got it' I must admit the very clinical, technoid atmosphere of the whole thing somehow made 'archived 8' seem a bit inferior to the previous releases at first listens. But I tend to really like it now.
'Standing Room' seems to be my favourite track at the moment which is weird because first I thought it´s a rather weak track.

[mcbpete]

I must admit the very clinical, technoid atmosphere of the whole thing somehow made 'archived 8' seem a bit inferior to the previous releases at first listens.

I think it's for that precise reason that I love it so much - love the more techy edge of FSOL, hence why Dead Cities has remained my favourite album. As a result this may well be my fave of the archive series - have to listen to it considerably more times but yeah, I love it ! Still miss their full-on breakbeats though a la Herd Killing, maybe they're still coming !

[Pandemonium]

Same here Pete

[Pandemonium]

- Listening to "Still Motion" now... I certainly know a lot of people who would call it modern hip-hop - but I certainly wouldn't
Though I can easily imagine someone like Mystikal using this for rapping... Great track!

- Spacial Freak -- not to be confused with Spatial Freakout from the Peel Session '95 - that one was a Quagmire extrapolation, while Spacial Freak is from an earlier beats era...

- Acturum Esse - sounds like something from the Cartel Remixes - if it's not from that era than the closest thing that comes to mind is Her Face Forms in Summertime...

[Enofa]

The beats in Still Motion are totally unlike anything else in the FSOL catalogue. So lo-fi, an 808 (or similar). It's definitely got a trap vibe to it. Weird.

[mcbpete]

So lo-fi, an 808 (or similar). It's definitely got a trap vibe to it. Weird.

Thought the same thing - does that shufffling between 8th and 16th notes of the hihats thing trap producers so love doing.



p.s. Wonder if the opening to Sorrow is from a Zeebox era loop - Kinda reminds me of May 2nd but on an old skool drum machine rather than a sample. I notice the sound at 1:36 onwards is the same sound from Electronic Brain Storm Vol.6 - (Unknown Artist) Lies About Vietnam. Wonder if the whole thing is a Zeebox thing ?

[Pandemonium]

Heh, good spot Pete, but I can expand on that:

EBS6 - the artist is Film Polski - we found out about this later in the EBS10 - the micro edition
- BUT - the opening track there called Film Polski - Vietnam is the same track as SORROW, minus the poem recital.
-- So yeah, this goes way way back to the Zeebox days... or MAYBE Film Polski is another old Dougans alias ?? ?? ??

flashback to EBS10 tracklist:

Tracklist:
00:00 Film Polski - Vietnam (unreleased? rare edition?)
03:37 Zeebox - Sewage Worker (Triangle) [FSOLdigital]
04:55 The Future Sound Of London - 滅亡 (Archive 8- Edit) [FSOLdigital]
08:28 The Future Sound Of London - Unfurl (Archived) [FSOLdigital]
10:20 The Future Sound Of London - EBV Answer Machine (The Knowing Collectors) [FSOLdigital]
11:32 The Future Sound Of London - Lakeside (from Touched: Music For Macmillan Cancer Support)
13:46 The Future Sound Of London - Driving Round [FSOLdigital]
15:03 End.

- Film Polski (as explained in the mix), is Simon Lewin who made a song out of a poem and added his beats. The (radio) announcer is excited and he actually describes industrial music, as this Film Polski guy was active in the mid 80's. He took the name Film Polski from state-run film production and distribution organization of Poland, founded in 1945. The poem is by Adrian Mitchell, named "To Whom It May Concern (Tell Me Lies about Vietnam)", first read on Trafalgar Square in 1964. Film Polski releases are very hard to find, so I can only assume Brian has some rare vinyl...

- The Japanese track, translated as DOWNFALL did not end up on A8, but at least Unfurl did .

[Pandemonium]

- Now I wonder if 'Still Motion' has anything to do with the Intelligent Communication project and it's little revival earlier this year...

- The new 2015 version of Drive has some similarities... and the old EP was named 'Principles of Motion'...

[epitome]

Well, I've managed to listen to this a few times, here a few initial thoughts:

Forlorn, Still Motion and Standing Room feel like fairly recent recordings?

I like the overall sound of it and it basically keeps a good "album" feel.

Plazmatical is a weak point. It doesn't really fit with the other tracks and isn't as good - this feels like an early FSOL track and, in my opinion, they should've saved the more dancey, earlier tracks and put those in one album (or multiple albums, together), rather than trying to mix them in with the later 90s stuff. I've only listened to Archives 1-3, and 8 and all but the first seem to have been tarnished with one or more early tracks that don't fit the mood.

Compared to the first 3, I would currently say this is better than Archives 2, but probably not quite as good as Archives 1 and 3.

The bonus EP is really good. Particularly tracks 1 and 3, which are as good as pretty much anything on Archived 8.

[Enofa]

I think 7 is the only one so far without an obviously 'early' sounding track on it (Walls of Thought is from 1991 but doesn't sound it) - although I don't mind them so much.

[epitome]

Which of Archives 1 sound 'early'?

A while since I listened to that one, but I don't remember any sticking out.

[Dennis]

I find "Plazmatical" actually pretty cool... yeah quite "early" sounding but lush melodic bouncing synth lines like 91/92-era AFX or Orbital.
For me the weak point is rather a track like "Spacial Freak" - sounds more like a skeletal sketch of a track not unlike that kind of stuff on archives 1-3, stuff like "skinny ribbed Fucker" or "neural device send" comes to my mind (haven´t heard them in a while)

The album flow is OK, but was better on Vol.5 & 6 (OK, maybe exception for "Jelly Legs", but I wouldn´t want to miss that track, it´s anyway better than "Spacial Freak" I think...)

[Enofa]

Which of Archives 1 sound 'early'?

A while since I listened to that one, but I don't remember any sticking out.

Ah, you're right. I still can't separate the first three in my head, with them all coming out as basically a big batch of nearly 60 tracks on the same day.

[Pandemonium]

Return a few posts back - with me and Pete,
- so no one has thoughts about Film Polski - Vietnam // Zeebox // Sorrow ??

[Concept]

I adore Blue Green. Don't know why they never chose to use that one before now elsewhere. I was initially a little cold on the album because the change of style from 7 made it sound a little too clinical for my tastes, but it's grown on me since. The first two thirds of the album definitely sound stronger than the last third though.