having virtually overdosed on the hammer and tongs grooves of various techno productions for the last few weeks, i decided to take it down a level for while @ ireallylovemusic hq.
don’t ask me why, but in the middle of the night, I suddenly had a massive urge to become reacquainted with the ever mind boggling future sound of london. i lived in the double ambient epic lifeforms for far far too long, bought the nasty cardboard limited edition of isdn only to leave the album unloved due to the packaging becoming increasingly destroyed with each exposure to the outside world, and then became scared off by the frightening noise of dead cities, and like many other was totally baffled as to the mess that was the release of the isness so never bothered, much to my own personal regret later.
thankfully though, today the excessive instrumental depth that the guys excel at fit the jigsaw perfectly.
i even listened, sorry, experienced the 70s prog rock opus, alice in ultraworld by the pseudo amorphous androgynous, from start to finish (as reviewed : here) and didn’t laugh once, but instead just let the beauty and analogue calm wash over me.
glorious.
the band truly have a way with their love for sonic detail like no other, which even to this day, i still find incredibly wonderful.
yes, it may not be cutting edge and laptop glitchey, nor are their fat synthetic soundscapes cool in this age of sharp and tinnitus inducing crisp productions, but sometimes it’s good to get a hug from the music that emits from your soundsystem, and there are large sections of the incredibly varied fsol catalogue that do just that.
so, with all the love flowing i recalled hidden away in the archive a remix of theirs.
hidden away on a deadly avenger 12″, we took pelham, the track takes a fairly typical beats and samples track that was released during the glut of imaginary soundtracks to a film yet to be made and adds a very up to date electro feel to it making it sound totally out of character for a fsol production.
being totally honest, it’s not all that, but I suspect that its not that well known either.
the thin synth line draped over the top is squiggly and rather annoying making you wonder if the tracklisting is wrong (quite possible as the sleeve credits and the details on the actual cd label are different), but then you remember that like the glorious klf, the listener should always expect the unexpected from the media savvy duo. then just as the patience begins to wear, suddenly the track changes direction, and everything clicks into place as a fairly rich ambience and orchestration permeates the mood bringing the track to a very different conclusion.
making this one definitely for the research archives.
oh, and should you be interested, apparently the band have dusted down their own expansive archives and released a chunk of new/old/unreleased sounds both digitally and on proper cds, including the oft rumoured, but never heard before, expansions album.
more detail : official – – excellent fansite