BAND INFO: The Future Sound of London (FSOL) is a two man band consisting of Gary Cobain (from England) and Brian Dougans (from Scotland). Thier musical careers actually started in 1998 with singles and various appearances on compilations. 1991 was the year that Future Sound of London actually started with a song for the animated "Cool World" movie. Virgin Records instantly picked them up and the music started flowing. Like many other techno acts, FSOL has had many different monikers over the past decade. You can find other house and experimental sounds from FSOL by looking for: Amorphous Androgynous, Art Science Technology, Candese, The Far-out Son of Lung, Humanoid, Indo Tribe, Intelligent Communication, Mental Cube, Metropolis, Semi Real, Semtex, Smart Systems, Yage, or Yunie (whew!). An odd thing about this band is that you will never see them perform live. They see touring as "a concession to a redundant musical lifestyle." However, you can see them "live" through video images via ISDN digital links straight from their studio.
Dead Cities
We Have Explosive Remixes
Dead Cities - OVERVIEW: Hmm, there's no actual word to describe this music. You can call it ambient, but it's more experimental. You can call it experimental, but it has more structure. You can call it trance, but it can get kind of fast. Well, to simplify it, you can just call it "good". It has the hit track "We Have Explosive" that has rocketed FSOL into the techno world. This is a power-dance song that is so popular that it has its own album dedicated to it (We Have Explosive Remixes). The CD then moves on to embrace ambient beauty which includes manipulated guitars, complex soundscapes, and spacy atmospheres. Be sure to check out the hidden, kind of heavier song after track #13. NOTE: There are two versions of this CD: One is a limited version with a very indepth booklet with artwork and text all by FSOL. The other version is the regular CD with a smaller version of the booklet that still has some funky art in it. There is no musical differences between the CDs.
RECORD LABEL: Astralwerks
# OF TRACKS: 13
RUNNING TIME: 1:10:09
RELEASE YEAR: 1996
YOU'D LIKE THIS CD IF YOU LIKE: Synaesthesia or Aphex Twin's ambient work (such as "I Care Because You Do..." or "Selected Ambient Works: Volume II")
RATING: 7.5 / 10
We Have Explosive Remixes - OVERVIEW: You like "We Have Explosive"? You want more? How about 9 remixes of it? We've got some house stuff, trance-like, and just plain dancy mixes. Even the inside cover says that a lot of beats were taken from the 80s rap group, RUN DMC. However, I notice that there is an over-all industrial sound to some of these remixes. And that's not a bad thing! Here you'll find the radio edit (also found on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack), an Oil Funk remix, and 5 different versions of the song re-made by FSOL. Like "Dead Cities", there are two different versions of the CD. One CD has just the 5 versions of "We Have Explosive" and another has the 5 different versions plus the remixes by Oil Funk and the radio edit. I believe that one has more artwork than the other. The one I have (the CD with the 5 versions plus the remixes) doesn't have much art, but it has more music on it.
RECORD LABEL: Astralwerks
# OF TRACKS: 9
RUNNING TIME: 48:29
RELEASE YEAR: 1997
YOU'D LIKE THIS CD IF YOU LIKE: Kraftwelt or Aphex Twin's "I Care Because You Do" CD
RATING: 3 / 10
