A quick EP this morning:
BHT4Then on to four albums.
Blackhill TransmitterIgnition of the SunObservation: these are the last things the band put out under alias. Literally everything since then - other than library music - has been FSOL. Which suggests two things:
1) the band are more comfortable being FSOL these days than they have in a long time
2) we're overdue an alias release
And then!
Environmentalism Part 6ixEnvironmentalisations Volume Six Point Fivecompiled as
E6+Also fucking hell, I just noticed the amount of positive reviews of 6.5
on Discogs. As a mood-piece I prefer the engulfing sinister nature of Six, and its atmospheric ties to the wider FSOLDigital catalogue, but I think 6.5 is the stronger standalone album of the two. It definitely feels like the next logical step after 4 and Five, with them reaching ever more epic and dynamic levels of sound.
The first few years of FSOLDigital were pretty exciting, with the first unheard electronic material in ten years, releases coming out of the blue, and incredible records like
Environments 2, but I look back to 2007-2011 and, quality wise, it doesn't hold a candle to the stuff since then. Working on this wiki has given me the opportunity to properly look back and reassess this decade's music for the first time, and the hit-rate is really astonishing. I'm still not so big on
The Cartel, but otherwise from 2012 we've had
Environments 4,
From the Archives 7,
Environment Five,
Archived 8,
Life in Moments,
Blackhill Transmitter,
Ignition of the Sun,
Environment Six,
Environment 6.5,
Archived : Environmental : Views and
My Kingdom Revisited. Eleven incredibly different and all completely fantastic albums. I totally get why some fans felt underwhelmed by 2001-2011 material, but the last seven years have been as good as their Virgin years.