Environment 7 trilogy

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sigESANg5
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by sigESANg5 »

That's great to hear, Ross!

I could not agree more, 'Hopiate' is brilliant! Sounds massive in the car stereo! I love the way this album flows ... it's going to be interesting to hear where parts 2 and 3 take us.
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by Trigga Bo »

Far Seeker - good job, dark matter, it can also easily enter the next series of Bond! 8-)
The whole album is soaked - dark-light trip-downtempo-ambient
Hopiate - probably Garry's job, it resembles the sound of Amorphous and in general, there are a lot of ambient sounds from the 90s in different compositions, like in Somewhere Outside, Ritualised, Slowly Slipped Away, Time Cone.
I think the guys will still pleasantly surprise us, in the following parts :roll:
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fsolish
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by fsolish »

Rituals..

On first listen I must admit I was a little underwhelmed... But after repeated listens i simply love, love, love it !
It's bloody fantastic, for me it is the best of the Environments series, so far...
Put on your best headset and enjoy the ride into the beautiful and weird world of FSOL landscapes!

Thank you so much :)
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Dennis
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by Dennis »

Yeah, it's definitely a strong grower. Also it flows very nicely, even the bonus tracks add very well to the rest of the album.

There is apparently a lot of synth stuff going on, but it's not so obvious like on E6 or EAV, they made it sound like there is lots of samples even if there maybe aren't. Feels less melodic in parts but maximum atmospheric
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Neil
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by Neil »

Does anyone know if the plan is still to release all the Rituals trilogy in 2022? I guess with the zero promotion of the first one that might be hard to say!
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Ross
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by Ross »

Dennis wrote: Fri May 06, 2022 5:22 amFeels less melodic in parts but maximum atmospheric
Yeah, I suppose other than the drums, this is the other comparison point with ISDN: it's definitely less melodic but really textural and atmospheric.
Neil wrote: Fri May 06, 2022 9:22 am Does anyone know if the plan is still to release all the Rituals trilogy in 2022? I guess with the zero promotion of the first one that might be hard to say!
7.2 is done and, to the best of my knowledge, already in the manufacture queue. Given vinyl lead times these days that still means it'll be autumn before it comes out. 7.3 will be next year; if I had to put a date on it (and this is complete conjecture) I'd say it'll be next year's RSD release.
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by Neil »

Ok, will be cool to get part 2 this year - interesting it's already at manufacturing stage (or in the queue!). I'm just being greedy really.

Agree with others that the more i'm listening to Part one it's only growing more on me. Current fave is Ritualised with that sinister atmosphere in the background that kind of builds then drops, then it breaks out in to that brief lovely section. I can really see the ISDN sounds across the record, but some of the textures in that particular track actually give me Dead Cities vibes. Maybe there's a certain sound i'm hearing reminiscent of the textures/layers in DC.
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by moxlox »

Finally I got to hear this, CD was delayed a week in the shops (yes I bought it in a shop!).

Some serious low bass going on throughout this album! They must have been watching Bladerunner 2049 before they recorded it! 😉

Really digging it. Hopiate is a stunner; I want to be at a festival with this playing out across the field. Especially like Ritualised and Far Seeker. All of the album good though. Oh, plus a special nod to Sand to Ocean. The bass on that reminds me of some System 7 track - really nice vibe.
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by nanio tine »

Ross wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 2:07 pmThey undoubtedly put out some of the strangest material released on a major label in the 1990s, but at the same time those records are chock full of genuinely hook-filled music, either through samples or their own compositions. The Environments series is definitely considerably less commercial in that respect: there's very little on any of them that would make as good a single as 'Cascade', 'My Kingdom' or 'We Have Explosive', with a more sedate, atmospheric approach on the earlier volumes and a more abstract and even introspective feel to these later ones. They're clearly capable of making more accessible stuff that leans closer to their '90s output - 'Hopiate', 'Artificial Placement of Emotion', 'Dreaming With the TV On', 'Snug', 'Another Ending' and 'The Whispering Masses' all immediately come to mind - but it doesn't seem to be the main focus at this particular point. So if you're after an album chock full of tracks like 'Her Face Forms in Summertime' and 'Glass' then I totally get why it might not be the record for you.
this probably sums up why I'm not digging it that much. there just aren't many tunes on there.
ive listened a few more times and am still not getting anything from it. visibility accumulation might be my least favourite fsol track ever. its just half a drum loop and some noise over the top.
I think everyones right in hopiate being gaz's contribution to the album which puts me at a weird crossroads as I don't like the guy and am not a big amorphous fan but it feels like without him I'm not actually digging fsol much. clearly their musical partnership when they're properly 50/50 is magical and its sad to have lost that. lots of respect for Brian but if this noisy minimal thing is the direction he's taking fsol then I'm out.

still going to wait for parts 2 and 3 before I decide to jump ship though! hoping they're more classic fsol sounding
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by Trigga Bo »

The squad will not notice the loss of a fighter ;)
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by 808Spense »

I struggled to get into this one but kept persisting and realized that the issue for me was that the first 3 tracks just didn't click. This is surprising as I was expecting to love Hopiate given the response to it by other people on the forum. Just goes to show that even if you don't like one of their songs, someone probably will which is why I'm happy for the all the experiments on the calendars. I really like all the tracks from Ritualized onwards and think that it flows really well. Best Environment since #4 for me.
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epitome
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by epitome »

Sorry if this has already been mentioned - seems slightly odd that Rituals isn't on fsoldigital. I guess Bandcamp is becoming the main platform now?
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Ross
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by Ross »

Yeah, quite a few recent releases haven’t appeared on FSOLDigital. With the immediate download in multiple formats it’s not surprising that most people will go to Bandcamp, I wonder if FSOLDigital will continue to remain online. There was talk last year of it being overhauled at some point.
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Re: Rituals: e7.001 (Environment 7) out April 2022

Post by mtnsportr »

Finally got to listen to my vinyl copy 75/2000. Love this new album and probably my favorite of all the new material. It could almost be the first big banner FSOL release if it just had a couple more melodic songs and one or two more vocal samples.

To me it takes all the best parts of the different series and aliases and combines it into one album. And thank goodness no answer phone messages they have gotten annoying.

My kids loved it also! Best reaction to any FSOL I have played them so far.
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Ross
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Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out July 2022

Post by Ross »

Amazingly, Juno have e7.002 (or Environments 7.02, as it seems to be called) - 'A Space of Partial Illumination' - listed for pre-order, release date 22nd July. Wasn't expecting this until at least September.

Amazon states the tracklist is:
1 A Space of Partial Illumination
2 If That Were To Occur
3 Intents And Purpose
4 Embodied Cognition
5 All This Has Happened Before
6 How Forests Think

Which is either just side A, or we've got some very long tracks here.
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