Pande-reviews: 2009.0 (FSOL - EBS Vol.4)

[RazorJack]

Haha you had me fooled there for quite a while! Nevertheless, I think "The Tibetan Monk Cries" would be my favorite part of Environments 1. I remember listening to this album a lot back when I was first getting into FSOL, and greatly preferred it over E2, as I still do now.

[Ross]

Ha, nice, you had me convinced there too! I really love the longform structure to this one.
It's interesting to imagine how he series would have gone if it'd followed the format. When volume II was first advertised, it was described as being three parts, 60 minutes. Listening closely, the (rather odd) gap between Serengeti and Colour Blind seems to be the end of what would be Part 1. An interesting alternate history...

[epitome]

Haha, nice work with the track titles

It's a funny thing - the first Environments is my least favourite of the series, but sometimes I do wonder if I would like it better if it was split into more, shorter tracks. It might make it easier to single out and digest each 'section'. Then again, the whole thing would still sound the same, so maybe it wouldn't make any difference at all. Still a cool album anyway

[Pandemonium]

I must say the track-split didn't change the position on the ladder of ENV favorites, but my appreciation of the album is higher now.

[Pandemonium]

Dougans/Cobain @ ExtremeMusic.com library (2007-2008)
Extreme Music Library – XCD139 / XCD140 / XCD141 / XCD142 / XTW006 / XCD148

Like the dozens of releases on FSOLDigital.com weren't overwhelming enough, someone at the board (I think it was Rontxo) found out that Dougans/Cobain released even more tracks as library music on ExtremeMusic.com. The tracks were spread around in compilation releases, five from the X series and one from the Twisted series. A large amount of these tracks ended up (or will end up) on the Archives series, and a few on the (at the time) unreleased Environments series. Hold on, lets do a detailed check:

- Total count of Dougans/Cobain tracks from the six releases: 26 tracks (91 minutes)

- Total count of Dougans/Cobain tracks of exclusive, elsewhere unreleased tracks (for now): 14 tracks (46 minutes)
(although, almost all of the tracks that appeared on the Archives series are different cuts, so it can be said all of these tracks are exclusive)

- Acid Breaks [XCD139]
01 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Jaw Breaker [4:32] (1997) (Speed Ball, A4)
03 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Roid Rage [3:26] (1997)
07 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Big Max [4:20] (1997)
09 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Fly & Mash [4:47] (1990)
10 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Skunk Junk [3:23] (1994) (5 Months 5 Acres, A4)
12 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Touching Bass [4:07] (1996) (Yashica aka G Electro, A5)
13 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Swelter Skelter [4:36] (1997)
- Deep Chill [XCD140]
01 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Bubble & Peak [5:22] (1996) (Lizzard Crawl, A1)
02 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Ice Stage [3:44] (1993) (Cellular Control, A2)
10 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Unreality Check [4:20] (1996) (Out of Sync Child, E3)
14 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Acid Drop [4:45] (1997)
- Psychedelic Air [XCD141]
03 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Eerie Query [2:46] (1996) (A Corner, E2)
07 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Polar Rise [3:41] (1994) (Journey to The Center, E2)
08 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Tinted Love [2:07] (2006) (Iseum, Hand-Made Devices)
11 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Stark Tower [4:55] (1994) (She Fell Backwards, A6)
12 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Dead Ringer [1:58] (2007)
- Dark Trance [XCD142]
01 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Sable Empire [3:26] (1991)
05 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Dearth Control [4:03] (1993) (Plasmatik, A4)
08 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Airless Whisper [4:20] (1991)
12 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Blindside Bizarro [3:50] (1991)
15 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Deja Boo [3:31] (1991)
- Chaos [XTW006]
11 - Brian Dougans - Karakatoa [1:00] (2007)
19 - Brian Dougans - Ecstatic Interference [1:00] (2007)
- Dirty Breaks [XCD148]
05 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Partial Law [2:16] (2005)
11 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Seven Shades [2:58] (2007) (Man Is a Virus in Shoes, Peppermint Tree)
15 - Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain - Road 2 Ruin [3:06] (2007)

N.B.: In my recent chats with Brian, he said they released 'quite a lot' library music for different publishers. He mentioned: Warners music library / Universal / kPM / Big Life publishing music library etc. In this case, I decided to restrain my 'OCD' and not investigate further, just because they spoil us with new releases on FSOLDigital so often and there's so much for LISTENING. But, if anyone here want to dig further - I'll be glad to hear the results. Some of these will turn out to be the already known Monsterism Day & Night compilations, and probably the Live in The Studio, Remixed Universal project - but I'm sure there is more exclusive material we haven't heard before.

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Dougans/Cobain @ Acid Breaks (Deep-Raved Ghetto-Tech Toxication) XCD139



01 - Jaw Breaker [4:32] (1997)
- This is a different cut from Speed Ball (from Archive 4). It's a minute shorter than Speed Ball, but it's mastered louder and sounds more tense. Written circa 1997.

03 - Roid Rage [3:26] (1997)
- This sound reminds me a lot of The Prodigy, the direction they moved in (this same time period) with Invaders Must Die, only they are/were louder and more synthetic. This is also probably written circa 1997, or possibly even 2000/2001.

07 - Big Max [4:20] (1997)
- More breakbeats and some acoustic guitars. The live-ness of the drums hints again the initial 1997 Isness sessions. Looks like we have a fair amount of those sessions in this library section.

09 - Fly & Mash [4:47] (1990)
- Acid sound hinting late Humanoid or maybe Mental Cube era, but definitely pre-Accelerator.

10 - Skunk Junk [3:23] (1994)
- A different cut of 5 Months 5 Acres (from Archive 4). This is a Lifeforms sessions leftover, of Lifeforms Paths to be more precise.

12 - Touching Bass [4:07] (1996) (Yashica aka G Electro, A5)
- An almost exact cut of G Electro (from the ISDN Show promo CD) aka Yashica (from, Archive 5) which was unreleased at the time. We've talked about this one, it's a Dead Cities leftover with hints of some Smart Systems sound structure.

13 - Swelter Skelter [4:36] (1997)
- This is one of the weirdest tracks to place. Sounds cinematic, but also has wah-wah guitars and weird breaks. Doesn't sound like Dougans/Cobain. Could be some weird 1997 experiment, but also could be recorded much later, 2002-2005 maybe...

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Dougans/Cobain @ Deep Chill (Submerged Drippiest Trippiest Psytronica) XCD140



01 - Bubble & Peak [5:22] (1996)
- A different but equally beautiful cut of Lizzard Crawl (from Archive 1). Despite being the same length, this cut has different level settings on the mixer, and different effects on a few important places. The first 3 seconds on both tracks tell all the difference.

02 - Ice Stage [3:44] (1993)
- An almost 2 minutes shorter version of Cellular Control (from Archive 2). Bass, percussion, flutes, all points to early Lifeforms sessions.

10 - Unreality Check [4:20] (1996) (Out of Sync Child, E3)
- A full version of Out of Sync Child (which lasts only 2 minutes), which will be released in 2010 in Environments 3. A dark and haunting track, probably a Dead Cities, with a small chance to it being written ten years later...

14 - Acid Drop [4:45] (1997)
- Cinematic shady mood, guitars, effects... another hard-to-place track. Could be from those weird 1995 sessions, could be 1997, or even newer... Maybe some other fan can shed more light. (EDIT: Ross reminded us that there are samples from MORE by Pink Floyd here, placing this track at 1997 becasue there were a lot these samples in the first MPB mix from 1997)

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Dougans/Cobain @ Psychedelic Air (Heretical Kaleidoscopic Sci-Fidelic Soundfields) XCD141



03 - Eerie Query [2:46] (1996)
- A shorter version of A Corner (from Environments 2), still unreleased at the time. I thought this was a Lifeforms leftover, but the effect that appears throughout the track is the same one that appears in the 16th second of Herd Killing, and the same one that Dead Can Dance used in the opening of Nierika (both tracks from 1996). Later it turned out that sample was part of some sample bank that was selling back in 1996. So this track is a Dead Cities leftover, which means Environments 2 managed to join tracks from at least 4 diferent eras into one awesome journey... fucking brilliant - can't wait to arrive at reviewing this album.

07 - Polar Rise [3:41] (1994)
- Another Environments 2 track, named Journey to The Center. Different cut though, of course. Beatless, modern classical piece that is hard to believe it was written by FSOL in 1994. It appeared on the ISDN Transmission 2 New York, The Kitchen (11.05.1994). It reminds me of Vangelis a little, the Blade Runner period.

08 - Tinted Love [2:07] (2006)
- This is a Polemical track named Iseum on the Hand-Made Devices album. Wonderful piano piece made with circuit bending.

11 - Stark Tower [4:55] (1994)
- Awesome full version (two minutes longer) of She Fell Backwards (from Archives 6), which will be eventually released in 2010. A dark and ominous piece, almost impossible to imagine it was written in 1994, since it appeared on the Kiss '94 transmission.

12 - Dead Ringer [1:58] (2007)
- A short orchestral dramatic piece. I really can't imagine this one being written in the 90s. Maybe it was some movie-ordered piece... Well, I'll leave it as a 2007 piece, until someone gives a sound theory about some other year...

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Dougans/Cobain @ Dark Trance (Sinister Electro-Slithered Guerrilla Scorefare) XCD142



01 - Sable Empire [3:26] (1991)
- Definitely a leftover from the Intelligent Communication project. The sub-bass is almost the same one as on Drive. Also, it was probably re-polished a little, production wise.

05 - Dearth Control [4:03] (1993)
- Appeared as Plasmatik on Archives 4. A punishing 4/4 beat that reveals elements from both Lifeforms and ISDN.

08 - Airless Whisper [4:20] (1991)
- A techno track that's got to be from the Accelerator era.

12 - Blindside Bizarro [3:50] (1991)
- Another Accelerator era piece merging breaks with trance elements.

15 - Deja Boo [3:31] - (1991)
- A weird amalgam of looped acoustic guitar sections with breaks and trance. Another pre-Accelerator era, maybe re-polished from the old (1990-1991) aliases like Yunie or Candese. Probably all these 1991 pieces were re-polished for this library section.
EDIT: This one also features the same UFOrb samples as Metropolis, so it might even be from the mid-1992, bizarrely.

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Dougans @ Chaos XTW006



11 - Brian Dougans - Karakatoa [1:00] (2007)
- Insanely awesome crazy acid/breaks track. I absolutely love it and used it in lots of mixes. Too bad it's only 60 seconds... Maybe there is a longer version of this one? Hmm, I'll ask...

19 - Brian Dougans - Ecstatic Interference [1:00] (2007)
- A more experimental piece with effects and bleeps, developing into another crazy acid/break towards the end. Both of these tracks are Dougans solo tracks, and probably newly recorded too.

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Dougans/Cobain @ Dirty Breaks XCD148



05 - Partial Law [2:16] (2005)
- Guitar cuts, drum cuts, looks like a psychedelic rock track cut into a breaks tracks. Probably a leftover that didn't fit the soon-to-be-released Peppermint Tree album by Amorphous Androgynous, a release that hangs somewhere between an actual album and archived Amorphous tracks - so this one could be written anywhere from 2001 to 2007. If I had to guess I'd say 2005 or later.

11 - Seven Shades [2:58] (2007)
- Appeared in a slightly shorter version as Man Is a Virus in Shoes on the Peppermint Tree album in 2008. A cool groovy tune with improvisations all over the place.

15 - Road 2 Ruin [3:06] (2007)
- A dark-ride tune that has the breaks but still linger on the rock side. Really can't place this one anywhere and it's probably a new piece. A really head-grabbing tune, too bad it wasn't released for a wide audience.


-- This last compilation was released later, in early 2008 actually, which means we finally arrived at reviewing 2008!!!

[Ross]

Acid Drop features samples taken from More by Pink Floyd, which puts it around 1997 for me (lots of the album appeared in MPB1).

Should listen to these tracks again I reckon...

[Pandemonium]

Makes sense, 1997 it is.

And another reminder for the online library diggers

N.B.: In my recent chats with Brian, he said they released 'quite a lot' library music for different publishers. He mentioned: Warners music library / Universal / kPM / Big Life publishing music library etc. In this case, I decided to restrain my 'OCD' and not investigate further, just because they spoil us with new releases on FSOLDigital so often and there's so much for LISTENING. But, if anyone here want to dig further - I'll be glad to hear the results. Some of these will turn out to be the already known Monsterism Day & Night compilations, and probably the Live in The Studio, Remixed Universal project - but I'm sure there is more exclusive material we haven't heard before.

[Pandemonium]

FSOL - FSOL Digital Mix [sampler] (13.02.2008) Freeze (Magazine) - Freeze57



2008 was also a very busy year for Dougans/Cobain. It kicked off with a sampler mix which initially was released with a lenghty interview in the Greek Freeze magazine, and a few months later the mix was also available on fsoldigital.com in a digital form. I remember getting pretty excited about the interview and the announcement of an exclusive CD with it. Greece is close to me so I phoned some friends to get me a few copies. One of the copies I shipped to the board member Rontxo/Tito Lozano if I remember correctly. The magazine was great, FSOL were on the cover, a rather legendary portrait picture, which also featured on our board here until recently, when we updated it with a 2015 portrait of the guys taken from the Artworks book(let). The CD was in a cardboard sleeve, and the interview was in Greek, but soon we had a translation thanks to a Greek board member (dubmasta right?) so it can be read in English here.

Like the definition of a sampler CD would be, all tracks are edits and cuts from various releases (2007-2008) promoting about 13 releases on the site, a few of witch were still unreleased. The mix is rather pleasant, segued and filled with digitized voice samples. Unreleased, at the time this mix came out, were The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, an AA album which will come out a week or two later, and By Any Other Name, a compilation of old Dougans/Cobain aliases that I already discussed here.

Another interesting announcement that never came to life was the Amorphic Archives release. This should've been a series similar to the FSOL Archives that's been going strong for almost a decade now. Well, someday maybe... a box of a dozen CDs... why not... dream about it?

The last track is the most interesting one, an exclusive to this mix one might say. It's the only un-edited track, and it announced the releasing of Environments 2, which was quite exciting, as we didn't generally knew Environments will become a series of 10 volumes. Environments 2 came out 6 months later, but this track wasn't on it. Seems like E2 was a bulky project with lots of leftovers, as the future will reveal. It's basically a drone track with birds chirping, synths laying some horrors and occasional saxophone tones. A voice speaks out random numbers and it's kinda creepy and sleepy while the last few seconds will shock your ears and leave you confused.

Tracklisting:
01. FSOL - Lizard Crawl [Edit] (2:23) - from Archives 1
02. FSOL - Long Shadow [Edit] (2:02) - from Archives 3
03. FSOL - Brujo [Edit] (1:50) - from Archives 2
04. FSOL - Globular [Edit] (2:57) - from A Gigantic Globular Burst of Antistatic
05. AA - Tiny Space Birds [Edit] (1:50) - from The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness
06. AA / FSOL / Dianne Harris - A Tiny Point Of Light [Edit] (3:04) - from the Kinetica event
07. AA - Oblivion [Edit] (2:07) - from The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness
08. Heads of Agreement - La Veshter Au Ombre [Edit] (2:18) - from The San Monta Tapes
09. Mental Cube - Sightings [Edit] (1:52) - from By Any Other Name
10. Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid (Feadz 2007 Mix) [Edit] (1:11) - from Your Body Robotic
11. Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid (PRM Mix) [Edit] (0:56) - from Your Body Robotic
12. FSOL - Plazmatik [Edit] (2:06) - from Archives 4
13. Polemical - Mos Son [Edit] (1:10) - from Hand-Made Devices
14. Polemical - Iseum [Edit] (1:40) - from Hand-Made Devices
15. AA - Peppermint Tree [Edit] (1:23) - from The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness
16. AA - Katta Pilla [Edit] (1:40) - from the Amorphic Archives (still unreleased...)
17. FSOL - Five Six Five (7:18) - from Environments 2 (or maybe not...)

- A slight jump forward to 2009, with a greek connection

[Pandemonium]

The Amorphous Androgynous - The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds of Superconsciousness [album] (20.02.2008)
(MP3 @ FSOLDigital.com on 20th February 2008 / CD (FSOLD005) on 28th July 2008)

"A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous 1967-2007"



I must say right at the beginning, this is my least favorite AA album and probably least favorite Dougans/Cobain album. Can't like them all, right? It's far away from a bad album, but it's just not good enough - for a few reasons. It wasn't planned to be an album, the original plan was to be Amorphik Archives kick starter. But because it has more than a few strong tracks (and it really has them) they decided to make it an album. And so, it lingers somewhere between an album and a compilation of tracks from the psychedelic sessions from the last 10 years (1997-2007), even though it's subtitle says relics from 1967-2007 - that's a joke, or more of a philosophy, 1967 being Gaz's birth year, so everything he experienced since birth was psychedelicized into this album. Also, it has too many tracks/themes clocking at 69 minutes, once more looking like a compilation. And one last thing that put me of this album personally, and I've listened to it no more than a dozen times since it came out, the title track - if Alice in Ultraland was a bit uninventive name, The Peppermint Tree passes that and has just horrible vocals. I know Gaz isn't much of a singer, but he's done well a dozen times, just not on this track. Years passed since I decided to give this album another chance, but always starting from track 2, and in my mind, this album is called just 'The Seeds of Superconsciousness', a much much cooler name. I'll say it again, I might sound harsh about the title track, but it's a personal taste.

Otherwise the album is fine, filled with good and excellent tracks, and some mediocre ones that throw in some parody melodies, some childish harmonics and some funny horror moments. Maybe it's me, but I don't find them interesting at all. There seems to be a fine line between a great psychedelic track and a good track filled with annoying sounds. The epic tracks are hitting the spot though, riding at the head of a post-modern psychedelic movement that will grow strong in the years to follow. Even though this album stands on the shoulders of 4 decades of psychedelic giants, it's not one of those albums celebrating the past. This kind of psychedelia could only be made in the present, with all the things progressing to that moment in time, even though it almost has almost no electronica, sounding like a ROCK album to the bone (on most of the tracks).

The Isness had dozens of musicians, Alice in Ultraland had a small core band - The Peppermint Tree is somewhere in-between, due to the compiled nature of this album containing tracks from various sessions from the last 10 years.

Musicians from the core band:
Brian Dougans (Stone Freshwaters) - Producer / Writer / Engineer
Gaz Cobain - Producer / Writer
Max Richter - Arrangements / Orchestration / Flute / Chimes / Writer / Brass Arrangement / Harpsichord – A German-born British composer who works with the duo (occasionally) even today (2015).
Mike Rowe - Keyboards / Piano / Arrangements / Orchestration / Writer / Bass – Multi-instrumentalist, best known as a keyboard player. He's with the AA team for a long time now, even made an appearance on Environments 4 in 2012. Often played for Oasis too.
Stuart Rowe - Electric Guitar / Bass - resident guitarist since the PNGT & The Isness sessions.
Gary Lucas - Guitar [Bottleneck] / Writer - since The Isness sessions, American fusion guitarist with a impressive catalog of albums. He played with Captain Beefheart and later in the Jeff Buckley band. He was with the AA team a long time (split off a year or two after the Peppermint Tree, I think...).
Baluji Shrivastav - Sitar / Veena - Baluji is a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist from India. Being completely blind, the is self-taught musician breaking the dogmas of India's mystical dynasties, guru teachers and having to have eyes to master Indian music. He was a AA resident until after the Alice album.

Guest musicians, friends and family:
The Dave Richter Brotherhood - Guitar / Writer - No idea who this guy is, I always thought there only one Richter collaborating. A relative of Max maybe?
The Piper at The Gates of Esher - Flute – Probably an inside joke, hinting Pink Floyd's debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Robert Manley - Acoustic Guitar – Their old A&R guy at Virgin, mentioned in an interview here.
Bertie - Drums – unknown drummer, since the Isness sessions
Paolo Longhue - Bass, Guitar – Another mystery man...
Tim Weller - Drums - Professional session drummer working since the early '90s. Best known for playing with indie rockers Minuteman and a large modern classical super-group simply called The Orchestra.
The Orgone Accumulator - Bass / Producer / Artwork – Probably another Dougans/Cobain alias...
Linda Lewis - Vocals – English funk/soul/pop vocalist, best known for her version of Rudy Clark's "Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)" (1975), also has provided vocals for David Bowie, Al Kooper, Cat Stevens, Jamiroquai etc.
Charley - Vocals - unknown vocalist...
Dianne Harris - Vocals / Photography - Gaz's significant other.
Delilah Indigo Sky - Child Laughs - Gaz's daughter.
Alan Dougans - Photography [Tree] – Brian's oldest brother, a professional photographer living and working in Australia and India. Super cool guy!

The artwork, following the audio, is pretty far-out there. The MP3 release has a tree on the cover, a photo manipulated by Alan Dougans, probably influenced by the Indian culture. The CD booklet has it all: roots, leaves, space, butterflies, birds, body parts, portraits and the usual future releases announcements that wouldn't come to life (well, some of them). The New Love Poetry, the 2012, and the Woobly Oozescapes were all announced projects that remain still unreleased. One other cool (and slightly retro) thing is the presence of a dozen .GIF pictures that float around:



Tracklist:

01. The Peppermint Tree [5:49]
- I won't comment further on this track, I'm just really glad it didn't appear on the Isness. Oh, and the whistle/flute sound at the ending segue, sounding a lot like Offenbach's Can Can, yeah, that is a joke I like...

02. Given That We've Given [3:05]
- Acoustic guitars, sitars and pounding drums - say no more, it's one of the good ones. The sitar parts remind me of Divinity.

03. I Have Loved You into Oblivion [5:28]
- This one should definitely find it's place on some James Bond movie or some similar spy movie. Linda Lewis offers great vocals, Max's orchestrations are awesome as always, and the 'love is the lover' flashback is priceless, as well as the child sounds, which are made by Gaz's daughter - Delilah Indigo Sky.

04. Light Beyond Sound [1:57]
- From the same sessions as the limited-time-only-free-release 'A Tiny Point of Light', spoken by Gaz's significant other, Dianne Harris. Continued by the wizardry of Lucas on guitars and Mike Rowe on keyboards, those magnificent keyboards @1:18 playing the intro notes of 'The Emptiness of Nothingness'.

05. In Fear of The Electromagnetic Machine (Part 1) [1:54]
- Another movie-theme super cool theme. The bass structure is great, and the spooky atmosphere going to hell in no-time, finishing with some electro-tweaks.

06. Somewhere at The Edge of Nowhere [1:01]
- A short but beautiful piece of guitar soundscapes and sitar wizardry.

07. Riders (On The Circadian Rhythm) [4:14]
- This is one of those weird tracks that sound pointless to me. I might be wrong, but I seem to remember that there was a demo/live version of this track, sounding much better than what we have here. The last minute with the flutes & synths is rather good in contrast with the beginning of the track. The 'peace, love, bliss, light' spoken words again by Dianne Harris, from the same session with A Tiny Point of Light and Light Beyond Sound.

08. Carousel [0:38]
- Promptly named, this child-themed music is another one of those pieces that shouldn't be here...

09. Yantra [3:54]
- Yantra - the Sanskrit word for a mystical diagram, especially diagrams or amulets supposed to possess occult powers in astrological or magical benefits in the Tantric traditions of the Indian religions. The name is pretty cool, but the track doesn't sit right with me. It's like an out of sync arrangement. EDIT: Apparently it's also a kind of remix of the Mello Hippo Disco Show - I missed that until it was pointed out.

10. Opus of The Black Sun [6:29]
- An alternate take of The Witchfinder. No lyrics this time, but more guitars all around - this is actually a Lucas take on the theme.

11. Marylebone Road [4:12]
- Another Isness leftover (thank God it remained a leftover). Another one of those WTF? tracks... Written by Rowe. Some Galaxial and Goodbye Sky flashbacks, lots of noise and ... I don't know what...

12. Tiny Space Birds [5:02]
- A nice upbeat track dating back to 1997. A demo of it we heard on the Fun Radio France mix (13.06.1997). Good ride.

13. Drifter [3:33]
- Now this one could've ended up on the Isness. Intimate acoustic guitar over Richter's layers of sound.

14. Rocket Fuel [4:41]
- Not good, but not bad either, just sounding like a million miles away from the AA that I love. The last minute changes direction a bit, ending with some Whitchfinder samples...

15. Listen Little Man [3:54]
- Another pop-themed Beatles sounding track, but this one is actually good.

16. Man Is a Virus in Shoes [2:35]
- Looks like Mr. Longhue knows his guitars, wonderful playing here.

17. Mr. Sponge's Groovy Oscillations [3:12]
- Hmm... a bunch of very good elements take a turn for worse with those Rhodes and synth effects... Seems that I generally don't like the tracks written by Mr. Rowe. EDIT: Turns out, this track is actually a remix of Dinivity (still don't like it though...)

18. It's a Sunshine Day (Yeah! Yeah!) [4:25]
- On the other hand, Max never fails to surprise is the best possible way. In how many genres can this man compose? (in all of them apparently). Great classic psychedelic track, a good way to close the album.

19. An Absurd Consequence of Living in Absurd Times [bonus track] [3:11]
- Laid back piece with interwoven guitars, lyricless vocals and synth environments. EDIT: It was pointed out that it's an alternate take of the Drifter.



Some sort of Electronic Press Kit for the album:


and, Drifter:

[Ross]

Robert Manley - Acoustic Guitar – Another mystery man...

Possibly their old A&R guy at Virgin (mentioned in the Dead Cities credits)?
https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/rob-manley/33/613/929
http://www.ilovecubus.co.uk/fsolboard/v ... f=11&t=436

Oblivion is my favourite here, an absolutely fantastic piece. Completely fine with the title track, was eager to hear it ever since the EPK video back in 2000. Sunshine Day is tremendous fun.
Yantra is a remix of Mello Hippo. Most obvious from the organ intro of the final album version of MHDS being featured a few times in it. An Absurd Consequence is an alternate take of Drifter, but I prefer the original by a long way. Wish it'd turned up on The Isness, but it was a nice surprise as a return to the stripped back, rural psychedelia of that album.

Overall, I definitely prefer it to Alice in Ultraland which, apart from the last three tracks, I find very 'safe' sounding. This and The Isness have that all-over-the-place not knowing what'll happen next feel to them which I love. Very sprawling. It's a bit of a mess and some pieces are definitely a bit underdeveloped - Riders, Yantra and Tiny Space Birds are all Amorphous-by-numbers, and I really cannot stand Rocket Fuel - but it's a fun album and I don't really get bored by it.

The one thing I'm glad you pointed out is how much of a 'rock' album it is. It's obvious that the more electronic / ambient elements of Amorphous were working their way over to the Environments series, leaving AA sounding very much a band. Even some of the segues are sounds of people messing about in the studio. Although it wasn't a properly planned album originally, it kind of makes a trilogy out of the first three Amorphous records. The Isness feels to me like an ambient electronica album in how the tracks are put together, simply using a whole different palette of sounds; Alice in Ultraland brings more of a live band sound to the fore, leaving most of the electronics for seguing sections; The Peppermint Tree finally throws those electronic bits to the back of the mix, if not out entirely, leaving a psych-rock group. I'll be interested to hear how the long-awaited fourth album sounds...

[Pandemonium]

Good points Ross, I'll make some small edits.

But Peppermint better than Alice - come on man
(True, Isness has the same all-over approach, but every single track is fucking awesome, so it gets away with that.)
- What about the first 3 Alice tracks? That's not safe-sounding, that is pure psychedelic art.
- Even if I do this by numbers, I'll barely find 3 not-good tracks on Alice and 7 or 8 on Peppermint. And nevermind that, let's go to the quality side. Alice has at least 5 tracks that truly shine, while Peppermint has barely two (Oblivion & Drifter).

BTW - I do consider The Cartel as the 4th album

[ronniedobbs]

I thought Peppermint Tree was a "tribute" to Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan

[Ross]

But Peppermint better than Alice - come on man

I suppose The Peppermint Tree keeps my attention throughout, with all its odd twists and turns and strange experiments. On the other hand, Alice in Ultraland is my least favourite Dougans/Cobain album...

[Pandemonium]

I thought Peppermint Tree was a "tribute" to Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan

Could be - it certainly has the right mood for 'inspired by'.

[Dennis]

I think the main issue I have with Alice vs. Peppermint is the production quality. To my ears 'Alice' is the maybe most elaborate production work they ever did. The sound on this one is so delicate with layers of instruments, sounds, vocals interwoven so nicely with a myriad details to discover when listening with earphones. I mean yeah, the overall sound of it is the most 'progrock' and 'band-sounding' thing they did up to date, but that´s fine to someone who regularly enjoys sprawling polyrythmic 70ies progrock-epics from the "big four" and everything beyond... .

I think what "Peppermint" lacks most is the sound-quality and loudness-level that vary heavily throughout the whole album and makes it a kind of uneasy listening esp. on mp3. AND there are of course some of the lesser adored, more b-side-like pieces like Marylebone-Road or Rocket Fuel. But as said the highlights are essential like "Oblivion" or "Sunshine Day" with beautiful orchestrations. And I really do like "Riders" very much - simply love that cosmic 70ies organ sound... The title-track is OK, the ending instrumental part is nice, some of it appears in isness´ 'guru song' I think.

the long-awaited fourth album

What´s that about? Any news on imminent AA-release I maybe missed out?