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

[seedy]

itunes has samples as well though i don't use it so i'm unable to hear

[OffLand]

oh and heck yes i think carlos was named after santana. i actually never questioned it from the start!

Ross, correct me if I'm wrong but I remember being in a discussion thread on the old email list about the track Carlos. Pretty sure its named after the electronic composer Wendy Carlos. Also, I believe the original title for Carlos was "Transexual" though it's not related to the Zeebox track.

[seedy]

i think even if i was told this was fact i still wouldn't fully believe it

like i would have to assume fsol meant to reference both artists

[Pandemonium]

Wendy Carlos makes sense too... I just don't know...

[Ross]

Given the origins of the track as 'Transsexual', Wendy Carlos would make more obvious sense, yes. I vaguely remember discussions about this waaaaaay back in the day of the FSOLList (as Tim mentioned), but it's mostly lost in my memory now.

[Pandemonium]

FSOL - Peel Session [live mix] (29.09.1995)



The rest of 1995 was uneventful for FSOL, at least on the front (releasing) stage, while at the backstage the next album was in production for 16+ months. In September they made a short mix for the legendary Peel Sessions again. Here we can hear the early versions of some of the tracks that will end up on Dead Cities for the very first time.

00:00 My Kingdom (early demo)
- Very interesting version, very funky drumbeat. The flutes, the breaks... all that's missing is a bass-guitar to make this early demo version a classic funk track indeed. I wonder if Richard Thomas (the drummer on Dead Cities album) is drumming here, probably not...

08:59 Hallucination (Yage demo)
- This track later became the Yage track on Dead Cities, and this version was released way later in 2007 on From The Archives Vol.1. The ending is magnificent, I wonder where the echoing guitars are sampled from...

16:35 Spatial Freakout (Quagmire extrapolation)
- Some kind of extended version of Quagmire. Strange, I thought this was released on the Archives but it's not. I must say I Love this version, and I think that it's slightly better than the album version. The recent discovery of the Don Ellis trumpet samples makes it even more interesting.
- Not to be confused with Spacial Freak, released on Archived 8 in 2015.

25:00 End

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FSOL - ISDN Transmission 14, Barcelona (Art Futura Festival) [live mix] (18-22.10.1995)
- bootleg / first official release 07.03.2010



This was the last ISDN transmission before the 12 month break and releasing Dead Cities - after that there was another big wave of ISDN transmissions. Transmitted for the annual Art Futura Festival in Barcelona that lasted 4 days, from 18th to 22nd October - I think FSOL transmitted the last day. The official Pod Room release got the year of transmission wrong, they labeled it 1996.

ISDN Live Transmission - Art Futura Festival Barcelona - Pre Show Build Up (25:16)
- "Pre-show Build Up is a 25 minute ambient soundscape with no discernible tracks, although elements of Mains Interrupt, Papua New Guinea and Environments Part 1 can occasionally be heard." - Quote from Ross from his fan-web-site, because it can't be said better

ISDN Live Transmission - Art Futura Festival Barcelona (35:31)

00:00 Transmission Intro

00:18 Quagmire
- Still not the final version, but advanced enough to be different from Spatial Freakout.

08:22 My Kingdom
- Still containing the funky drums, but the tempo is slowed down leaning towards the final version, background vocals added too.

15:30 Hallucination
- The final form, as heard on From The Archives Vol.1 (2007) - the background distortion guitars are brilliant move.

23:07 Vit Drowning
- Strangely enough, this is the final version of this track. Probably because it's an older track made while Vit almost drowned for real while filming the material for the Far Out Son VHS. It also has similarities in sound with the ISDN album.

27:04 Futura
- This is one weird unreleased cookie... Maybe Ross will shed some light as to where the name came from? the sample at the start, "We have transferred all knowledge from his brain to our machine" from the Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, a 1956 sci-fi classic, is the same one used on Smart System's The Creator. Maybe the name is Future because of the Art Futura Festival. (edited after Ross posted.)
EDIT 2: this was actually released on From The Archives Vol.2 in 2007, I just didn't noticed it on time...

30:30 100 Baby Spiders
- The opening environments will later end up opening We Have Explosives on the album. This is a dark track with jazz-rock drumbeat and some dark bass elements, it will appear officially in 2007 on From The Archives Vol.4.

35:31 Transmission End

FSOL - Art Futura


Want to read about the other ISDN mix series? (bootleg or otherwise) Click away:

Mixing It (09.05.1994) // ISDN Transmission 2 New York (11.05.1994) // ISDN Transmission 5 Rome (16.05.1994)
ISDN Transmission 4 Netherlands (09.09.1994) // The 3D Headspace Tour (1994) // Kiss FM '94 Transmission
ISDN Transmission 14 Barcelona (22.10.1995) --> it's this post.
BBC Radio 1 Steve Lamacq Session (26.10.1996) // ISDN Transmission 3 Edinburgh (28.10.1996)
BBC Radio Leicester (01.11.1996) // BBC Radio Aire Leeds (02.11.1996) // ISDN Transmission 6 France (05.11.1996)
ISDN Transmission 7 Manchester (06.11.1996) // VPRO Radio Netherlands (11.11.1996) // ISDN Transmission 11 Berlin (06.12.1996) // Fritz Radio Berlin (06.12.1996) // London UK (1996)
ISDN Transmission 8 Los Angeles (22.01.1997) // ISDN Transmission 16 France (27.02.1997) // ISDN Show (1997)
ISDN Transmission 9 London (25.03.1997) // Fun Radio France (13.06.1997)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Far-Out Son of Lung - Cow [single track] (31.10.1995) Astralwerks - ASW 6153-2



The fourth (and last) in the Astralwerks series Excursions In Ambience had a unique unreleased track by the alias Far-Out Son Of Lung - seems like this alias was used only in 1995 (and the promo in late 1994). Cow is actually a very cool track. It has the ISDN beats and the occasional darkness of Dead Cities. The funky wah guitar sound is my favorite element here.

05. Far-Out Son Of Lung - Cow (4:47) / Engineer – Yage / Written-By, Producer – FSOL*

Far-Out Son Of Lung - Cow

[Ross]

Apparently I can't read. I always thought it was Future but it's actually Futura. Which, yes, makes sense.

[Pandemonium]

...And still digging out new names in the Kiss transmissions...

Some of the tracks I found out on the latter transmissions and BBC mixes, even some ISDNs... were unknown on the earlier transmissions,

I'm sure if someone gets to listen to the live shows backwards from 1995 to 1992,
he'll figure out at least a dozen more track-names - but only backwards because he'll see the names first and recognize them later on the earlier transmissions...

It's an exhausting yet rewarding process

[seedy]

yeah i surely noticed the same

we're getting there folks

[Pandemonium]

Given the origins of the track as 'Transsexual', Wendy Carlos would make more obvious sense, yes. I vaguely remember discussions about this waaaaaay back in the day of the FSOLList (as Tim mentioned), but it's mostly lost in my memory now.

It's funny how FSOL named a track to honor Wendy, and a few years ago all the KISS mixes were pulled back from fsoldigital.com because the Wendy Carlos track (the Theme from the Clockwork Orange) started a copyright infringement situation.

It's on Kiss 4 Part 4 - the ONLY part that was blocked by YouTube because of copyright infringement of this track. All the other Kiss mixes are alive and well for months...

I know the records companies are behind this, but Wendy is still alive and well, and I can't help but think if she was contacted she could do something about it...

These are nasty situations, remind me of how the company behind Beastie Boys bankrupted James Newton (the flutist)...

[Pandemonium]

Semtex - We Have Explosive [promo single] (15.09.1996) Virgin – SEMTEXDJ1



After 10 months of total blackout the D/C duo delivered once again a new unique sound in Virgin. In 1996 the Big Beat sound was breaking the mainstream like a motherfucker - bands like The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Fluke, Fatboy Slim, Underworld and dozens more were producing records that will change the sound of the '90s from Rock to some form of hybrid electronic punk, funk, dance, hip-hop, trip-hop and drum'n'bass beats, a music form that was closer to the (rock & top-list) audience than the more alien old-skool house, techno, rave and other IDM music that was not as approachable to the masses. The abundance of quality electronic styles that started a few years ago was in full swing and the next few years will be as awesome as they get. I'm probably saying this because I remember them as the most awesome times of my life .

So, We Have Explosive is the track that got me into FSOL - I heard it in 1997, when the official long-form single came out. I was very much into the big beat records and when I heard this awesome mix of breaks, beats, live drums and machine drums, I was stunned beyond words. Many years later when I heard everything there is to hear from FSOL, I realized WHE is the bastard track of FSOL. It really is, they haven't made anything similar before or since. Okay, maybe they have made some similar tracks over the years but not under (the big brother) Virgin and not in the heat of the big beat moment that was in 1996.

The promoting was already familiar, Virgin put out a 12" promo, again under a new alias, this time it was Semtex, and this time the alias probably worked and no-one suspected FSOL because this wasn't their sound and there were a lot of big beat records coming out. That is, until the end of the month when the Wipeout 2097 game came out and the same track was credited to FSOL.

A1 - We Have Explosive [6:11]
- Almost the same as the album version, this is one of the best tracks FSOL ever made (according to me). The breakbeat, the environments... everything is so fucking legendary in this track.

A2 - We Have Explosive (Herd Killing) [5:40]
- Conceived as some sort of alternate mix of WHE, a short version of this track ended up opening the Dead Cities album. This long version is also brilliant. I actually often wondered what the title implies... Mass-murder? Herd as in herd of cows... as in killing whole herds?

B1 - We Have Explosive (Untitled Remix) [11:44]
- The B side is a long experimental mix exclusive to this promo vinyl. It's not as intense as the original and it flows more in the environmental FSOL style. Have a listen:

Semtex - We Have Explosive - the third, the untitled, the exclusive mix


PS - The original FSOL WHE single will be reviewed in full (with sample-spotting and everything) when we get to it in 1997.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Various Artists - wipEout 2097: The Soundtrack (aka Wipeout XL) (30.09.1996)
Virgin - CDV2815 / Sony Computer Entertainment America – SCUS-94351



At the end of September 1996 the soundtrack of the wipEout 2097 (aka Wipeout XL) game came out, crediting FSOL for the awesome We Have Explosive track. As you can see on the pictures above, there are two versions. The first picture, let's call it a gametrack, is a rare item that has WHE and Landmass, a track not available on any standard audio CD and is unique for this release. The second picture is from the official soundtrack of the game, and contains WHE and the WHE (Herd Killing) tracks as heard on the Semtex promo. There are actually 9 different prints of the soundtrack from Sony, Virgin and Astralwerks (there's even a double LP edition).

Landmass is a strange track to say the least. It's actually a trance track and sounds like something taken from the Accelerator era and brushed up for the game. It's really strange to hear FSOL doing 4/4 beats in 1996, so I guess it's an older piece, but it fits perfectly in the game menu. It was a crazy-good game too, I remember playing it a little in 1998/99.

And just look at those bands... this release is worth every cent!

01. This is a PlayStation game that when inserted into a regular CD player acts as an audio CD with a blank first track.
02. Future Sound Of London – We Have Explosive 5:53
03. Future Sound Of London – Landmass 4:29
04. Fluke – Atombomb (Straight 6 Instrumental Mix) 5:33
05. Fluke – V6 5:21
06. The Chemical Brothers – Dust Up Beats 6:07
07. The Chemical Brothers – Loops Of Fury 4:41
08. Photek – The Third Sequence 4:50
09. Underworld – Tin There (Underworld Edit) 6:08
10. The Prodigy – Firestarter (Instrumental) 4:41
11. Cold Storage – Canada 6:14
12. Cold Storage – Body In Motion 5:14

01. The Future Sound Of London – We Have Explosive 6:14
02. Fluke – Atom Bomb 7:57
03. The Chemical Brothers – Loops Of Fury 4:41
04. Underworld – Tin There 5:00
05. Photek – The Third Sequence 4:48
06. The Chemical Brothers – Leave Home (Underworld Mix 1) 5:14
07. The Future Sound Of London – We Have Explosive (Herd Killing) 5:42
08. Prodigy – Firestarter (Instrumental) 4:39
09. Fluke – V Six 5:19
10. Daft Punk – Musique 6:51
11. Source Direct – 2097 5:35
12. Photek – Titan 5:58
13. Orbital – Petrol 5:49
14. Leftfield – Afro Ride 4:24

FSOL - Landmass


Landmass (at 0:31) samples Eden - Do U Feel 4 Me (Dark Forest Mix) (at 1:16)
- actually, the whole track looks like rework from the Eden track...


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aircut - Visual Attack, The Remixes (1996) Phoenix Uprising – PHUX 001



Just to mention this one... A release with Visual Attack remixes, A1 and B2 being the new ones, and the bad ones... It's really a bad hardcore techno record so lets leave it at that...

Tracklist
A1 - Visual Attack (Jon The Dentist Remix)
B1 - Visual Attack (Humanoid Mix)
B2 - Visual Attack (Billabong Mix)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FSOL - Accelerator & Papua New Guinea US re-releases (19.03.1996)
Hypnotic - CLP 9707-2 / CLP 9743-2



Another event worth mentioning is the Accelerator & Papua New Guinea US re-releases for the Hypnotic label (Yes, they were never released in US before 1996, weird, I know...). There is nothing new in these releases audio-wise, but the new packing is stunning. Cover artwork includes an animation effect using a lenticular print in Multi-Image case (the front cover image animates when you tilt the case). This was actually my first encounter with these two releases (I haven't seen the original pressings artwork) and I was stunned properly

[OffLand]

Wipeout XL can pretty much be accredited as my gateway to electronic music.
I didn't have the official soundtrack but I did listen to the on disc game soundtrack all the time.

[Pandemonium]

A very similar compilation was my gateway, kind of...
I started exploring electronic in '95 but I was stuck on a small amount of bands,
and when I heard this compilation:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-MTVs-Amp/release/58491

everything went out of control - at the time half of the bands on that CD were new to me

[Pandemonium]

And I almost forgot, maybe they never released Landmass because it looks like a rip-off of Eden's Do U Feel 4 Me (Dark Forest Mix) from 1992.

Clip posted up, just scroll up 2 or 3 times

[Pandemonium]

FSOL - My Kingdom [longform single / EP] (07-14.10.1996)
Virgin – VSCDT 1605 / VST 1605 / VSTDJ1605 / VSTC 1605 // Astralwerks, Electronic Brain Violence - ASW 6184



OK, now what...? How do I put this... I love and respect many FSOL tracks, but if someone puts a gun to my head and tells me to pick one - I'd pick My Kingdom (Part 1). I've been thinking about this a lot, in some rare days I'd pick something else, but most of the days - this masterpiece would be my definite choice. This track is so brilliant it's really hard to find words to describe it. The foggy mood is perfect for many occasions. I've even had dreams (more than once) playing My Kingdom in the background - random dreams, from creepy forests to foggy funerals to weird erotic stuff...

The artwork once again is by Buggy G. Riphead and FSOL. One of the most artistic covers ever made. It features a manipulated photo of a ruined building, some weird version of the Electronic Brain spike modeled by Olaf Wendt (we talked about him earlier, the guy who made it to Hollywood) - it looks like the inception of the brain. And some kind of monolith on top of it which reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey...

My Kingdom was the first official single of the Dead Cities album that followed a few weeks later. Astralwerks released it in USA a week earlier than Virgin did in Europe. Again, there are at least 9 prints of this single, anything from 12" to slim CD packs to cassettes and VHS french promo. All the 'Parts' here are exclusive to this release, so let's see what we can... see... The first four parts are actually one 26 minute longform mix of the single, and Part 5 is the radio edit.

1. My Kingdom (Part 1) (10:50)
- As I said, my favorite FSOL track of all times (well, most of the days). It's dense, it's magical, shamanic, the atmosphere is absolutely brilliant. The vocals sung by Mary Hopkin are taken from Rachel's Song by Vangelis, the flutes (and some ambient) are taken from Cockeye's Song by Ennio Morricone, my favorite Italian composer - I've listened more than 70 soundtracks from this guy and he's never disappointed me - a living legend! (as Vangelis is too). Guitars and some effects taken from Phalarn Dawn by Ozric Tentacles. What is amazing here is how all this is melded together in perfection. Another amazing thing that my eye caught - all samples taken from '80s songs - so my most (musically) hated decade inspired my most loved track... the irony... This version is longer than the album version, with stronger structure and additional effects.

2. My Kingdom (Part 2) (3:15)
- Otherwise known as Leon Mar remix. Leon Mar (real name: Noel Ram) is a drummer who reconstructed the original drums (by Richard Thomas) for this part. Leon Mar will later release an EP under the Oil alias for the short-lived Electronic Brain Violence records owned by Dougans/Cobain. Part 2 is a wonderful mash-up of break-drums. The original drummer who is present on all the other parts is Richard Thomas, the drummer of Dif Juz, who also worked with The Jesus And Mary Chain and a few other cool bands for 4AD records.

3. My Kingdom (Part 3) (7:11)
- The opening samples will end up as a whole track on Dead Cities named Everyone in the World Is Doing Something Without Me. This mix has almost no connections to the original, but it still builds the trip further.

4. My Kingdom (Part 4) (5:12)
- A faster and more lifted mix with very weird effects. It's like AFX would have a go at it...

5. My Kingdom (Part 5) (3:54)
- The radio version aka the Media Mix aka the Video Version.

FSOL - My Kingdom - full 30 minute mix


FSOL - My Kingdom - video version aka radio edit aka media mix


Vangelis - Rachel's Song (at 1:50) - vocals by Mary Hopkin - from the Blade Runner soundtrack (Atlantic, 1982)


Ennio Morricone - Cockeye's Song (at 0:04 & 0:30) - from the Once Upon a Time in America soundtrack (Mercury, 1984)


Ozric Tentacles - Phalarn Dawn (at 0:00 & 0:27 & 1:02) - from Pungent Effulgent (Demi Monde, 1989)