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

Feel free to talk about anything and everything FSOL related in this board.
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.0 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.5, XFM)

Post by Tito Lozano »

Yes , i remember my childhood, i win a prize drawing in pre-school , always be a nice drawing of superheroes on school, some fights with older school people, play football a lot of , and start to listen beatles and rollings as Pande,but my first vinyls were Van Halen 1 & 2 , and Judas Priest Rocka rolla & sad wings of destiny...with 6 years old...then i always said my first vice was buy music on catalog from big cities as Madrid & Barcelona via phone(fathers always pissed about calls cost) and bought so many metal bands albums as Jane´s addiction,living colour,led zepp, ac/dc,faith no more etc...until around 90 when start to listen some more hard rock as Guns n roses, or dogs d´amour and finally in 91 start to listen more grunge music,or crazy music as the first album of mr.bungle (really nightmares and big inflience on me ) , but was around summer of 92 when start listen some electronic music from the top ten band in the moment here in spain called KLF , and the most impresive moment of my life when saw for the first time on canal + video music clips on early morning some pair of strange and amazing music videos = the orb with blue room & FSOL - PAPUA NEW Guinea....since that moment i started to respect electronic music and blow my mind forever, but still i was grunge boy , with my long hair, my broke jeans etc , bought some records(now all sold) by nirvana, afgan wings, alice in chains, mudhoney etc etc etc...and then 1994, the year grunge die , in that summer i listened again something about a electronic band that will put new album with a tittle LIFEFORMS, on a heavy metal program on national radio, the dj of program talks about songs with samples taken from ozric tentacles or robert fripp...and was when i start to love to FSOL;but this year was when i discovery drugs too , passed 1 year very hard into these stuff until i fall in love with my first serious girlfriend for 5 years,leave hard drugs in 1995 and was time for study on high school (baccalaureate)> study 2 years of music too on high school > and was the year that i start to buy electronic music, my first fsol, prodigy,chemical,jeff mills etc etc....and well i like keep second part of this history for other day 95-2000 and 2000 to now ;) postdata i had 3 serious (5 years loved) women on my life , 1 is now with me ....


Now you all know me better...
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.0 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.5, XFM)

Post by seedy »

haha yeah i listened too all that same heavy stuff too


it was phish that got me to calm down with music so heavy

and it was ozric/eat static that turned me to the electronic ;)
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.0 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.5, XFM)

Post by Pandemonium »

OK guys, let's keep this thread on track :)
Stop posting childhood memories or better yet - open a new thread about it :)

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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Pandemonium »

FSOL - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.6
(XFM London) [radio mix] (21.09.2005)

- bootleg / first official release 15.11.2008, currently unavailable

Image

Only a week after the last MPB mix, we have another one, promoting the Alice in Ultraland album a few days before it came out. Similar with the previous volume, even borrowing some sections, this volume explores further the depths of the cosmos, psychedelic style!
The Amorphous track 'Wendover Woods' was featured in the tracklist but does not appear to be on the mix.
The last track on the mix, the Amorphous track 'The Wicker Doll' is some kind of Exclusive Long Version, clocking at 8 minutes of awesome space calmness...

So, MPB 6, deconstructed & explained - read away... (fixed up a lot of tracks, but 1 track still remains unknown...)
(scroll to the end of the post to see just the tracklist)

00:00 Al Jones - All My Friends Are Back Again - (Mooncrest, 2001)
- Jazz drummer, 1940s to 1960s, often with Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson. He released only one stand-alone album in 2001.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Al-Jones-Alun-As ... se/3787026 )

00:52 Bill Hicks - Gifts Of Forgiveness - (Rykodisc, 1997)
- The spoken part. Hicks is a stand-up comedian.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Bill-Hicks-Rant- ... ase/600990 )

00:54 Jon Brion - Phone Call - (Hollywood Records, 2004)
- The music that goes in the back of the spoken part.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Various-Eternal- ... se/1371310 )

01:33 ????? - ????? (spoken Indian sample)

01:43 Chiitra Neogy - The Encouragement of The Lusty Wife - (Pulsar Records, 1968)
- the female spoken part.
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Chiitra-Neogy-Th ... se/3190007 )

01:47 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Prophet - (Harvest, 2005)

05:31 John Keating - Jesus Christ Superstar - (Studio 2 Stereo, 1972)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/John-Keating-Spa ... ase/155423 )

07:13 ????? - ????? (spoken sample about the pagans)

07:26 Cozy Powell - And Then There Was Skin - (RAK, 1973)
- Colin Flooks aka Cozy Powell was an English rock drummer, who made his name with many major rock bands like The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Cozy-Powell-Danc ... ase/413987 )
- Ends with the sound effect sample (from entering the tomb) taken from the Awakening, movie from 1980.

09:26 Third Ear Band - Stone Circle - (Harvest, 1969)
- London band, members came from The Giant Sun Trolley and The People Band to create an improvised music drawing on Eastern raga forms, European folk, experimental and medieval influences.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Third-Ear-Band-A ... se/1064217 )

10:26 Devendra Banhart - Poughkeepsie - (Young God Records, 2004)
- Venezuelan American singer-songwriter and visual artist.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Devendra-Banhart ... ase/724928 )

11:34 Dead Meadow - Greensky Greenlake - (Tolotta Records, 2000)
- Dead Meadow is a US stoner rock band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1998.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Dead-Meadow-Dead ... se/1667121 )

11:42 Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange - Dreams Part 4 (Sea) - (BBC, 1964)
- The spoken part by the little girl and other voices as well.
- ( )

13:45 Robert Plant - Song to The Siren - (Mercury, 2002)
- A cover song to the Tim Buckley classic.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Robert-Plant-Dre ... se/1889611 )

17:46 Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange - Dreams Part 4 (Sea) - (BBC, 1964)
- The spoken part. Song to The Siren then continues...
- ( )

19:30 Dead Meadow - Indian Bones - (Tolotta Records, 2000)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Dead-Meadow-Dead ... se/1667121 )

22:08 Donovan - Get Thy Bearings - (Epic, 1968)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Donovan-The-Hurd ... se/1335509 )
- Ends up with 'Hey, what's happening man?' samples from the movie Cheech & Chong Up In Smoke (1978)

24:50 The Monkees - Porpoise Song (Theme From Head) - (Colgems, 1968)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Monkees-Head/release/1828462 )

26:35 Birth Control - Gamma Ray - (CBS, 1972)
- Birth Control was a German rock band known for their progressive hard rock sound and provocative album covers.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Birth-Control-Ho ... ase/503920 )

28:46 Amorphous Androgynous - The Witch Finder - (Harvest, 2005)

32:56 Plainsong - I'll Fly Away - (Elektra, 1972)
- The lyrics are re-sung on the hip-hop hit by Puff Daddy 'I'll be missing you'. The origin of the lyrics goes even further back, this track is actually a cover of the same named track from 1940 by The Humbard Family.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Plainsong-In-Sea ... se/2463092 )

35:01 The J.B. Pickers - Freedom of Expression - (London Records - 1971)
- J.B. stands for Jimmy Bowen (born November 30, 1937) - an American record producer and former pop music performer.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Various-Vanishin ... ase/411525 )

37:23 The Holy Mackerel - Wildflowers - (Reprise Records, 1968)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Holy-Mackerel-Th ... se/3210049 )
- Ends up with "You wanna get high?" another sample from the same movie, Up in Smoke (1978)

37:26 - Deepak Chopra - 'Curving back within myself, I create again and again and again.' - (from the Bhagavad Gita, by Lord Krishna)
- The spoken sample.

39:54 ????? - ????? (the only unknown track in the mix...)

42:12 Trader Horne - Morning Way - (Dawn Records, 1970)
- Trader Horne was a British duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist and former Them keyboard player and vocalist Jackie McAuley and former Fairport Convention lead vocalist, Judy Dyble.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Trader-Horne-Mor ... se/3039555 )

43:44 - William Wordsworth - She Was a Phantom of Delight - (poem, 1804)
- A few verses from the poem 'Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair...'
- ( http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww259.html )
- It ends with the samples we still can't locate source-wise 'Is This Real? - Does It Matter...'

43:52 Heaven and Earth - Feel The Spirit - (Ovation Records, 1973)
- This psychedelic folk group has just this one album, and it's perfect!
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Heaven-Earth-Ref ... ase/592375 )
- Ends with Albert Pyun's Knights (1990 movie) samples (I'm HERE!!!)

46:13 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Emptiness Of Nothingness - (Harvest, 2005)

49:54 Chiitra Neogy - The Encouragement of The Lusty Wife - (Pulsar Records, 1968)
- the female spoken part.
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Chiitra-Neogy-Th ... se/3190007 )

49:54 Grover Washington Jr. - Masterpiece - (Kudu, 1973)
- US jazz artist, one of the founders of smooth jazz.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Grover-Washingto ... ase/615390 )

54:33 Turiya Alice Coltrane & Devadip Carlos Santana - Angel of Air / Angel of Water - (Columbia, 1974)
- the flutes that appear on top of the Masterpiece.
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Devadip-Carlos-S ... se/2008102 )

55:37 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Witch Hunt - (Harvest, 2005)

58:21 - Kahlil Gibran - The Farewell - (from the book The Prophet, 1923)
- ( http://www.bohra.net/archive/gibran/gibran28.html )

58:38 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Wicker Doll (Exclusive Long Version) - (Harvest, 2005)
- This version of 'The Wicker Doll' is considerably longer and crazier than the version on Alice in Ultraland.

1:05:34 End

And here's a plain tracklist, for the fans that want to save it:
[+] Oooh and did you know that ...
00:00 Al Jones - All My Friends Are Back Again (2001)
00:52 Bill Hicks - Gifts of Forgiveness (1997)
00:54 Jon Brion - Phone Call (2004)
01:33 ????? - ????? (spoken Indian sample)
01:43 Chiitra Neogy - The Encouragement of The Lusty Wife (1968)
01:47 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Prophet (2005)
05:31 John Keating - Jesus Christ Superstar (1972)
07:13 ????? - ????? (spoken sample about the pagans)
07:26 Cozy Powell - And Then There Was Skin (1973)
09:26 Third Ear Band - Stone Circle (1969)
10:26 Devendra Banhart - Poughkeepsie (2004)
11:34 Dead Meadow - Greensky Greenlake (2000)
11:42 Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange - Dreams Part 4 (Sea) (1964)
13:45 Robert Plant - Song to The Siren (2002)
17:46 Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange - Dreams Part 4 (Sea) (1964)
19:30 Dead Meadow - Indian Bones (2000)
22:08 Donovan - Get Thy Bearings (1968) - ends up with 'Hey, what's happening man?' (from Cheech & Chong Up In Smoke, 1978)
24:50 The Monkees - Porpoise Song (Theme from Head) (1968)
26:35 Birth Control - Gamma Ray (1972)
28:46 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Witch Finder (2005)
32:56 Plainsong - I'll Fly Away (1972)
35:01 The J.B. Pickers - Freedom of Expression (1971)
37:23 The Holy Mackerel - Wildflowers (1968) - ends up with "You wanna get high?" (from Cheech & Chong Up In Smoke, 1978)
37:26 - Deepak Chopra - 'Curving back within myself, I create again and again and again.' (from the Bhagavad Gita, by Lord Krishna)
39:54 ????? - ?????
42:12 Trader Horne - Morning Way (1970)
43:44 - William Wordsworth - She Was a Phantom of Delight (poem, 1804)
43:52 Heaven and Earth - Feel The Spirit (1973) - ends with Albert Pyun's Knights (1990 movie) samples (I'm HERE!!!)
46:13 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Emptiness of Nothingness (2005)
49:54 Chiitra Neogy - The Encouragement of The Lusty Wife (1968)
49:54 Grover Washington Jr. - Masterpiece (1973)
54:33 Turiya Alice Coltrane & Devadip Carlos Santana - Angel of Air / Angel of Water (1974)
55:37 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Witch Hunt (2005)
58:21 - Kahlil Gibran - The Farewell (from the book The Prophet, 1923)
58:38 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Wicker Doll (Exclusive Long Version) (2005)
1:05:34 End
Want to read about the other MPB mix series? Click away:

A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.1 (Kiss FM Manchester) (Aug.1997)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.2 (BBC Radio 1) (23-28.12.2001)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.3 (XFM, The Rinse) (27.12.2002)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.4 (Resonance FM) (28.01.2003)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.5 (XFM) (14.09.2005)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.6 (XFM) (21.09.2005) --> It's this post.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.7 (BBC SixMix) (30.10.2005)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind 2xCD Vol.1 (Cosmic Space Music) (24.11.2008)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind 2xCD Vol.2 (Pagan Love Vibrations) (21.09.2009)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol.8 (FSOLDigital.com) (07.11.2009)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind (Mojo Mix CD) (05.01.2010)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind 2xCD Vol.3 (The Third Ear) (01.11.2010)
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind 2xCD Vol.4 (The Wizards of Oz) (16.03.2015)

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

AA - Psychedelic Mini Mixes (BBC 6 Six Music Freak Zone)
[radio mixes] (25.09.2005)
bootleg / unreleased

Image

A day before the official Alice in Ultraland appearance to the world Gaz was in the 6Music studio for the Freak Zone programme, discussing Alice in Ultraland and providing two AA "mini mixes". (The promo of Alice was in August).

There's absolutely nothing new about these mixes, they're both cut out of the MPB 5 mix, which aired 9 days ago on XFM (if you want more info on the tracks go look the MPB 5 review). Furthermore, Gaz gives wrong titles for most of the tracks. The only unique thing here is the interview snippets with Gaz - it's always nice to hear him talk about music / life / love...

00:00 Transmission Intro (the speaker announcing the mini mixes...)

00:19 Amorphous Androgynous - High and Dry - (Harvest, 2005)

04:59 Interview with Gaz

10:38 Mini Mix 1: (completely taken from MPB 5)

10:42 Tomorrow - My White Bicycle - (Parlophone, 1967)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Tomorrow-My-Whit ... se/1091930 )

10:55 David Holmes - What R We Stealing - (Warner Bros. Records, 2004)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/David-Holmes-Oce ... ase/630592 )

12:48 Silver Apples - Oscillations - (Kapp Records, 1968)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Silver-Apples-Si ... ase/906717 )

13:03 Amorphous Androgynous - Coconut - (unreleased)
- not exactly sure where/what is this track, at a few points at least 3 tracks go together...

13:46 Buffy Sainte-Marie - He's a Keeper of The Fire - (Vanguard, 1969)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Buffy-Sainte-Mar ... se/2228379 )

15:41 Silver Apples - Oscillations - (Kapp Records, 1968)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Silver-Apples-Si ... ase/906717 )

15:57 Interview with Gaz continues...

17:49 - BBC announces a Gang of Four concert...

18:16 Mini Mix 2: (also completely taken from MPB 5)

18:16 Ry Cooder & Buffy Sainte-Marie - The Hashishin - (Warner Bros. Records, 1970)
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Various-Performa ... se/1863304 )

18:23 Lata Mangeshkar - Wada Na Tod - (Music India Ltd, 1983)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Various-Dil-Tujh ... se/2840829 )

19:33 Tears for Fears - Sowing The Seeds of Love - (Fontana, 1989)
- ( )
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Tears-For-Fears- ... ase/530160 )

20:28 Interview with Gaz continues... (the last track continues in the background)

21:39 Beastie Boys - Futterman's Rule - (Grand Royal, 1994)
- This track only goes in the background of the interview...
- ( http://www.discogs.com/Beastie-Boys-Ill ... ase/187027 )

22:38 Amorphous Androgynous - The Prophet - (Harvest, 2005)

25:21 End.


- next stop: Alice in Ultraland :)
Last edited by Pandemonium on Sun Oct 16, 2016 8:54 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by seedy »

haha pande
while i usually don't subscribe to that "thread hijacking" concept in this case here your request is more than valid

this thread is a study, a work of art, a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, history book


carry on my good man! ;)
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Ross »

Moving back to the Kiss and '94 tracklists, I only just noticed that the intro to this turns up reasonably regularly...


I always kinda hoped (unrealistically!) that it was a Dougans / Cobain piano bit, because, despite its brief simplicity, it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Pandemonium »

Yeah, now that you mention it - the intro does pop-up pretty often...
- The only place where a bigger portion of the track is present is on Kiss 2 @ 24:10

(I really am tempted to comb through the Kiss mixes once more, to find more gems and make more detailed tracklists...)
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Pandemonium »

Some updates on the Kiss mixes :)
(no, I'm not going back to them on a complete pass)

Kiss 100 FM Transmission 2 - Part 3:
12:31 Balil - Choke and Fly - (Applied Rhythmic Technology (ART), 1992)
- fixed the release year and publisher.

Kiss 100 FM Transmission 2 - Part 4:
03:03 Vapourspace – Gravitational Arch of 10 (Plus 8 Records Ltd., 1993) (played at 33rpm)
- a new find.

Kiss 100 FM Transmission 3 - Part 2:
37:15 Piece - Free Your Soul [Future] - (Planet E, 1992)
- Carl Craig short-lived alias.
- a new find.

Kiss 100 FM Transmission 4 - Part 1:
21:35 Jah Wobble's Invaders of The Heart - Erzulie (Temple Dub Mix by Mind Over Rhythm) - (Rumble Records, 1992)
- Not the original track as we thought, it's a remix by Mind Over Rhythm.
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Ross »

Nice one - also much easier for me to update my tracklists this way!
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Pandemonium »

I know, that post was constructed with you in mind :)

I fixed the tracklists in this mega-thread also,
my point was, I'm not going back on the Kiss mixes full time to discover new tracks (for now) :)

I still plan to move forward with the chronology...
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Ross »

Good, or you'll never get to the new stuff!
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Pandemonium »

Kiss 100 FM Transmission 3 - Part 1

22:36 Reload - The Enlightenment - (Infonet, 1993) - another Global Communication alias.
- from here: (http://www.discogs.com/Reload-A-Collect ... ease/44709)
- Hear it here: (

:)
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.1 (FSOL - A MPB Mix Vol.6, XFM)

Post by Pandemonium »

Kiss 2 Part 3

22:46 Crypt Corp. - Greenpoint - (Fax +49-69/450464, 1993) - Namlook/Prochir alias...

Kiss 2 Part 4

17:46 Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - The Tides (They Turn) - (KK Records, 1992)
18:20 Atom Heart – Pure Function - (after 6 am, 1993)

Kiss 3 Part 2

43:42 Caustic Window – On The Romance Tip - (Rephlex, 1992) [played at 33rpm]
- slowed down Aphex Twin, and them some Miles Davis after it... a brilliant touch!

1:13:11 Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange - Falling - (BBC, 1964)

1:13:35 after that still remains unknown
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Pande-reviews: 2005.2 (AA - Alice in Ultraland)

Post by Pandemonium »

Amorphous Androgynous - Alice in Ultraland [album] (26.09.2005)
Harvest - 0946 3 33994 2 6 / 0946 3 33994 1 9 / 0946 3 33995 2 5

Image

Three years after The Isness masterpiece, 4 insane MPB mixes and some live touring - came the second album of the revived Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic alias, called Alice in Ultraland. Alice is a natural expansion of The Isness, continuing that general style but building a whole different world at the same time. About one-third of tracks date from the Isness sessions (they were re-brushed in the new jam style though) and most of the other tracks were newly written with a larger doze of funk, folk and blues (or as the cover describes it: a samplerdelic funkoid rocktronic cosmic ambient, and that is a spot-on description if you think about it). Another difference is that this album was recorded with a small core band (of 6 people) with some regular guests and contributors of a dozen more people; in contrast to the 70+ people that worked on The Isness. This way Alice got it's live jam feeling but another twist is that it has the signature FSOL track-melting with textures, synths and various ambiance. The result is a beautifully crafted album, and listening it today head-to-head with The Isness, I'd say Alice is pretty close to Isness with it's awesomeness. (When it came out, I thought it was a little more weaker than Isness).

The artwork is pretty cool, done by Amorphic Arts - which is basically Dougans/Cobain with their significant others (Lysa Barlett & Dianne Harris). [Yeah, they were 40 and 38 at the time, starting families and moving away from London - Dougans went on to live in a small village called Nunney in Somerset while Gaz was waiting to move to a small town called Poitiers in France.] The art is predominantly yellow/golden with lots of renaissance drawings of angels and leaves and butterflies. The brightest/happiest artwork of all their projects to date :)

A few mementos... Alice in Ultraland? They could've came up with a better name, especially considering their VAST catalog of super-awesome names. Firstly, Alice in Wonderland is a poor association with this beautiful music, and secondly, Ultraland reminds everyone too much of The Orb. - And why the media made such a fuss about this album being on the "resurrected" Harvest label? Harvest was working with a normal tempo in 2005 (actually it works continuously from 1969 till today) and there was nothing to resurrect. It was cool though (and good marketing at the same time) that the label who released Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, Deep Purple and similar giants back in the day, to release this psychedelic pearl of an album. Harvest did their homework and even made and EPK:
Alice in Ultraland, Electronic Press Kit


The Core band:
Brian Dougans aka Stone Freshwaters - Engineer / Producer / Written by / Photography / Artwork
Gaz Cobain aka One Man Band of Cosmos - Engineer / Producer / Written by / Artwork
Mike Rowe aka Mikey Rowe - 8 kinds of Keyboards / Bass / Guitars / Flute / Strings / Engineer
- Multi-instrumentalist from the Isness sessions, 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 aka Stu Rowe - Guitars / Harmonica / Engineer
- Not much info on this guy... except he played on the Isness too... He's probably related to Mikey.
Tim Weller - Drums
- A new guy to the band, 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.
Doree Jackson - Vocals
- Also a new member - I can't seem to find more info on this vocalist, probably because she's not credited with her official name...

Guest muscians:
Ben Owen - Flute (tracks: 1, 6, 10) - guest flutist, probably connected to the harpist Thelma Owen from the Isness sessions...
Billy 'The Onion' Jones - Harmonica (tracks: 2, 11) - the harmonica guy who got a song named after him, not much other info...
Baluji Shrivastav - Sitar, Tabla, Dilruba (tracks: 2, 6) - the blind Indian player from the Isness sessions.
Dave Sanderson - Vocals (tracks: 2, 8) - no info on this guy, he will sing on Falling Down 5 years later.
Lysa Barlett, Bow & Moss @womb - Violin / Engineer (track 3) - Brian's wife and kids :)
Philip Pinn aka Mutant Funkoid - Bass (track 5) - a long time friend going back to Tales of Ephidrena.
Herb Moons - Percussion (track 9) - Isness sessions percussionist.
Gary Lucas - Acoustic Guitar (track 9) - 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...).
Daniel Pemberton - Keyboards (track 14) - long time friend, Pemberton is an Ivor Novello winning and multi-BAFTA nominated composer who works predominantly in film, television and video games. He has written the score for the second best selling Xbox 360 game of all time (Kinect Adventures) as well as creating the iconic theme for Sony's LittleBIGPlanet.
The Electric Gospel Choir - Vocals (track 1) - (Gloria Gee, Rechenda Elmhurst, John-Llewelyn Evans, Christine Settle, Jacqueline Goddard, Adrian Osmond and Jon English)

Unknown and/or imaginary contributors:
The Daughters Of The Goddess - Narrator / Voice (tracks: 7, 12) - this could be a tribute credit to Chiitra Neogy.
Stakrak - Effects (track 5)

Non-musical staff:
Dianne Harris - Photography / Artwork / Montage - Don't know if she & Gaz were married in 2005, but they are today.
Andrew Day - Layout - a designer that started working back in 1997, mostly with Duran Duran (*pukes) and other synth-pop acts...
Paula Flack - Product Manager - project coordinator who also worked on the Isness, and with Donovan too.

So, let's look at some insight on the tracks:

01. The Emptiness Of Nothingness (6:18)
- EPIC! is the best one word description. The piano sections are bloody brilliant, the first 5 note appearance at 19 seconds is enchanting, and the second one at 65 seconds is just genius. The best opening for this kind of album. First heard at the Afisha Festival (17.05.2004), the working title was The Otherness, but that ended up as a CD title a year before for the Isness B-Sides, so we ended up with an even better name. Also, the female vocal samples are taken from Divinity.
- Gaz explains: 'What track should we put at the beginning of the album?' - a silence descended on the room as thick and heavy as engineer Stone Freshwaters' outlawed cigarettes which still seemed to repeatedly find their way back into the room "OK it has to be EPIC! it has to be sonic it has to sound like a band at the height of its game but also a band who use the studio technology as the ultimate GIZMO - it must sound far out!!" Thus spoke Stone Freshwaters on his thoughts for the beginning of the album '.... more than this it has to create a profound bang but no explosion... in other words it can't give the WHOLE game away... IMMEDIATELY!! Does anyone understand what I'm talking about???"

02. The Witchfinder (7:28)
- OK, not to repeat myself but this one is definitely an epic piece too! Inspired by a trifecta of the Wickerman film/soundtrack fascination, a rare Led Zeppelin recording called Tangerine (that also featured Indian dilruba) and the childhood terrors of witches, the band wanted to capture the multi-dimensionality of these 'creatures' that were wrongly prosecuted. This 4-part brilliant track was first heard at the Arvika festival (15.07.2004) with working title Zep (Good Love).

03. The Witch Hunt (2:54)
- This one serves like a conclusion of the previous track. The witch is found, let the hunt begin. Fast breakbeat, scary middle-east violins, some guitar cracks... The engineering of the violins is credited to Lysa (Brian's wife) and Bow (Brian's son) at the Nursery. Moss @ womb is also credited in the 'thanks to' section (Brian's second son).
- Upon hearing the Witch Hunt on his i-pod while getting his customary morning coffee from Brick Lane Stone Freshwaters was moved to exclaim 'I saw bleedin witches everywhere!'

04. All Is Harvest (6:39)
- This piece reminds me of those moments in life when nothing special is happening, you do ordinary things all around, but it feels great and you feel some sort of equilibrium. It's like a soundtrack of good life. Slow and steady, this piece belongs to Mike & Stu Rowe as much as it does to Brian & Gaz. First heard on SixMix (02.05.2004) under the working title Air. The final name is inspired by the Harvest label with whom the band were talking about remixing some of the many treasures that were hidden in its vaults. Unknown to the band at the time Harvest would eventually end up being the home for the release of the finished record!

05. The Prophet (4:49)
- This one first appeared (confusingly) under the name Yes My Brother on The Isness, as a 50 second short-form funk track. The track was greatly extended with hammonds and all sorts of keyboards and wah-wahs, inspired by a dream Gaz had about Miles Davis, in his late 60's / early 70's period, The Prophet basically serves as a tribute to Miles. The porno-basslines are credited to Mutant Funkoid which is (we are 99% sure) the duo's old friend Philip Pinn.

06. Indian Swing (5:10)
- Honestly, this is the first Amorphous piece that I don't quite 'get' nor like. (there are few more on the Peppermint Tree, but is the first one and the only one on Alice). It's a cool Indian themed track and all that, but somehow it doesn't fit... except the last 70 seconds or so, they are quite brilliant.

07. The Seasons Turn (1:01)
- Short piece that serves as an intro to High And Dry. It's actually the only track on the album that we know it has samples. The first line 'My whole ambition is for love' is taken from a track named 'The Encouragement Of The Lusty Wife' (from the 1968 album The Perfumed Garden) by Chiitra Neogy.
- Chiitra Neogy is a filmmaker, director, poet, actress, professor and author. She is a wildly talented and complex artist, determined to push the envelope of artistic expression. She has worked nationally and internationally directing numerous documentaries and short films which have led to countless awards and accolades. The Perfumed Garden is an album of classic Indian poems set to psychedelic musical arrangements, including “Krishna And The Lovely Cowgirls“. The album features Richard Burton’s translation of Shaykh Umar ibn Muhammed al-Nefzawi’s famous erotic manual and four classic Indian poems with musical arrangements by Jim Sullivan.

08. High And Dry (4:53)
- Another sketch from the Isness sessions, attempting to be a rock song, like Jagger performance era rock. The story goes Gaz was hard-core fasting for a few days and feeling high and very dry, made a draft for this song. It was in development a long time, Mikey Rowe added keyboards (he also played with Jagger on the Alfie soundtrack in 2004). It's said the band was on the verge of giving the track to Jagger!

09. Yes My Brother - You've Gotta Turn Yourself Around (4:59)
- As we said before, this one has nothing to do with the same named short track from Isness (that one became The Prophet). This is another cool cool psychedelic track from the Isness sessions (considering Herb Moons is present on percussion). It's a sweet ride all the way.

10. In The Summertime Of Consciousness (5:44)
- A pure psychedelic opening, the song goes great. Ben Owen really shines here. The storytelling vocals are... love em or hate em... I've had both in separate days/moods. I'd love to hear an instrumental version of this one, I bet it will be top-notch.

11. Billy The Onion (5:28)
- A pure far-out blues experience - one of my favorites. OK it has some funk too, even better. Named after the harmonica player Billy 'The Onion' Jones, first heard on the SixMix (02.05.2004).
- Gaz explains: - when Billy 'The Onion' Jones turned up in a pub in Swindon with a harmonica the perfect excuse was born to release the itch caused by the Captain's reformed band - Gary Lucas layered down some gloriously wicked bottleneck stomp, Billy obligingly blew a huge harmonica riff all over it and the FSOL production gizmo set to work to create a sonic swampson of Delta proportion!!"

12. Another Fairy Tale Ending (4:03)
- This is a weird one, a string piece with lots of ambient, a peek in the future of the FSOL modern classical approach. A truly truly beautiful piece.
- Gaz explains: "holed up in Bognor Regis the band were desperately in need of some beauty as an escape route so one afternoon they created a sonic fairy tale - so romantic and lavish and deep it gripped them with its string surges and spacious orchestration for a couple of hours. When the spell had worn off they stepped out of the house expecting the world to have changed but the Fairy Tale had indeed ended and Bognor Regis enveloped them once more in its full dystopia!!!"

13. The World Is Full Of Plankton (8:02)
- This is for Alice what Galaxial Pharmaceutical was to Isness - an epic progressive rock piece. This one was also sketched in the Isness sessions. The title inspired the song, and Gaz heard the title on radio when some crazy person sighed 'the world is full of plankton'. The music sounds Huge, and the lyrics about human insignificance in the grand scale are brilliant. The last verse is brilliant though, lots of people think (me too) that they to the fans who lost interest in the band when they started going psychedelic in 2001:
So now I have your attention at least a while
While most of the audience have left, the rest insanely smile
It's time to tell you what's been haunting me
So here goes, roll out the prose
From the sell-out blockbusting real life show
I've no doubt that deep down everyone knows
I've no doubt what comes invariably goes

14. The Wicker Doll (3:02)
- Another crazy good mood ambient piano piece. Daniel Pemberton obviously helped here a lot. A much longer version of this track exists (as heard on MPB6) and it really should find it's way on a proper release.


And now... To the sample library!
- Wait... we haven't dug out any samples on this album, except the Chiitra Neogy short spoken sample on The Seasons Turn...

PS - we finally found a sample in 2018 :)
- Indian Swing samples (throughout the track) David Torn - The Network of Sparks: The Delicate Code (at 4:12) (album: Cloud About Mercury, 1987)
David Torn is a US composer/guitarist, and on this album he plays with giants like Bruford & Levin (from King Crimson) and Mark Isham (who played with more famous people than I could count).

- To end this review, kick back and have a chill moment with the Witchfinder :)



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Amorphous Androgynous - The Witch Finder [promo single] (Aug.2005)

Image

Just a quick mention of this official promo release:
The Witch Finder was the first radio-only single from the album. A one-track radio edit promo CD was released along with a promotional video for the song, a month before the official release of the album (the album also had a radio / promo version in August).

01 - The Witchfinder [3:57]
Last edited by Pandemonium on Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:58 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Ross
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Re: Pande-reviews: 2005.2 (AA - Alice in Ultraland)

Post by Ross »

Pandemonium wrote:About one-third of tracks date from the Isness sessions (they were re-brushed in the new jam style though) and most of the other tracks were newly written
I wouldn't count on it. At least half the album is 'old' (original roots date back to the late '90s/early '00s.) Pre-Cartel, I think the Amorphous thing is pretty fluid rather than strict album-to-album.
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