From the Archives 7 out November 19th

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Pinyaka
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Pinyaka »

Ross wrote:Those who are on the mailing list will have received an email promoting this, which also reveals, staggeringly, that Walls of Thought was recorded in 1991.
What mailing list? I've been buying stuff off fsoldigital for years and have never gotten anything but order confirmations. :|
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Dennis
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Dennis »

Hm, I always thought you get automaticly on the mailing list when you order something from them. Maybe deactivate your spam filter, the mails I receive from them always land in my spam folder.
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Dennis
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Dennis »

Ok, I couldn't resist. Just bought the album. Fuck those bonus tracks.

My first impressions: strange. weird. hallucinogenic.

With the exception of War Machines which is a Quagmire remix, Flygon which is known from ebs7 and Tudor Oak/Exchanges I didn't recognize any familiar stuff yet.

It's not as 'catchy' as fta5, but more consistent than fta6. It's really hard to guess from which 'era' the tracks origin. I mean I had never guessed 'Walls...' to be from 1991, so everything on the album could be either old stuff or from recent years, don't know. Just that timeless FSOL sound again.
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Ross »

Hold on, it's out already?
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Dennis
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Dennis »

Release Date in Germany was 2nd of november. No idea what this is about. Seems to be the same distribution like UK, but it is in the shops here already.
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Dennis »

Ok, think I´ll give a short review of the album, if it really is that I´m the first one listening to this.

The album starts with a kind of an 'Overture' piano and string led thing, not unlike the beginnings of the last two Environments. The second track is one of my favourites of the whole cd, reminds me a lot of 'Lizard Crawl' but in a more elaborated and layered fashion.

The next six tracks form a reasonable flow with the highlight being the way the tracks are segued together. That may sound strange, but it really is still astounding to me how the archive series began with something like a quarry of fragmented ideas and formed with each release to what can be viewed as proper mixed albums.

The overall sound until here I would describe as in some places kind of bizarre and alien, mostly "Outer Heaven" and "Many Moons" are of that nature. As said before I really wonder from which years those tracks are.

With 'War Machines' and 'Flygon' (which could´ve been longer, a very short and intense thing) the tension builds, and then it deflates a bit with 'Earth Twin' (a rather relaxed piece with a string sample and acoustic guitar), 'Switzerland' (with a drum beat from 'Antique Toy') and 'Must Be Mistaken' (a simple piano melody over a drumbeat), three rather average tracks in my opinion.

'Old Train' and 'Heat Distortions' are solid FSOL stuff, the latter could have been great if it were just a bit longer, with a simple but very effective produced synth melody.

'Exchanged' aka 'Tudor Oak' makes a great album ending, this thing was always my favourite from those post-Dead Cities Drum n´Bass-meets-real-instruments experiments.

Overall I would rank this SLIGHTLY inferior to FTA5 and FTA6. I would compare it with FTA4 in sound and structure but in a more consistent and mixed-together style.
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Ross
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Ross »

I wonder why they've changed the title of Tudor Oak.
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Pandemonium
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Pandemonium »

Ross wrote:I wonder why they've changed the title of Tudor Oak.
I think they already have thousands of tracks (released and thousands more unreleased), unnamed tracks, and millions of cool names for those in their heads,
(they've always been extra-weird-in-a-good-way at naming tracks)
So in this vast period of time, I think that, except for the main albums (Dead Cities, Lifeforms), they don't remember (sometimes) what track surfaced and when - so they just name them again an get on with it :)

There is also the other thing where they recycle sounds and re-arrange beats and we get sort of a new track, which is also fine.
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Dennis
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Dennis »

I wonder why they've changed the title of Tudor Oak.
And 'Saigon' from the fsoldigital mail turned to 'Flygon' on the CD Inlay. Strange.

Sounds all a bit like misunderstandings through bad mobile phone connections or something. Maybe someone said that the last track on the album was exchanged, and someone else understood the name of the track was "Exchanged"...or maybe that´s too much of conspiracy theory? :lol:
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Graham Hicks »

Due to this early release we've made the album available from FSOLdigital. Purchased downloads should now be available and CD's will begin going out.
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Pinyaka
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

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Graham Hicks wrote:Due to this early release we've made the album available from FSOLdigital. Purchased downloads should now be available and CD's will begin going out.
Sweet. It's like an early Thanksgiving here in the States.
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by LooseLink »

I actually enjoyed this alot more than 5 or 6. Mainly because the mystery is back, up until War Machines I never said to myself "oh they did this when they did Lifeforms etc. I gave up on figuring out which period it came from and just enjoyed the music. There's a fair amount of drums in the first half which is cool. And yeah War Machines appeared a couple of times during the Dead Cities transmissions, and Switzerland is two minutes shorter than what was leaked a while ago.

The Archive series is a very cool nostalgia trip, yet I do miss the more focused themes of the Lifeforms and Dead Cities periods, where they, as demonstrated on the Archives, made a multitude of tracks tied to a theme or style, and nearly everything they did during that period (live/merchandising etc) is tied into that theme as well. I think FSOL are quite capable of making another statement of that kind again, but of course heaps of factors need to be in place to concentrate on something like that again, so the Archives/Envi series will do until then, if ever.

My favourite part is the trio of Mistaken/Old Train/Heat, but seriously its very enjoyable as a whole. So... basically everything that's archived is going to be released... looking forward to From The Archives 15 then! :P
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by darktrain »

so is this an alternate take on the new album?...you know with brian living in an old church etc?

http://www.thecatholicuniverse.com/stor ... d_178.html
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Dennis
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Dennis »

Following on from the runaway success of our Archives series, and at the request of its many fans, we have produced a seventh volume of archive pictures and commentaries!
I wonder how many of these 'fans' were just misguided FSOL-fans lured by the cheap prize of only 1.75 per item.:lol:

After repeated listens I notice that Lizzard Crawl thing I meant is indeed 'Outer Heaven', and Many Moons is the one that struck me in its weirdness. I also dig 'Shifting Sands' very much.

It somehow grows on me with every listen as a whole. That was the same with vol.6, the archive albums seem to appear more consistent with repeated listens.
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Re: From the Archives 7 out November 19th

Post by Ross »

There are three more samples on Brian's YouTube now. Someone not on their phone will be able to embed them I'm sure...
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