The FSOL Message Board

Silly question: They just like to mash things up all the time - lots of other examples as this one, like Environment (singular) Five (with letters) - and lots of their track are written in plural on the CDs and in singular on the WEB releases (and vice versa). Gaz joked about Archived 8 they changed the name because they didn't even remembered doing most of the tracks

Serious question: In short - the amount tracks produced in the 1990-1997 period was inhumane, impossible even, especially for the 1993-1996 period - averaging a track a day - so that is a SHITLOAD of material. Today they don't produce as much, which is normal, older age, families, etc etc - but they still do MORE than most bands in the business.

- Enhancing old material to release the Archives is no small feature, especially after Vol.4 - when they all sound like albums and complete stories.
- ENV first 4 volumes - even more enhancements, the old material is barely recognizable, and lots of new tracks in there...

- A look through the glass:

2007 - Globular (new work for surround sound) + 3 Dougans new 'albums'
2008 - Peppermint Tree album + Woodlands of Old album + ENV2 new tracks
2009 - Oasis - Falling Down MPB mix + Neotropic - Home (Yage Re-Construct)
2010 - Paul Weller MPB mix + ENV3 new tracks + The Beatles MPB mix + Pop Levi MPB mix
2011 - Prime World soundtrack + the lost Noel album that will "never" come out
2012 - The Illectrik Hoax with DJ Food + 2singles with NGHFB + ENV4 lots of new tracks there
2013 - The Coastal Path MPB mix + Blackhill Transmitter + EMS : Piano + Sand Sound Folly + Suburban Domestic + THE CARTEL
2014 - The Cartel Remixes + Blackhill Transmitter 2 + The Jazz Mags + Glass Girl + Environment Five album + Syd Arthur MPB reimagined album + Artworks EP + Dougans working in the back on the NEW Humanoid album + Blu Mar Ten mix
2015 - Humanoid singles+remixes + Blackhill Transmitter 3 + Intelligent Communication revamp + Paul Weller's White Sky + more things to come...

*probably a few that I forgot - but that looks like a LOT of new material to me... I can barely keep up really...

EDIT: how about the 10 volumes of the Electric Brain Storms ???

I've been meaning to ask your first question to Brian actually, ha.
Secondly, there's more stuff than those you've listed. The previous Environments albums feature a fair amount of new material - two tracks on E2, just over half of E3 and almost all of E4 is new material. There's the Yage album The Woodlands of Old from 2008. A huge number of EPs have appeared on FSOLDigital since its launch, some of Brian's and some from the duo - EMS : Piano, Blackhill Transmitter, Glass Girl, The Jazz Mags, Suburban Domestic, Sand Sound Folly, etc. Plus plenty of remix work over the last six or seven years. The unreleased Noel Gallagher album, plus production for Paul Weller.

Brian's working on a Humanoid album, there's a new Amorphous album in the works, future Environments should be all or mostly new material, forthcoming releases are planned for Yage, Polemical, 6 Oscillators in Remittance, EMS Piano. They were working on a film soundtrack but that appears to have been scrapped.

I do get where you're coming from, though - on the surface, the 'big' releases have been Archives, Environments and MPBs, which certainly look like they're not making new music. There will be a 'proper' new FSOL record one day that has no link to the '90s stuff at all... I've mentioned a few times that if I were them, I'd have just taken the best archive pieces that were unheard and called them a 'new' album myself... but then FSOL never did things the easy way!

edit: Pandemonium beat me to it!

Hi both of you,
I feel deeply sorry for having insinuated that they have been inactive in the last years. What I wanted to say is that they are relying on the 90s material, but it's obvious, they have families now, and anyway they are producing a lot. I know that there is a lot to do for the "enhancing" (Environments, etc.), and I know that they have released a lot of new material (even though I tend not to count the singles-EPs - and I'm wrong, I know it, but I don't like to listen to four of five tracks without a full album). I know all this, the only thing I don't understand is why they don't put together a proper album...ok, it would be recepted like "FSOL come back after 20 years" and we all know it's not true, but still. As Ross suggested, they could have done this with an album of "old" material - "From The Archives Vol. 5" is maybe my favourite FSOL record.
And, I just discovered, thanks to Pande, that Environment Five is singular and not plural...I own the CD but I ripped it into my iPod mistagging it into Environments - with the final S. I never thought it as a singular world...shame on me!
Anyway, thank you guys, your answers are always insightful. Thanks a lot.

(currently listening to From The Archives Vol. 1, I want to go back a little before taking seriously the task of listening to Archived 8)

I get you Gabo - we've all been there - asking that question - why not newly announced albums - why always in the beck-quiet-end ...

But if you are a serious music fan, and if you are able to see beyond the art and a little bit in the real world where the music industry and marketing rule the globe - you might get some second thoughts. It's a different world, new albums (from various bands) with quality close to Lifeforms and/or Dead Cities go unnoticed by the World every month or so. FSOL are an indie label now, so things are different from almost every possible aspect. They know this very well and they just try to balance things and pave the road to publishing good music without loosing the far-out sound -- which seems impossible most of the days, but they seem determined to do it, and they leave breadcrumbs (EPs) for the fans in the process

Pandemonium wrote:second thoughs

Corrected (to annoy Ross)

gabo86 wrote:Hi both of you,
(even though I tend not to count the singles-EPs - and I'm wrong, I know it, but I don't like to listen to four of five tracks without a full album).

With you on that - the EPs are good, but I think the Blackhill Transmitter material works when all played together as an album. Would love a physical copy of that.
Anyway, as I said before, Environments 4 is, for all intents and purposes, a new record. A couple of pieces there feature some sounds from older tracks but it's pretty much new. So that and Five work as new material if nothing else.

I agree totally on the Blackhill Transmitter EPs, I put them together and they play really well as a whole. To further muddy the waters regarding the naming of the series, check out what happened with the artwork of the enhanced version of Volume 3 of the Archives Series:



The others are fine, but this one it seems they had to change!

You're right - never noticed that - no surprise really...

I have a "problem": I only listen to albums intended as such. For example, right now I am listening to The Pulse EPs (the collection that came out in 2008), and I know that is a collection of EPs, but it has been released as an full lenght by the band. When they'll do the same with other projects (they could do an "Earthbeat" with the late 00s EP releases) I will be happy to listen to it...until then, I keek on listening the albums I own

You could make them like albums yourself just burn a CDr and enjoy

Pandemonium wrote:You could make them like albums yourself just burn a CDr and enjoy

I could, of course, but I prefer to wait for their authorisation ("ok, it's an album split in three EPs").

Jokes aside, in a world of spotify and free music and "shuffle music" (almosts nobody listens to album as a whole, except me, I think) I love their ongoing creation, even though sometimes the projects are too experimental (Hand-made Devices is funny but completely abstract). But I love their challenge to the music biz, even if made from a little almost-on-line label, FSOLdigital. I love their philosophy and their music, of course.

i listen to nothing but albums start to finish

EPs/Singles I burn to full length CDs as pande is suggesting

i'm old

I mostly listen to just albums. But if something is released as an EP, I will listen to that.

It's when songs are only released singularly, or as bonus tracks that I can't really listen to them. An EP, to me, is just a short (sometimes very short) album.

to Seedy and Epitome: I wanted to tell that "most of people" listen to songs and not to albums...of course we are old (but I can't stand the "shuffle" thing, an album is like a book, you can't read random pages).

shuffle is the worst =P