FSOL news

13/06/09 - FSOL DVD and July DJ dates

2009-06-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

The phrase 'FSOL DVD' has been one in the back of the FSOL fan's mind for something like seven years now. We're not sure if this is the one, or maybe it's just a DVD of the Athens show and little else, but Gaz has mentioned it on the first official footage of that performance here on YouTube. The video also contains footage of new material (the stuff with female vocals in the middle may be the new extended version of Lifeforms, or a new track, we're not sure, but the section with Gaz singing sounds very different and new to us, and worth a listen).

Gaz will be DJing some Amorphous/Psych Bubble sets at the beginning of July - Harvest Psychedelic somewhere in Wales' capital, Cardiff, on the third, and the following day at Beat Herder Festival a little further north in Lancashire.

And that's all the news for now.

08/06/09 - Electric Brainstorms 5 online

2009-06-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

No waiting about for radio stations, once more we have a FSOLDigital exclusive Podcast direct from The Pod Room - Electric Brain Storms 5. Featuring the usual selection of industrial, ambient, early electronics, Krautrock and the occasional splashes of Amorphous eccentritcy that EBS listeners will now be used to, the show - titled "I Stood There, Motionless" - is a little lighter than its predecessor, the spooky "The Spirit Of Dark And Lonely Water". But only a little. No exclusive FSOL this time, although there are a few selections from the forthcoming third Zeebox volume. And the show fits handily on a CD, running at 1 hour 14 minutes. Without further ado, here's a link to the show on FSOLDigital, to purchase for £2.00.

25/05/09 - Athens show: news and reviews

2009-05-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

FSOL's headline performance in Athens was, of course, on Saturday, and several of our lucky forum members were in attendance. While we're waiting for an official tracklist, here's a peek at what went on.
All reports give the show top marks, with an hour and a half performance including new tracks, variations on old ones and ambient interludes. The setup, featuring a massive screen in the shape of Brian and Gaz's faces, was performed to a large crowd, sent in over ISDN cables from Brian's studio in Somerset. Tracks performed included:
Herd Killing/Explosive Part 4
Brujo
Yage
Mouth Muse
Lifeforms
Everyone In The World/My Kingdom
Cascade (with Environments opening)
Room 208
We Have Explosive
Papua New Guinea

There was an encore featuring two new tracks; and at least four were performed, with one including vocals from Gaz.

Videos are appearing all over YouTube and are well worth a search. These, in particular, come highly recommended - excellent quality.

20/05/09 - Gigs. DJ sets. Interviews. And so on.

2009-05-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Life Festival. 29th - 31st May. Ballinlough Castle in Ireland. Headlined by FSOL. Another for your diaries. And remembering the Athens show is on Saturday!
DJ set in Bulgaria? Not sure if this is actually a DJ set or an Amorphous DJ set or what... more news soon! Park Live, 18-20th June.

Elsewhere, the Green Man slot has been expanded to a full eleven hour show,
featuring "HAWKWIND / the Amorphous Androgynous / YELLOW MOON BAND/ NICK NICELY / ALISHA SUFIT / CRANIUM PIE and DJs tba". Whether these are performances or just what Gaz is going to spin we don't know yet. If it's performances it's a pretty staggeringly high key lineup... although considering AA are supporting Hawkwind later in the year, not one entirely out of the blue.
The Amorphous MySpace also confirms the DJ slot at Oasis' aftershow party, Wembley, 9th July (of particular note if you're famous and know the Gallagher brothers), and a further show at 'Cable London' - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (DJ set we'd imagine from the name, but the event states simply 'AA Live'), on 28th August.

For more reading matter, Alisha Sufit talks about the road to re-success, partially via her appearance in the Amorphous Androgynous' current live band, in Record Collector magazine. If you're not a subscriber to the site, you can read the first part of the interview here, and if you are, you can read the full article there!
Also, generic interview with Gaz on Amorphous et cetera here, and Greek interview with Gaz here. Ability to read Greek essential. We have no idea what it says. Maybe it's the tracklist to the next FSOL album.

Probably not.

No news on new music. If what we're led to believe is true, the next 'release' we'll have will be Electric Brainstorms 5, although never trust anything anybody ever says to you about FSOL. Including this. With the increasing number of live shows and DJ slots coming up this year, it's unsurprising we've not heard much from the studio!

Thanks as ever to the truly beautiful people over on the forums for uncovering all of this lovely information!

12/04/09 - BLOC stuff, Amorphous stuff

2009-04-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a roundup of what's been going on in the world of the Amorphous Sound of London of late for you all to savour...
For the Russians amongst us, here is an article in Russian with a video in English with Russian subtitles featuring a short interview with Gaz, who tells us about FSOL, ISDN and... growing marrows.
Meanwhile, after last night's show in Kiev (which we're informed was 'very very nice' - trying to get more reports out for that!), four more Amorphous Androgynous shows are planned for later in 2009, to go alongside the FSOL ones...
30 May 2009 - BANGERS N MASH STOCKHOLM
23 Aug 2009 - GREEN MAN FESTIVAL BRECON BEAKONS, Wales
29 Aug 2009 - HAWKWIND 40th ANNIVERSARY LONDON
19 Sep 2009 - 20:00 TBC ATHENS
Our reporter on the scene in Kiev, Mouldy (well, forum member...) informs us Gaz spoke of a forthcoming film of the BLOC show, and also cleared up an old mystery - only 15 or so shows, to Japan and the US, appeared during 1994's 3D Headspace tour. You never know what you're going to get with this lot sometimes, do you?

Back in the digital world, the first preview of the aforementioned BLOC film is online on the STAKKERHUMANOID YouTube page here, featuring Mouth Muse, a little new music on the intro and, finally, it's possible to hear what Gaz says at the beginning of the broadcast!

Aaaaaaaand that's about all. For now.

27/03/09 - four live shows confirmation

2009-03-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

So, FSOL's live year has been confirmed courtesy of their MySpace. The following performances are happening:
23 May 2009 23:00
Softball Stadium, Ellhniko (this is the Athens show)
11 Sep 2009 23:00
Bestival, Isle of White
12 Sep 2009 23:00
Spektrum, Oslo
17 Sep 2009 22:00
Brain Unravelled, London

"And finally AA will be playing in KIEV in the UKRAINE on Sat, APRIL 11th"

Oh, and we forgot to mention this - Gaz's 'A-Z of Psychedelia' on Rob Da Bank's show.

24/03/09 - another new interview

2009-03-24T12:24:00.001-07:00

This time it's definitely with Brian!

20/03/09 - new interview!

2009-03-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Have a look here for a lovely new interview following the BLOC show. It seems to be largely conducted with Brian, which makes for very interesting reading in itself, but also asks questions about the FSOL ethos, the digital age and future plans, and is pleasingly honest in its non-psychedelic responses (except asking about the future live stuff, which was answered in typically FSOL vagueness!). Anyway, we really enjoyed reading this, so give it a peek!

17/03/09 - BLOC videos online

2009-03-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

A very kind soul who was lucky enough to catch the boys at BLOC festival has uploaded some clips for us. You can find them here. They're hosted on MySpace video - if anyone has any trouble with Java/Flash/other tedious crap which happened at this end when trying to view these, we recommend VDownloader to cut out all the Flash Video crap in the middle.

What to say? Proggy sounds familiar to us from the ExtremeMusic compilations, while the new untitled track is very nice - melodic but upbeat with an IDM-ish sort of rhythm. Performances of the others sounded similar to album versions, but there seems to be some variation, and apparently Lifeforms was altered more significantly, although we don't have a video of that yet.

If anything more turns up, ie a recording (hint hint guys), we'll let you know!

14/03/09 - BLOC setlist

2009-03-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well, once again a false prediction on our part - not much new stuff in there. But we're hoping we get a recording soon because the setlist is fantastic, a definite greatest hits, not in the Teachings From The Electronic Brain style. Thanks, as ever, to Graham, who has provided this for us...

Mouth Muse
Cascade
Dead Cities
My Kingdom
Globular (this was just the end section)
Lifeforms
Hallucination
Brujo
Tingler 96
New Untitled Track
Proggy
We Have Explosive
Papua New Guinea

It's obviously more 'dance' and festival friendly, but five track from the album is definitely a positive - it looks like Gaz has made his peace with Dead Cities at last.
We're holding out for a recording of this - from what we know, the band have been preparing for ages so this could be fantastic stuff. Watch this space...

08/03/09 - Falling Down remix available now!

2009-03-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

Here is an Amazon link to make a purchase of the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix of Falling Down by Oasis
You should buy it, really, it's pretty fantastic. Starting off with the section we heard on Rob Da Bank - the 'radio' part, really, a psychedelic Tomorrow Never Knows-esque version of the original track - and moving into the second instrumental jam section, the track suddenly veers into more FSOL territory for part three, with pianos, Environments II/Dead Ringer-esque strings, filtered vocals and lovely synth work. Part four sees Dave Sanderson (we think) take over the vocal work, pretty much turning it into an Amorphous cover of the track, and part five brings Noel back into the mix, before a dramatic strings and crows (yes, that sample is still around...) outro.
It works very much like a classic FSOL EP - starting with the 'original' track (if you imagine this is AA featuring Noel Gallagher) and then heading off into various versions of the piece. It's epic and genuinely a fantastic piece of music, worth a purchase for any Amorphous fan.

Anyway, enough gushing for now.

07/03/09 - 2009 live plans tidied up

2009-03-07T05:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Graham, here's a full list of what we have lined up so far:

March 13th-15th - FSOL live BLOC festival
March 23rd - Gaz on Rob Da Bank doing the 'A-Z of psychedelia'
May 23rd - FSOL live in Athens
August 21st-23rd - Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble 7 hour show 'bands and DJs' Green Man Festival
September 11th-13th - FSOL at Bestival
'Back end of summer' - Amorphous live in Athens

The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix of Oasis' Falling Down is available from Monday! Digital bundles can be bought from all good (and terrible) online retailers, and the track has its own 12" release.

06/03/09 - Green man. Bestival. Other festivals. Radio 1.

2009-03-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

Platipus have informed us of this - This year's Green Man festival "Also appearing will be The Amorphous Androgynous (AKA Future Sound Of London) taking you on a Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind for 7 hours of life changing experiences.". Seven hours. Of MPB. Imagine.

They also inform us Amorphous are playing more festivals this year (maybe the Athens and Bestival shows we heard about?), and FSOL will be on Rob Da Bank at some point very soon.

Speaking of Rob Da Bank, thanks to a hardcore Oasis fan who has lots of rare tracks on Youtube, including a rip of the seven minute radio play of the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix of Falling Down from Rob Da Bank's show last month here. And breathe...

27/02/09 - FSOL live in Athens this May?

2009-02-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

Promotions and media company Existenz (nothing to do with David Cronenberg. Probably) have a little animated screen on their website which happily announces "The Future Sound of London live in Athens 23 May 09". This is interesting news to us. Will it be a festival or a gig? FSOL or Amorphous? Live or ISDN? Who knows, but we'll find out. Hopefully. If you have any info, leave a comment or post on the forum or send an email!

23/02/09 - Hear part of the Oasis remix now

2009-02-23T10:32:00.001-08:00

Here's a direct copy of Graham's post on the forum, because we can't be arsed to re-word it:

You may want to check http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/robdabank/

Ignore the obvious mistake from Rob, Garry will be correcting him when he's on his show in a couple of weeks time.

It's all of part one and a tiny little bit of part 2.

19/02/09 - A Neotropic Psychedelic Bubble

2009-02-19T09:50:00.000-08:00

Riz Maslen, better known as Neotropic and sometimes Small Fish With Spine, longtime FSOL collaborator, friend and more, apparently produced a mix under the somewhat familiar title 'A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind' way back in 2007 (alright, it wasn't that long ago), for the mixtape blog The New Worck. Whether this suggests she'll be curating a further mix, helping out with the festival or whether it's just a friendly nod to the band, we currently don't know. But it's quite a nice mix, which you can download and read more about here.

18/02/09 - Buggy talks Stakker

2009-02-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

Buggy G. Riphead has a short interview here, where he talks about making the Stakker Humanoid interview back in 1987. There's also a link on the site to his official page, which contains lots of his photography, including some unseen FSOL shots.

12/02/09 - Classic rock interview, Noel Gallagher interview

2009-02-12T09:48:00.000-08:00

Check out the myspace.com/amorphousandrogynous blog for some more interviews. First up, Noel Gallagher on interview about how nothing has been the same since he heard A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble, and on the MPB note, Gaz talks about a second psychedelic volume (contradicting everything we've heard about a second set by FSOL) and the Psych Bubble event/festival, in an interview with Classic Rock magazine.

07/02/09 - Oasis single tracklist confirmed

2009-02-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

From Oasis' Myspace...

Oasis have confirmed the formats and extra tracks on their forthcoming single ‘Falling Down’.

The brand new Noel Gallagher-penned song 'Those Swollen Hand Blues' features in addition to various remixes of the single.

The Prodigy have twisted the track into new sonic forms whilst Marilyn Manson bassist Twiggy and Dave Sardy, who previously collaborated on a remix of 'I'm Outta Time', have created a new dance-floor filler!

Readers of Noel's 'Tales From The Middle Of Nowhere' will also be aware of the remix by Amorphous Androgynous who have delivered a 22 minute epic version of ‘Falling Down’. In a recent entry, Noel described it as, ‘A staggering piece of music. Monumental even. All superlatives will apply”.

The single is released in the UK on Monday 9th March (8th March digitally) and is taken from the band's number one album, 'Dig Out Your Soul'.

The full formats details are:

OASISINET EXCLUSIVE BUNDLE

CD Single

7" Vinyl

12" Vinyl

A set of 3 Exclusive Oasis Badges

CD SINGLE:

Falling Down - Album Version
Those Swollen Hand Blues
Falling Down - "It's the Gibb Mix" by Twiggy / Sardy
Falling Down - The Prodigy Version

7" SINGLE:

Falling Down - Album Version
Those Swollen Hand Blues

12" SINGLE:

Falling Down - "A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Mix" by Amorphous Androgynous

DIGITAL BUNDLE 1:

Falling Down - Album Version
Those Swollen Hand Blues
Falling Down - Demo

DIGITAL BUNDLE 2:

Falling Down - "It's the Gibb Mix" by Twiggy / Sardy Remix
Falling Down - The Prodigy Version
Falling Down - "A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Mix" by Amorphous Androgynous (Bundle Only)

DIGITAL BUNDLE 3 (iTunes exclusive)..:

Falling Down - Album Version
Those Swollen Hand Blues
Falling Down - Demo
Falling Down - Video

05/02/09 - Oasis & The Amorphous Androgynous

2009-02-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Well, not only does Noel love Gaz and Brian's track selections and mixing skills, but he loves their work too. Posted on Oasis' blog today, he has this to say about a forthcoming release:
"...By the way, there's gonna be a very special release coming your way soon. Remember that "Amorphous Androgynous" lot I was telling you about? Well, they've done a "Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble" mix of "Falling Down". It's 22 mins long. I'll repeat that, TWENTY-TWO MINUTES LONG!! I fully expect 50% of you not to have the attention span to deal with something like that but the rest of you, I hope, will be blown away. It's a staggering piece of music. Monumental even. All superlatives will apply."
Graham verifies: It's essentially 5 sections but it all runs together.

So we're expecting something like a FSOL/AA EP out of this, starting with the song and heading off onto an interesting trip. We can't say much more about the release, but keep in mind the words 'a very special release'.
Looks like the band are going to be getting a lot more press lately - they've been in the NME a few times lately, the first since The Isness was released seven long years ago...
Keep your eyes peeled for more news and other FSOL stuff coming soon.

10/01/09 - Amorphous Oasis remix and DJ set

2009-01-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's official, Gaz and Noel Gallager are becoming best chums, it seems! Not only has Noel been raving about the Monstrous CD, but now he's been in touch with the band to commission a remix for their next single - and to DJ at the band's Wembley aftershow! From the Amorphous blog...

Well for those that are bored with us banging on about Oasis things just got decidedly worse . . . Noel Gallagher rang in to the Automobile Association headquarters personally today and what a thoroughly nice chap HE IS TOO!!! He wants us to remix the next Oasis single ' Falling Down ' from " Dig Your Own Soul" giving us carte-blanche to do what the f*** we want" just make it worthy " to fit into "A MONSTROUS PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE EXPLODING IN YOUR MIND " was his mandate. " WORTHY" what a humble thing to say . . . .

For those that DON"T KNOW the above mentioned MONSTROUS BUBBLY THINGY he's alluding to our 44 track DJ mix compendium of brain frying food that we compiled and mixed and which was released in Dec of last year and which has been getting some heat among the icicles.

It seems that one of his party has visited fsoldigital. com and downloaded ALL 8 of the radio MONSTROUS BUBBLES from 1997-2006 and they've all been freaking out at the mash-up that constitutes the psychedelic manifesto of the AA . . . .

oh and we been asked to DJ at the Oasis Wembley after-show party so there should be some stories to tell this way soon . . . . .

08/01/09 - another old Humanoid release!

2009-01-08T06:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, the latest update in the 'find a billion old obscure Humanoid releases' project is this,Tranceformer's 'Humanoid X-Po EP', featuring 'Humanoid '93', Traceformer's remix of Stakker.

Anyone heard this or have it? Drop us a line!

07/01/09 - EBS4 tracklist

2009-01-07T05:13:00.000-08:00

For the curious and the completists, here's what we have on Electric Brain Storms 4:

Part One:
Malcolm Clarke - Unseeing
Mobiues+Plank - Solar Plexus
Roger Eno - A Paler Sky
Neu - Im Gluck
Section 25 - Visitation
Richard Pinhas - Ruitor
White Noise 3 - Metor Shower
Dark - Merciful
Eno - Beclaimed
Murcof - Mes
Fripp - 1988
Tin Can Alley - Tin Can Alley
Tim Blake - Crystal Presence
Harmonia - Veferano
Controlled Bleeding - Tolk
Young Fleeto - Seafar
Coil - Clap
Ellen Allien - Bim
Richard Vimal - A Cloche Pied
Will Sargeant - Incandescent Transistor
Tangerine Dream - Tangram
Kraftwerk - Storm

Part Two:
Cluster - Sowlesoso
Tortoise - Whitewater
Zeebox 3 - Crosswind
The Residents - Walter
FSOL - Viewed From The Right
Cabaret Voltaire - Sluggin For Jesus
23 Skiddo - 7 Songs
Ghost Box - Ghost Box
Dept Noise X Terror
Sylvio Gualda - Gong Swells
FSOL - The Oldest Lady
Max Richter - Postcards
Daphne Oram - Rockets In Ursa Major
Seearr//cr - cr
Kling Klang - Rocker
Interview - Robert Sandell
FSOL - Boundaries
Monsterism Library Music
Stockhausen - Lectures 71
Angry Neighbors

What does this mean? Well, the usual EBS mix of krautrock and Berlin school electronica, 80s industrial, modern ambient and glitch, field recordings and unheard FSOL material. The set is notably darker than the previous three (the 'Spirit Of Dark And Lonely Water' title already suggested this), and is a very nice addition to the series. Many of the environments between tracks feature night time sounds and water noises, which would fit in nicely with Summers Dream, we reckon.

Those FSOL tracks... all three are distinctly ambient, which is fitting considering forthcoming FSOL releases include Environments III and the new album. Viewed From The Right and Boundaries feature previously heard sounds, suggesting they may be EIII tracks (the title of the former relating to EII's Viewed From Above adds to this assumption), while The Oldest Lady is a darker, piano based piece which sounds unlike anything they've previously worked on (other than, perhaps, The Wicker Doll, which suggests the piece may feature Sir Daniel Pemberton, who Brian recently mention the band have been working with again) and could be from the next album.

Anyway, as you can tell from the long write-up, we're very fond of this set around these 'ere parts, and it certainly bodes well for forthcoming releases. Let's sit tight and wait for the next FSOLDigital release.

02/01/09 - Electric Brain Storms 4: Podroom 2009

2009-01-02T05:20:00.001-08:00

The latest Electric Brain Storms show, volume 4 "The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water", is available from The Podroom now. Labelled as transmitted to 'podroom 2009', it appears to be an exclusive for the site. No comprehensive tracklist is available yet, but a list of some artists featured on the two hour show is on the site. More information as it comes!

24/12/08 - new Amorphous alternative versions

2008-12-24T07:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Dell1972 on the forums for spotting some new track info on the Amorphous MySpace. A "new" track, 'His Motherness', is present, albeit simply an alternative version of 'The Emptiness Of Nothingness' (which, in a world of '-ness'ness, was originally called 'The Otherness', of course). Continuing the trend, it is credited as being from a 2009 release called 'The Outerness'. Another one to add to the list, alongside 2012, The New Love Poetry, Wobbly Oozescapes, Amorphik Alternatives and the Isness re-release. There's also a new mix of E'lysian Feels', and an edit of 'High Tide On The Sea Of Flesh'. And, in an unexpected move, an already released mix of Mello Hippo (the Abbey Road version, this time).
Time will tell on the new releases, we suppose.

Elsewhere on MySpace, you can hear a clip of the first Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble CD being previewed on Radio 1 on the MPB MySpace. There is apparently a Yage MySpace, although no music has been uploaded and there's not been a login since March! And that's about it.