The Future Sound of London - your favourite tracks

FSOL have such an extensive back catalogue with some sublime music, what are your favourites, here’s a couple of recent ones and an old classic to get us started
From environments 5

From cascade

And from dead cities

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Cascade, My Kingdom and the whole of Lifeforms are my favourites. The other lps, including most of the environments and archives series are a bit hit and miss for me (excluding ISDN). Not because they’re bad but because I tend to enjoy FSOL from a nostalgic point of view. So anything I’ve heard beyond their 93/94 heyday just doesn’t really do it for me, even if it was actually produced at that time. Again, not because it’s bad but because I felt part of a scene back then, more connected etc, and not so much these days.

This one also.

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By far, We have explosive pt 5:

Never fails to transport me into the next dimension.

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I remember when lifeforms came out, and I bought it and I was like where are the 4/4 beats, but then I listened to it and was like wow this is like nothing I’ve ever heard before, plus all the cgi which looks quite dated now but at the time in 1994 was amazing

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It was so ahead of its time. It was literally a life changing experience for me when I heard Lifeforms for the 1st time. The broadcasts on Kiss Fm were incredible too. Not a care in the world back then, so could lose myself entirely in their world. And I was also into the whole IDM/UK Techno scene back in 93/94. Best times of my life.

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With FSOL I listen most of the time a complete album. Kind of journey every time!

Ps. the sound quality of their sampling techniques are brilliant :ok_hand:

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Spotify found me an Amorphous Androgynous LP from this year:

I find it overblown and preposterous, but also very appealing.

I’m with @avistaline; I enjoy them mostly for and because of that mid '90s bloom of striking creativity and horizon-broadening. Even the bulk of Dead Cities feels like a bit of a come-down after Lifeforms/Cascade/ISDN, for me.

I think it’s me tho’… younger me valued novelty and adventure over musicianship, and didn’t see where the musicianship made the novelty possible. FSOL have great musicianship (and sound design skills), and I could probably appreciate them on that level if I made the effort… but the voice of teenage me keeps distracting middle-aged me.

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The MC-202 programming on this track is really cool. FSOL were massively influential to me.

And of course their “pop” break out hit and its dozens of excellent remixes. This was all very exciting stuff when it was released.

It’s incredible that Papua New Guinea is 30 years old.

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This is a great track from their recent release music for calendars

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Yeah antique toy, great track :+1:

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fsol

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And Sheuneen Ta then and nowimage

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Whoa. That’s cool that she’s an athlete in my state. Crazy.

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Does pre-FSOL count?

Love this one bc one of my favorite techno mixes from back in the days is one from Ken Ishii with this track in it, really the climax, and i never knew who/what it was until recently…

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I remember dancing to this in a club in 88 , and I’ve still got the single on vinyl

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Absolute classic. I much prefer the Snoman Mix though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaqj9jVUWs0

Also, obligatory cringe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XveYYwEdQ_M

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And thanks, I feel old now :joy:

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The story around that is amazing… (it s how i found out what the track was and what s the relation with fsol)

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I was a young little dude back then, only 10, but I had a partygoer uncle that used to make me mixtapes for my walkman. Imagine the shock when this banger came out of my headphones !

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Used to hammer this remix on vinyl, my copy never had a sticker on it though :slight_smile:

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