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Amorphous Androgynous Wiki Information

The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated to FSOL ) is a prolific British electronic music band composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. The duo are often credited with pushing the boundaries of electronic music experimentation and of pioneering a new era of dance music. ^[1] ^[2] ^[3]

Although often labelled as ambient, Cobain and Dougans usually resist being typecast into any one particular genre. Their work covers most areas of electronic music, such as ambient techno, drum and bass, trip-hop, ambient dub, acid techno and often involves extreme experimentation; for example they have, since the turn of the millennium, experimented with psychedelic rock under their Amorphous Androgynous alias.

The artists have been fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, Youtube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for them both. In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. ^[4] ^[5]

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History

Formation

Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid 1980s whilst studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when they first began working in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid . Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced. below = Problems listening to this file? See media help. below = Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful acid house "Q" and "Metropolis" singles, some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album "Earthbeat" in 1992. Metropolis was also very influential in the house scene.

"FSOL"

In 1991 they released their first album as The Future Sound of London , "Accelerator" which was followed by their seminal breakthrough ambient-dub track "Papua New Guinea" featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon" , which was their first official single release; the track remains arguably their most recognisable and celebrated song, it has made several (British) "...best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. ^[6] ^[7] ^[8] "Accelerator" was very much a club-friendly techno album and remains their only studio album in this vein to this day; despite this, it was praised for its unique sound and atmosphere, and contained atmospheric links between tracks which would later form the unique sound of the band. In 1992 Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after Papua New Guinea's chart success, quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment.
With their newfound contract they immediately began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the "Tales of Ephidrina" album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked distinct shift from the more techno driven "Accelerator" , retaining some dance beats, but focussing more on texture, mood and sound, most famously on the popular track Mountain Goat. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.

Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour

Cascade (song)|Cascade, released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. With subtler beats, ethnic sound effects and striking artwork (featuring the band's trademark 'spike' model, The Electronic Brain), Cascade was a bold step into a lush, ambient world. ''"Lifeforms"'' followed in 1994 to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with cyclopean ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. The album itself featured epic, ambient soundscapes, with each track flowing from one to the next with no pauses in between. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno type ambient album. ^[9]

“

We wanted to release a very immersive, mind-blowing piece of music that was long and would deeply drench you in it...Lifeforms was redefining 'classical ambient electronic experimental' — that was the phrase we used. - Cobain on "Lifeforms"

”

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1994 also saw the release of the limited edition album "ISDN" , which was as close to a live album as most electronic acts get - it featured live broadcasts FSOL had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide, The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio "Sessions" shows, to promote "Lifeforms" . ^[10] These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongisde the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than "Lifeforms" . Cobain stated that with "ISDN" they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to even though the technology at the time did not fit their grand ideas. ^[11] The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork, a slightly altered tracklist, as an unlimited pressing. ^[12]

Dead Cities

1995's John Peel Session featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of "ISDN" away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released "Dead Cities" , which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. Lead single My Kingdom introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with the composer Max Richter; it was a lot darker in tone than anything they had done previously with a theme of a city in ruins in a post-apocalyptic styled landscape filled with melancholy, moments of beauty and brutality, the latter of which was expressed with the big-beat techno track "We Have Explosive" , released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game wipE'out" 2097 , along with the track "Landmass" , which they wrote especially for "2097" and wipE'out" . FSOL contributed to the WipEout Fusion soundtrack as well. ^[13] We Have Explosive was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating My Kingdom by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later. The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focussed on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the "From The Archives" series.

New millennium, new sound

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After a four year hiatus, and rumours of mental illness which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth, the pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness" , a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by "Papua New Guinea Translations" , a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from "The Isness" sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain and Dougans (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times , The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the bands ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. ^[14] ^[15]

Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, "Alice in Ultraland" . Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took "The Isness" psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but more favourable among fans than its predecessor. Unlike "The Isness" , which featured almost a hundred musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, "Alice in Ultraland" featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables, from 2005 onwards.

“

...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it..."

”

- Cobain on the new Amorphous Androgynous sound.

5.1 & Digital experimentation

The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static" , intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms" . The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called Stereo Sucks, marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, released on a DVD packaged with Future Music Magazine Issue 182 in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.

They have also been, literally, creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release "Hand-Made Devices" . At their website "Glitch TV" (where the moto is: "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programe function." ) they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment. ^[16]

FSOLdigital and the Archives

In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments , along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com. As of July 2008 the CD releases of the "Archives" series have sold over 15,000 units.

“

The FSOLdigital platform has performed very well - we are delighted that people still dig us - we dig you all too .

”

- Brian Dougans on the positive reaction to the site and "Archives" sales. ^[17]

In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled "The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness" , which they claim is "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's "Alice in Ultraland" . Following this came "The Woodlands of Old" , recorded under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip-hop and world music inspired and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.

In a continuation of the band's newer, more candid side, they revealed future plans to fans via email and MySpace, with 2008 promising archives from The Amorphous Androgynous, more solo experiments from Brian and further Environments albums, covering past and present material. An entirely new FSOL album is in the works, but no actual details have been revealed to date.

In August 2008, the band put out Environments II online, showcasing an unseen side of the band, largely pure ambient and orchestral in style and haunting in mood, and considerably different over its fourteen icy sounding tracks to the original Environments record. On the same day, a fifth Archive release was made available, leaving announced but unreleased tracks suggesting a possible sixth in the series.

Further archived material is expected through the online shop, including the third Zeebox record, more solo work by Brian as Six Oscillators In Remittance and EMS:Piano, Amorphous Androgynous archives, Environments 3 and FSOL demos under the name 2" Tape Reels . ^[18] Further forays into the archives have appeared in the form of The Pod Room broadcast and podcast page, featuring all of the band's ISDN broadcasts and mixes. ^[19]

A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind

Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of "Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind" mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first was released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music", and took over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, featuring the band's psychedelic influences. The second is set for release sometime in 2009, and will be more electronic, mixed by The Future Sound of London. ^[20] Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, ^[21] and the band are taking the concept live with a seven hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, ^[22] to contain live bands and DJ spots. ^[23]

Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22 minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Gaz to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena. ^[24]

Future of the band

On the 2nd of April 2007 Garry Cobain posted a video onto of him arguing with a lady at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, London about God entitled "the GOD WARS - An Argument I Had At Speaker's Corner" . It is edited in a humorous way by him with the intro title "COMIC BELIEF presents..." and has a brief spiritual guru like "musical interlude". ^[25]

On 16 June 2008, online radio station Proton Radio showcased the first in a series of new broadcasts by the band, called "The Electric Brainstorm" . A cover was supplied to fans via the Welcome To The Galaxial Pharmaceutical fansite, and the set included a number of unreleased archive tracks by FSOL and Zeebox. ^[26] A second show on 26 September 2008, broadcast on Frisky Radio, provided the third installment of the Electric Brainstorm series, once again playing the band's favourite music and own tracks, including two unreleased pieces: Open Windows, from the unreleased Jazz Mags sessions, and Summers Dream, which is currently planned for release on the band's next Future Sound of London album. ^[27] ^[28] Electric Brainstorms 2, finally released via their Podcast site, The Pod Room, opened with another track planned for release on the forthcoming album, Heart Sick. Volume 4 in the series, subtitled "The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water" , featured more unreleased material, believed to be from the next album and "Environments 3" . ^[29] Gaz has described the album as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".

In a possible continuation of the ambient and orchestral theme first previewed by FSOL via Environments II, and later on the previewed tracks from the forthcoming record, the band are apparently working on a collaboration Oscar winning short film director Hugh Welchman called "Sh" . They will produce a "musical remix of the film" ^[30] ^[31]

The duo played their first live set as FSOL for 12 years at the 2009 Bloc Weekend in Minehead. The show, like the band's set at the Essential Festival in 1997, was broadcast from their studio in Somerset. Rumours of a world tour, ^[32] which some believe is further evidence for imminent release of new material, were made concrete by confirmation of live FSOL appearances at 2009's Bestival event in the UK, and a festival run by Existenz in Athens, Greece, with an Amorphous Androgynous show in Greece to follow later in the year, and an eleven hour Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble curated tent at 2009's Green Man festival, including a performance by Hawkwind. ^[33] The live nature of the set (as opposed to the Electric Brainstorm DJ mix series) suggested it may feature the first entirely new Future Sound of London material since 1997 and those rumours turned out to be true with a few new tracks played, albeit currently untitled. A further two Electric Brain Storm mixes are expected. ^[34]

Independence

The duo have a very independent frame of mind, which comes across in their music and the many styles that they pursue. This has been even more true since the turn of the millennium, with their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous albums being released on more independent labels; "The Isness" on Artful Records ^[35] and "Alice In Ultraland" on the progressive Harvest Records, which is an arm of EMI.
They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence ^[36] on which a few artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane), both off-beat electronic artsists, have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to "Dead Cities" on the track "Dead Cities Reprise" ^[37]

Despite this Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the "Teachnings from the Electronic Brain" compilation without them but the duo insisted on taking control of the projects production. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 90s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea" , "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.

“

Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.

”

FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles, according to Cobain, and the fact that they had a good deal of top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s was because they, again, had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits whilst still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.

They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out. ^[38]

Aliases

Aircut
Amorphous Androgynous
Art Science Technology
Candese
Deep Field
Dope Module
EMS:Piano
Heads Of Agreement
Homeboy
Humanoid
Indo Tribe
Intelligent Communication
Mental Cube
Metropolis
Part-Sub-Merged
Polemical
Q
Semtex
Semi Real
Six Oscillators In Remittance
Smart Systems
T.Rec
The Far-out Son Of Lung
The Orgone Accumulator
Unit 2449
Yage
Yunie
Zeebox

Discography

''As The Future Sound of London unless indicated.''

Singles/EPs

(1988) Stakker Humanoid (as Humanoid)
(1989) Slam (as Humanoid)
(1989) Tonight (as Humanoid feat. Sharon Benson)
(1989) The Deep (as Humanoid)
(1989) Crystals (as Humanoid)
(1990) A.S.T. (as Art Science Technology)
(1990) I Can See for Miles (as Yunie)
(1990) Q (as Mental Cube)
(1991) So This Is Love (as Mental Cube)
(1991) You Took My Love (as Candese)
(1991) The Tingler (as Smart Systems)
(1991) The Pulse EP (as FSOL and Indo Tribe)
(1991) Pulse 2 EP (as FSOL, Smart Systems and Indo Tribe)
(1991) Q (as Mental Cube)
(1991) Principles of Motion EP (as Intelligent Communication)
(1991) Pulse 3 EP (as Smart Systems, Indo Tribe and Yage)
(1991) Papua New Guinea (LP/12")
(1992) Papua New Guinea (CD)
(1992) Fuzzy Logic EP (as Yage)
(1992) Pulse Four EP (as Mental Cube, Smart Systems and Indo Tribe)
(1992) Stakker Humanoid '92 (as Humanoid)
(1992) People Livin' Today (as Semi-Real)
(1992) Metropolis (as Metropolis)
(1993) Liquid Insects (as Amorphous Androgynous)
(1993) Cascade
(1994) Expander
(1994) Lifeforms (featuring Elizabeth Fraser)
(1995) The Far-Out Son of Lung and the Ramblings of a Madman
(1996) My Kingdom
(1997) We Have Explosive
(2001) Stakker Humanoid 2001 (as Humanoid)
(2001) Papua New Guinea 2001
(2002) Papua New Guinea Translations
(2002) The Mello Hippo Disco Show (as Amorphous Androgynous)
(2003) Divinity (as Amorphous Androgynous)
(2005) The Witchfinder (as The Amorphous Androgynous)
(2007) Papua New Guinea (Herd & White Remixes)
(2007) Archived EP
(2007) Stakker Humanoid 2007 (as Humanoid)
(2008) Tingler 2008 (as Smart Systems)

Albums

(1989) Global (as Humanoid)
(1991) Accelerator
(1992) Earthbeat
(1993) Tales of Ephidrina (as Amorphous Androgynous)
(1994) Lifeforms
(1994) ISDN
(1996) Dead Cities
(2002) The Isness (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the U.S.A.)
(2003) Eurotechno (as Stakker)
(2003) Sessions 84-88 (as Humanoid)
(2005) Alice in Ultraland (as The Amorphous Androgynous)
(2006) Teachings from the Electronic Brain
(2007) From the Archives Vol. 1
(2007) From the Archives Vol. 2
(2007) From the Archives Vol. 3
(2007) Zeebox 1984-1987 Vol. 1 (as Zeebox)
(2007) Zeebox 1984-1987 Vol. 2 (as Zeebox)
(2007) Hand-Made Devices (as Polemical)
(2007) 4 Forests (as Part-Sub-Merged)
(2007) The San Monta Tapes (as Heads Of Agreement)
(2007) Environments
(2007) Your Body Sub Atomic (as Humanoid)
(2007) By Any Other Name (as FSOL, Mental Cube, Indo Tribe, Dope Module, Yage and Smart Systems)
(2008) The Pulse EPs (as FSOL, Indo Tribe, Smart Systems, Yage and Mental Cube)
(2008) From the Archives Vol. 4
(2008) The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness (as The Amorphous Androgynous)
(2008) The Woodlands of Old (as Yage)
(2008) From the Archives Vol. 5
(2008) Environments II
(2008) A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind: Volume 1 (as The Amorphous Androgynous)

Specials & promos

(1997) ISDN Show (A promo recording of a live netcast.)
(2003) The Otherness (Bonus 14-track album on "The Isness & The Otherness", a 2-CD special limited edition.)
(2007) A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static (Soundtrack for an art exhibition held at the Kinetica Art Museum, London in 2006.)
(2008) FSOL Digital Mix (A free mix CD with Greek music magazine "Freeze".)

Remix work

They have also garnered a reputation as remixers, transforming the work of a variety of different artists, including:

(1991) Loleatta Holloway, "Do That To Me (Set Me Free)"
(1992) Unity, "Unity"
(1992) Inner City, "Praise"
(1992) Nomad, "Your Love Is Lifting Me"
(1992) Prefab Sprout, "If You Don't Love Me"
(1992) Stereo MCs, "Connected"
(1993) Curve, "Rising"
(1993) Bryan Ferry, "I Put A Spell On You"
(1993) The Shamen, "Re:iteration"
(1993) David Sylvian/Robert Fripp, "Darshana"
(1994) Apollo 440, "Liquid Cool"
(1994) Massive Attack, "Sly"
(1995) Jon Anderson, "Speed Deep"
(1996) Osamu Sato, "Face-Savers On-line"
(2001) Robert Miles, "Paths"
(2002) Deadly Avenger, "Day One"
(2009) Oasis, "Falling Down"

The results are often novel and complex, and in some instances the original track is barely recognisable.

Chart history

Singles charts

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1988	"Stakker Humanoid"	UK Singles Chart	#17
1989	"Slam"	UK Singles Chart	#54
1992	"Papua New Guinea"	UK Singles Chart	#22
1992	"Stakker Humanoid '92"	UK Singles Chart	#40
1993	"Cascade"	UK Singles Chart	#27
1994	"Expander"	UK Singles Chart	#72
1994	"Lifeforms (feat. Elizabeth Fraser)"	UK Singles Chart	#14
1995	"The Far-Out Son of Lung and the Ramblings of a Madman"	UK Singles Chart	#22
1996	"My Kingdom"	UK Singles Chart	#13
1997	"We Have Explosive"	UK Singles Chart	#12
2001	"Stakker Humanoid 2001"	UK Singles Chart	#65
2001	"Papua New Guinea 2001"	UK Singles Chart	#28

Album charts

Year	Album	Chart	Position
1991	"Accelerator"	UK Album Charts	#75
1994	"Lifeforms"	UK Album Charts	#6
1994	"ISDN"	UK Album Charts	#44
1996	"Dead Cities"	UK Album Charts	#26
2002	"The Isness"	UK Album Charts	#68