I thought I would share my review of the new FSOL with you as well, although
I think Ashdown did it justice. I just received it last night because URB
wanted it in their next issue (May 2) - so I didn't have as much time to
review it as I would have liked...so anyway, here it is:
Future Sound of London
Lifeform
(Astralwerks) Rumor has it that when Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans released Tales of Ephidrena under the nom de plume Amorphous Androgynous last year, it was a collection of material that they thought was not good enough to release under their Future Sound of London project, that these were essentially the outtakes. It ended up being an incredible record, so much so that I couldn't imagine what the next Future Sound release would be like if these were the rejects. In Lifeform, we finally find out.
When I saw Lifeform sitting on Raymond's desk, I rather unceremoniously snatched it and wouldn't let go. Few doubts were in my mind that it would live up to the impressive back catalogue already amassed by Future Sound of London, also known under such names as Amorphous Androgynous, Metropolis, Humanoid, and Fuzzy Logic. Driving back home from the URB office with my newly borrowed treasure in my tape player gave me a good introduction as to what the album would be like - I had great difficulty keeping control of the car as I sailed across the 10 freeway.
Lifeform is divided into eighteen tracks, but like many of their other releases, they tend to run together and become a whole entity. The only prior release from this album is the single "Cascade", the opener here, but it seems to be more useful to discusss this as an unbroken whole. This is not the sort of piece that merits picking and choosing in the CD player, it is intended to be an entire experience. Many of the sounds that tend to appear in many of their releases are also present here, but there is a huge wealth of new ones in this mind odyssey, including a vocal cameo by Liz Frasier of the Cocteau Twins. There is less of an emphasis on the dance element that encompassed much of their last Future Sound release Accelerator, instead attending even more to the development and proliferation of sounds. It is an exploration both in biology and in computer hardware, a manifestation of the ever increasing link between life and the machine. There are no sufficient words to describe the beauty found here.
In short, it is a transcendent work of art. (Tamara Palmer)
I would appreciate feedback on the review. Thanks!
Tamara Palmer Women Respond To Bass
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trance@netcom.com (the address of choice)
izzyzi5@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
izzypk3@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (yes, i is a college student)
urbmag@netcom.com (open for your comments about URB Magazine!)
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