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wikipedia sez...
Future Sound of London (FSOL) are a British
electronic music band, the duo of Garry
Cobain and Brian Dougans, one of the most
influential electronic acts of the last 15
years. The pair are notoriously enigmatic and
have rarely granted interviews. Their work
covers a number of areas, including film and
video, 2D and 3D computer graphics and
animation, the Internet, radio broadcasting
as well as recorded music.
Although often labelled as ambient, Dougans
and Cobain have demonstrated that they are
too eclectic to be pigeon-holed into any
particular genre. Their work covers most
areas of electronic music, such as ambient,
drum and bass, trip-hop, ambient dub, and
often involves extreme experimentation. They
have also garnered a reputation as remixers,
transforming the work of a variety of
different artists, including Curve, Robert
Fripp, David Sylvian, Jon Anderson, and
Apollo 440. The results are often novel and
complex, and in some instances the original
track is barely recognisable.
History
FSOL, as the band is sometimes called, was
formed in Manchester, England, in the mid
80s. Dougans had already been making
electronic music for some time when they
first began working in various local clubs.
In 1988, Brian embarked on a project for the
Stakker graphics company. The result was
Stakker Humanoid. Gary contributed to the
accompanying album. A video was also
produced.
In the following three years the pair
produced music under a variety of aliases.
Stakker Humanoid re-entered the UK chart in
1992, followed by the breakthrough ambient
dub track Papua New Guinea, which was the
first official Future Sound of London
release. Virgin Records were looking for
electronic bands and quickly signed them.
With their new found contract they
immediately began to experiment and the
result was the Tales Of Ephidrina album,
released under the Amorphous Androgynous
alias.
Lifeforms followed in 1994 to critical
acclaim. The new work was almost entirely
free of percussion and was truly ambient
across both discs. It was a top 10 hit in the
UK album chart, and is still hailed as one of
the greatest ambient electronica albums ever
devised. 1994 also saw the release of 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 and to The
Kitchen, an avant-gard performance space in
New York. Its tone was darker and more
rhythmic than Lifeforms.
In 1996 they released Dead Cities. The new
material was a curious mix of ambient
textures and hard gritty dance music. This
album also featured a collaboration with the
composer Max Richter. However, critics
suggested that the duos musical output seemed
to dry up following this release, save for a
few 12" singles and remixes.
After a four year hiatus, and allegations of
mental illness, Cobain and Dougans returned
in 2002 with The Isness, a record heavily
influenced by 60s and 70s psychedelia. It was
preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a
mini album which contained a mixture of
remixes of FSOL's seminal classic as well
as new material from The Isness sessions.
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