Future Sound Of London Isdn CD

This is the second edition of ISDN. The first was a limited edition of 10,000 copies that sold out in 3 days. It features a different cover than the original and two newly substituted tracks.

Techno meets technology when Future Sound of London brings the noise, live and direct, and an ISDN digital phone link provides the conduit. ISDN is FSOL's third album, compiled in 1994 from European and North American radio feeds. Released on the cusp of the Bristol trip-hop revolution/revelation, ISDN finds FSOL moving away from the trance and dance mentality of prior incarnations and toward a synthesis of organic beats and tactile sound-play. Brian Dougans and Garry Cobain, FSOL's electronic brains, present a far less ambient affair than their earlier LIFEFORMS but remain defiant originals.

This American edition of ISDN has been resequenced to include a preceding EP, FAR OUT SON OF LUNG AND THE RAMBLINGS OF A MADMAN. Heralding a shift in favor of hip-hop beats (often sampled from obscure antecedents like 23Skidoo) and downtempo cyberjazz, the EP's title track, "Snake Hips," "Amoeba," and "Smokin' Japanese Babe" ballast ISDN's ghost-infested electronics and amorphous, eerie sound constructions ("You're Creeping Me Out," "Appendage," "Dirty Shadows") with a root system of sinister electronic funk. FSOL's luscious, ever-otherworldly textures define such album tracks as "Egypt," "Tired," and the Robert Fripp-derived "A Study of Six Guitars," while "Slider" and "Kai" ensure a fluid transition between ISDN's merging dynamics.

Recorded live at Earthbeat Studios, London, England in 1994.

Composer: The Future Sound of London.

Personnel: Robert Fripp (guitar); John Williams , John Williams (bass programming).

Recording information: EarthBeat Studios, London, England (1994).Option (3-4/95, p.104) - "...Future Sound Of London [FSOL] seems to have gotten the mix just right. Even more minimal than the Orb, FSOL builds its pieces in layers, electronically generating a nice range of textures that are more ominous than polished. Beats come and go, as do a number of sounds that seem like they may be more at home on an arcade game..."
NME (Magazine) (12/10/94, p.44) - 8 (out of 10) - "...has more bite and more energy [than LIFEFORMS], possibly as a result of being performed live...the ideal soundtrack for going surfing around the rings of Saturn or hang-gliding through the methane clouds of Jupiter..."