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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This U.K. duo's landmark ambient techno album Lifeforms (1994) explored lush jungle vistas. Its follow-up opts for a much darker urban nightmare motif that makes it an ideal soundtrack while reading William Gibson. Progressive rockers by any other name, FSOL are highly respected innovators who rate with Orbital as the genre's leading exponent. --Jeff Bateman
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I would give this 4.5 stars. This album is probably the darkest and most introspective album I have, and the textures - and atmospheres - it creates are mind-blowing. I prefer the upbeat tracks like "Dead Cities" and the big beats of trip-hop "Yage" and "My Kingdom", I guess because the more ambient ones are to me slightly counter-active in that they are too dark to be relaxing like most ambient dance music. This album is really scary to fall asleep to (esp. track 5) and at times is pretty melancholic but sans depressing which is good. Dead Cities is definately an album as opposed to a collection of tracks, since (not meaning to sound pretentious!) the continuous and complementary moods it creates as an LP are as important as the music in any given track.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Really, how in the world do you describe a piece of music like this?
it is tricky, as the Future sound of London manage to create a musical adventure quite unlike anything else, and though made in 1996 it is timeless stuff, that production wise if you told me it had been created 50 years in the future, I'd believe you.
genre wise, it's kind of difficult to place anywhere- with the sound being more of a continuous journey through various soundscapes,both subtle and gentle and then angry, beat riddled and aggressive.
I'm really not too sure about how the tracklist works out, I am thinking that maybe the whole album is set out more like a symphony, and each well 'part of a track' is like a new movement (There are sometimes upto three tracks inside a track...)- confusing? well yes, I was tearing my hair out trying to figure it all out!
Dead cities, as it seems to be, is a journey through a cold desolate world perhaps set in the future or maybe now, it expresses the attitudes and feelings of people and situations that may be very well be apart of everyday life in a 'dead city' it melodically conjures up anything and everything and creates a fairly dark and depressing mood, But it is friendly and uplifting in places, perhaps showing the ray of hope in a world that doesn't seem to have any left...
musically you will hear quite a variety of stuff here, from the sounds of children playing in a park right over to sad, wailing gothic choirs, from lush saxophone sounds to exotic Greek instruments, as I said before, there are gentle and friendly moments in this album, but mostly it's often chilling and sinister, with a lot of the sounds being quite horrifying, (the sound of a child whispering "Make me believe I'm not going to die..." in a hushed demonic tone is frightful!) couple all these innumerable samples with synths, live instruments and beats, a powerful feel is created.
The emotions portrayed throughout the album range from relentless evil in tracks like "Herd killing" "We have explosive" and "Dead cities" to deep, depressing sad moments "Everybody in the world is doing something without me" and "Vit drowning" right over to the uplifting and beautifully moving "Her face forms in summertime" "Max" and "My kingdom"
The future sound of London have truly created an aural world in this album, you feel like you are there, sometimes because of the smashed up city sounds that surround you or just the melodies that float around and let you imagine the dark places...
it is tricky, as the Future sound of London manage to create a musical adventure quite unlike anything else, and though made in 1996 it is timeless stuff, that production wise if you told me it had been created 50 years in the future, I'd believe you.
genre wise, it's kind of difficult to place anywhere- with the sound being more of a continuous journey through various soundscapes,both subtle and gentle and then angry, beat riddled and aggressive.
I'm really not too sure about how the tracklist works out, I am thinking that maybe the whole album is set out more like a symphony, and each well 'part of a track' is like a new movement (There are sometimes upto three tracks inside a track...)- confusing? well yes, I was tearing my hair out trying to figure it all out!
Dead cities, as it seems to be, is a journey through a cold desolate world perhaps set in the future or maybe now, it expresses the attitudes and feelings of people and situations that may be very well be apart of everyday life in a 'dead city' it melodically conjures up anything and everything and creates a fairly dark and depressing mood, But it is friendly and uplifting in places, perhaps showing the ray of hope in a world that doesn't seem to have any left...
musically you will hear quite a variety of stuff here, from the sounds of children playing in a park right over to sad, wailing gothic choirs, from lush saxophone sounds to exotic Greek instruments, as I said before, there are gentle and friendly moments in this album, but mostly it's often chilling and sinister, with a lot of the sounds being quite horrifying, (the sound of a child whispering "Make me believe I'm not going to die..." in a hushed demonic tone is frightful!) couple all these innumerable samples with synths, live instruments and beats, a powerful feel is created.
The emotions portrayed throughout the album range from relentless evil in tracks like "Herd killing" "We have explosive" and "Dead cities" to deep, depressing sad moments "Everybody in the world is doing something without me" and "Vit drowning" right over to the uplifting and beautifully moving "Her face forms in summertime" "Max" and "My kingdom"
The future sound of London have truly created an aural world in this album, you feel like you are there, sometimes because of the smashed up city sounds that surround you or just the melodies that float around and let you imagine the dark places...
I hope this review hasn't been too, well "from the imagination" in it's description, But it is a release that truly deserves a review for it's visualisation...
A remarkable and unforgettable journey that will leave you breathless.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It took me a long time to begin to appreciate this album. When I first heard it I was really disappointed because it is quite unlike "Lifeforms" which I love. But then one day i totally fell in love with one of the ambient tracks toward the end of the disk. gradually over the following years the other tracks followed suit. It is another album of theirs which in that unique and amazing way gets better every time you hear it. Each time I hear sounds differently than the last. Like an experiment in my own perception. I dont think the experiment will ever end.
and by the way, at the end of track 2 the child(?) whispering also quietly says "something I cant understand".
and by the way, at the end of track 2 the child(?) whispering also quietly says "something I cant understand".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Soundscape city
The sort of music to listen to when you want to watch a film but don't want to WATCH a film. A soundscape of musical atrophy. only for the headstrong.
Published 18 months ago by Graceless
Truly a lost masterpiece
This is their zenith of achievement, where they got the balance just right - there are so many moments of astonishing beauty, beats cubed and for electronica it is 5 stars... Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2009 by G. E. Marthews
A dead album.
I went through a phase a while ago of wanting to explore ambient music and was keen to look out for more modern artists such as Biosphere, fearful of buying something that is dated... Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2006 by RM
The other end to 'Lifeforms'
This album completes a journey from 'Lifeforms' to a more harsher sound. There are parts with gentle sounds of bubbling and bleeping synths. Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2004 by Jay M
Brilliant
words fail me. and everyone else, it seems. this and Lifeforms are among my top 5 albums ever. true, true genius. beautiful.
Published on 27 Aug 2004 by "nastymutant"
They are STILL the future sound of London.
This album is a testament to advanced creative thinking. It always was ahead of its time, and i think it still is almost 8 years on. Read more
Published on 13 May 2004 by M. J. Axtell
utterly uttery superb, 6 years old, still the future sound
i am listening to this cd right now as i write this review. and i will be when you read this. its a testiment to human achievement pure and simple. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2002 by Mr. S. Macleod
The most wonderfully unique CD ever created...
Dead Cities is a magical CD, an album that ceases to be music and instead metamorphosizes itself into what you find it to be. Read more
Published on 12 April 2001
Good but not quite good enough
This is a great album, don't take the rating to harshly, with its strength in depth I'm not sure whether it could be truly brilliant. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2001
Ambient Electronica at its best!!!
The album as a whole is very good, laid back beats with amazing bass and treble lines overlaid. This best example of this being Quagmire with its smooth Blade-Runneresque synth... Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2000
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