understanding the future sound of london

[botkiller]

Lifeforms was so boring and simplistic that I returned it to the store.

i thought Lifeforms was a great album during the time it came out (93?...94?).

they may not be the most influential electronic act but certainly they had a large following for a while.

And still do! (At least with me, and a lot of other Avant Guarde/Ambient followers).

Also for someone to say that Lifeforms was boring and simplistic - it was an Ambient soundscapes album man - what were you expecting, a hard dance nutter?

[deastman]

Also for someone to say that Lifeforms was boring and simplistic - it was an Ambient soundscapes album man - what were you expecting, a hard dance nutter?

If I were expecting a hard dance nutter, I wouldn't be comparing them to The Orb.

[Reverse Engineer]

Lifeforms is an excellent album, be it yesterday, today or tomorrow.

[Z3R0T0N1N]

i actually really like Lifeforms. and i don't normally listen to much ambient stuff. In my (admittedly inexperienced in that type of ambient)opinion, it's one of the most listenable ambient records from that time/genre.

dead voices on air, zoviet france, cEvin key - that's the kind of ambient music i like normally, and Lifeforms has very little in common with those. But i really like it.

[Scooner]

Same here, love Lifeforms, especially CD1.

[Ubiety]

Lifeforms was the first FSOL CD I heard, and I think it's really good, but I would return to Dead Cities over and over again.

[botkiller]

Also for someone to say that Lifeforms was boring and simplistic - it was an Ambient soundscapes album man - what were you expecting, a hard dance nutter?

If I were expecting a hard dance nutter, I wouldn't be comparing them to The Orb.

Touche'

[VitaminD]

I'm a fan of FSOL.. Cant say that about many other groups/artists personally.. FSOL and specifically Dead Cities was probably the single largest influence on me musically (well in 'electronic' music). My favorite album and one of the few I can listen to without fast forwarding through 'filler ' tracks.. its all fantastic work in my book.

that said.. I wonder if they just experimented or if they really had a general plan and looked at content afterwards.. OR even if they heard songs from others, then heard peices that they thought would sound good in specific places in their own songs?

[Veith]

F.S.O.L.'s "LifeForms" was absolutely amazing at that time and comparing their music with Kraftwerk is kinda weird in my opinion. That's like comparing a washing machine and a dishwasher. Sure both use water, both are electronic and make things clean but try to put your dishes into the washing machine and you'll see it's kinda... different lol And again.. as for "LifeForms".. it really influenced me as a home-based "wannabe musician". Later there came Autechre, Biosphere and others but FSOL with that album really made me want to start making music. And btw. It still sounds kinda up to date for me.

[Tux]

FSOL. Lifeforms, the single. Came out about this time in 1994. For me one of the sound tracks of that summer. I bought it on cassette single, it was about 15 minutes long.

It was all about the part with Liz Frasers's vocals... Deep.

[thecontrolcentre]

ive noticed thet used some samples from the films,black hole,scanners and believe it or not the goonies(sloth's laugh).

Lifeforms has samples from the Aliens movie too ...
I haven't listened to it since the mid 90's ... time to dig it out I reckon

[plastique]

One of my undisputedly favourite bands of the nineties. They defined ambient listening for me, in these soundtrack-like atmosphere, unique and still inspirational to me, basically building the balance to all the rave and gabba techno I couldn't really get into at that time.
I sort of lost contact after "dead cities", which somehow already made the impression of them having reached some kind of landmark.

BTW, as for soundtracks, you will of course have noticed that they used stuff from "bladerunner" (on lifeforms) or "once upon a time in the west" (on dead cities) and many others as well

I think I saw a pic somewhere of the two guys sitting in a studio in front of a couple of hardware synths/samplers, can't remember what it was exactly though. And Gaz playing the acoustic ...

[dirty oscillators]

ive noticed thet used some samples from the films,black hole,scanners and believe it or not the goonies(sloth's laugh).

Lifeforms has samples from the Aliens movie too ...
I haven't listened to it since the mid 90's ... time to dig it out I reckon

Lifeforms was definitely my favorite of FSOL's stuff. The Orb was cool too, but then again they had some wacky stuff like the track that sampled Lovin'You by Minnie Riperton (ugh)...

and i agree with earlier, comparing Kraftwerk to FSOL is like apples and oranges. then again i think Deastman used them as an example of an act who really influenced electronic music, not as a direct comparison to FSOL.

[deastman]

and i agree with earlier, comparing Kraftwerk to FSOL is like apples and oranges. then again i think Deastman used them as an example of an act who really influenced electronic music, not as a direct comparison to FSOL.

Precisely. Then again, come to think of it, the early Kraftwerk albums were extremely experimental, and possibly even ambient at times. But I wasn't suggesting they worked in the same style.

[bbtr]

they were drowning me