The Future Sound of London Album: “Lifeforms”

For anyone who is absolutely new to FSOL or ambient techno, I should first say that it really is a viable, meaningful form of music that goes beyond the long-standing stereotype of being lifeless and computer-generated. FSOL is the perfect example of really great ambient techno, for its music seems to send you on an endless journey with every song. However, it can be hard to get into music like this, and people are often quick to dismiss it as boring, uninspired, or slow. This is a typical reaction of people used to mainstream pop or techno, and even FSOL fans who have only been exposed to the widely-known 'Papua New Guinea'.

To put it concisely: don't expect a cd full of beat-driven club hits like Papua New Guinea. Most FSOL music goes far beyond that.

Lifeforms, like other FSOL albums such as ISDN, Cascade, Lifeforms (Paths 1-7), Amorphous Androgynous' Tales of Ephidrina, and to some extent Dead Cities, is more of a musical experience, going beyond the typical musical beats found in most techno and absorbing the listener in a collage of extraordinary sounds. Each disc of lifeforms is really one, long, extended musical masterpiece, as you could listen to the entire disc and not realized you listened to eight or eleven different 'songs'. This is truly an album you pop in the cd player and sit back and experience, as all FSOL albums are. One minute you may imagine yourself at the edge of the earth, the next floating in space, the next at a crowded airport with FSOL playing over the loudspeakers. As far as 'songs' go, the ones that come closest to your typical songs would be cascade, vertical pig, vit, omnipresence, room 208, and flak.

Lifeforms (or any FSOL cd for that matter) is definitely worth your attention. However, for those only familiar with Papua New Guinea, be prepared for music that goes far beyond one club smash. Sure the music may be hard to warm up to, but once it does you will find yourself listening to the beautiful sounds over and over again. And for the new techno fan, try lifeforms first and let your mind float away. Then acquaint yourselves with the more 'mainstream' likes of Papua New Guinea.

Future Sound of London's LIFEFORMS double LP is an exquisite exploration of two CDs of ambient and organic sounds.

While the opening track, "Cascade," may be the most recognizable, due to its place in Sasha and John Digweed's NORTHERN EXPOSURE collaboration, it is will "Ill Flower" that the album begins to truly unfold. The first disc ends with the shocking (because of the first vocals of the whole album) "Among Myselves."

The second disc is certain the more active of the two, with its threatening "Vertical Pig" and beautiful "Elaborate Burn."

The musical structure of LIFEFORMS is ever elusive and the listener who tries to consciously grasp it all will miss the attractiveness of the album. It is as background music or drift-off-to-sleep sounds that the true emotional power comes forth.

This album always conjures up strange visions for me. The soundscape is so vivid that it actually distracts me if I leave it playing as background music.

I would say that this is the best album FSoL has created to date, but that assumes that their albums can be compared to each other. Like so many great musicians, each of their albums has a distinct feel to it and, once the album is done, there will never be anything else quite like it. One nice thing about this album is that besides two wonderful discs, you can also get the remixes of Lifeforms and Cascade which are wonderful almost album-length works that stand on their own.

I have (as far as I know) all of the FSoL/AA CDs up through Alice in Ultraland and when I run Lifeforms through my mp3 player, I always end up listening to the Cascade remixes, then Lifeforms, then the Lifeforms remixes and turn it into a nearly 3 hour experience.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that I would recommend this album to anyone who has an imagination, and if you love it, Cascade and Lifeforms.

This album was my introduction to electronic music, and I have yet to find any electronica that exceeds it. Lifeforms makes insanity sound glorious. I have listened to it more than any other album in my collection. It is truly unsurpassed. It sounds like enlightened honey. Listen to it - in order - at least three times on a good system before you form an opinion of it because it is organic, layered, and tells a sensory story.

I picked this CD up out of my brothers old closet the other day, and without having listened to any electronic music before(outside of Aphex twin, if you can consider that electronic music), I instantly loved the CD. Definitely recommended for anyone and everyone.