Isdn

Amazon.com
"They're so antisocial," said Mixmaster Morris of the reclusive Future Sound of London. "They won't even go to parties anymore--they do all their gigs over the telephone." After the success of their majestic "Papua New Guinea" single and the Accelerator album from which it was taken, FSOL retreated to the studio and never left. Their only communication with the outside world was through their music, an increasingly abstract Dadaist collage of overdubbed beats and noises that defied genres and stymied trend-happy journalists. While some of the material on ISDN was previously released under the pseudonym Far Out Son of Lung (the worst-kept secret in dance music), the bulk of the album was taped from performances delivered via digital telephone links to radio stations throughout Europe. Naturally, the ubiquitous and intrusive medium of radio encourages challenging and elaborate environmental music. So unlike their previous album, Lifeforms, whose closest earthly relation was techno, ISDN is the distant cousin of jazz, both in its blatant sampling of sax and drums and its freeform, exploratory nature. --Matthew Corwine

Tracks:

Just A Fuckin Idiot
The Far Out Son Of Lung And The Ramblings Of A Madman
Appendage
Slider
Smokin Japanese Babe
You're Creeping Me Out
Eyes Pop - Skin Explodes - Everybody Dead
It's My Mind That Works
Dirty Shadows
Tired
Egypt
Kai
Amoeba
A Study Of Six Guitars
Snake Hips

Amazon.com

"They're so antisocial," said Mixmaster Morris of the reclusive Future Sound of London. "They won't even go to parties anymore--they do all their gigs over the telephone." After the success of their majestic "Papua New Guinea" single and the Accelerator album from which it was taken, FSOL retreated to the studio and never left. Their only communication with the outside world was through their music, an increasingly abstract Dadaist collage of overdubbed beats and noises that defied genres and stymied trend-happy journalists. While some of the material on ISDN was previously released under the pseudonym Far Out Son of Lung (the worst-kept secret in dance music), the bulk of the album was taped from performances delivered via digital telephone links to radio stations throughout Europe. Naturally, the ubiquitous and intrusive medium of radio encourages challenging and elaborate environmental music. So unlike their previous album, Lifeforms, whose closest earthly relation was techno, ISDN is the distant cousin of jazz, both in its blatant sampling of sax and drums and its freeform, exploratory nature. --Matthew Corwine

Customer Reviews:

Stories within !.......2007-03-04

With some imagination , together with this music , it brought me to another world . Yes , thats FOSL . This album was non-stop with song after song , just like telling you a story . Those who were looking for something different , then this must be the one . Its music never sound backdated and its always fresh !

My personal favorite.......2006-07-09

Of all the FSOL albums, this one is my personal favorite. Wild ambience to say the least. "The Black Hole" (Disney film) samples galore, and it's incredibly interesting, and varied.

Comical at times to boot. I just laughed with track #1 really hard the first time I heard it, and everything about this album is just awesome.

One of the best..........2005-08-25

I purchased this cd in 1998 , 4 years after its initial release and I just started listening to it again. Its still just as good as when I popped it in my stereo for the 1st time. I truely have respect for a group that can make music with limitless imagination and yet keep it from being a total pile of shiite. They weave in and out of genres and in the process create their own. They're 'live' sound is surprisingly crisp and inventive
(one of the 1st groups to play over the net). It fits this album perfectly. Like they knew something we didn't , something that we take for granted today. The internet and super computer revolution that has its tenticles in everything from the military to governments to the economy. The experimental vibe reflects the experimentalism of todays culture and makes the music that much more potent. Equal to 'Dead Cities' and 'Lifeforms' this album completes the alias of FSOL's best work to date. I highly recommend this album for electronic connaiseurs and amateurs alike.

Gritty soundscapes.......2005-08-14

When people talk about soundscapes, a lot of times you think disparagingly of those ambient chillout recordings that play in National Park gift shop, the ones that feature mindnumbingly simplistic classical arrangements with "nature sounds" in the background, sold at $25 a pop to gullible faux New Age tourists. Rest assured, this album is not like that.

Unlike the lightly echoing textures of the Future Sound of London's previous release "Lifeforms" this disc is a dirty, driving sonic mess, anchored around grindingly distorted samples of horns, guitars, voices, horses, space phasers and goodness knows what else. The result is a gritty, disorganized audio space that's far more visceral than any previous FSOL works. Funny how an album called "Lifeforms" can sound so electronic and detached while an album whose title is dedicated to a soulless, purely technological means of audio transmission (ISDN cables) can sound so down-to-earth and organic. In essence, this completes a major, 3-album shift for FSOL away from their early techno club roots to what I must hesitatingly liken to ambient, experimental dub. (And who could have guessed when this came out that within a decade they would have shifted completely from dub to neo-psychedelia!)

Granted, the length of this (70+ minutes) will drive a lot of listeners bonkers, but the end result is more rewarding to those who possess the patience for it. When the blips and squelches coalesce into a driving backbeat with gorgeously cascading samples, something the listener can actually almost identify as a "song," (Son of Lung, Slider, Dirty Shadows and Egypt are the best examples) the music feels more alive than ever. This is a unique and memorable release.

Take a look through the haunted house of music.......2005-08-09

This is one serious headtrip for the connoisseur. All the sounds blend in and out of each other. It feels almost darkly sensual how the sounds wrap around each other that it is slightly evocative of haunted house and ghosts in the mirror ( admittedly to my twisted imagination ). It manages to sound totally psychedelic ( to me ), haunted and truly emotional on occasions.

Some of you may remember my review of Lifeforms being less than impressed with it. This, however, is something to be impressed with. This truly is awe-inspiring. It truly is my favourite FSOL album of them all ( bar The Isness/Otherness because I haven't got it yet ). This is an album that works on many different levels. If you are feeling introspective, this is the album for you. If you want to take psychedelic drugs, it may not be the album for you but then it again it could be ( depends on how it affects you ). If you want to be lost in the sound of an album, this is the album for you. In fact, just buy the bloody thing. It'll be worth your while, trust me.