Back catalogue: Breakbeat

Review: FSOL continue to be a prolific force in the sonic universe of their own making. The Environments series they started in 2007 has come to a head with a trio of albums over the past year and this is the last of them. There's a pointed callback at work on Environment 7.003, the cover explicitly referencing seminal early album ISDN, and the album is scattered with subtle nods to those mid 90s glory days. But The Future Sound Of London has always been about pushing forwards and that's precisely what Brian Dougans and Garry Cobain do on this resplendent suite of electronica, sure to satisfy the die hard fans without lazily rehashing old ideas.

Review: The Future Sound Of London are well-known for their intense sectioning-off of various albums into sagas. Conceived as far back as the late 1990s, the 'Environments' album series has been routinely topped up on a slow but steady basis, and has thus far manifested as a grand total of seven psychedelectronic odysseys. 'Environments Seven', which came out earlier in 2022, is testament to the duo's madcap penchant for sagaizing; indeed, this seventh instalment in the LP is split into a trilogy, and 'Environments 7.02' is the second in said trilogy.

Review: This double record - originally released in 2002 - is a deep dive into the duo's creative process, reimagining the 1991 classic through multiple sonic lenses. The London duo bring an album's worth of reinterpretations, starting with the evergreen original version's ethereal pads and hypnotic breakbeats. T2 merges the iconic melody with playful elements blending dreamy basslines and warm builds with subtle psychedelic hues. T3 extends the atmospherics and psych guitar wails in the final stretch triumphantly. T4 drifts into ambient psych-rock while T5 is a harsher more abrasive version. T6 is a slow, genre-blending piece with psychedelic undertones and emotional weight, gracefully building toward a euphoric blend of organ notes, complex drum patterns and smooth saxophone. Finally, T8 closes with lush downtempo elegance, layering sitars, sax and processed vocals from the original track for a mesmerising finale. Old skool fans will lap this up all over again.

Review: With its' 15th birthday imminent, De:tuned delivers another must-check release: a brand-new instalment in Future Sound of London's legendary, rave-era Pulse series of EPs. Created using music recorded, but never released, by the duo - under a variety of aliases - during the late 80s and early 90s, Pulse 5 represents a significant addition to the vast FSOL catalogue. There's plenty to set the pulse racing throughout, from the crunchy, fuzzy hip-hop beats and ghostly electronics of FSOL's 'Dialects' and the sub-heavy, bleep-infuenced brilliance of Yage's 'Sun Risen', to the intergalactic breakbeat hardcore hedonism of Smart Systems' 'The New Generation', the deep space proto-d&b of Ingo Tribe's 'Obstinta' and the glassy-eyed ambient techno of FSOL's 'Reasonable Acquiries'.

Review: 32 years after the fourth volume in Brian Dougans and Gary Cobain's Pulse series landed in record stores, De:Tuned offers up a surprise fifth edition. Fittingly, the music on offer - all produced by the pair under a variety of aliases, including The Future Sound of London - was created in the early 90s and has been plucked from a swathe of DATs discovered in their archive. There's plenty to set the pulse racing (sorry) throughout, from the crunchy, fuzzy hip-hop beats and ghostly electronics of FSOL's 'Dialects' and the sub-heavy, bleep-influenced brilliance of Yage's 'Sun Risen', to the intergalactic breakbeat hardcore hedonism of Smart Systems' 'The New Generation', the deep space proto-D&B of Ingo Tribe's 'Obstinta' and the glassy-eyed ambient techno of FSOL's 'Reasonable Acquiries'.

Review: Without a doubt, one of the most anticipated reissue compilations of the year is this collection of Future Sound of London side projects. In 2007 this was a CD-only compilation of early 90s tracks as well as unreleased ones from the same age. As the lore of FSOL continues to grow over the past 30+ years, their side projects have gotten more and more attention from the people who love those early rave sounds. Now for the first time, a vinyl version of it with no less than a 3x12 to harness all this early 90s techno goodness. All the tracks are by Dougans and Cobain and the aliases are the same. This 2007 album however has a wealth of new material from the same time period as Earthbeat. It is amazing that one release like this by two producers can be such a prime example of the UK sound that changed dance music forever. If you want the 90s UK rave reissue of the year, here it is!