( On 11-11-1996 FSOL broadcasted a live concert via I.S.D.N. to VPRO Radio. Click here for a review of Dead Cities, Alive. )

The following document was forwarded to my by a friend. It's from a mailinglist, IDM - Intelligence Dance Music. The original author of this text is Jon Drukman. I took the liberty to convert it to HTML and to correct some errors in this text.

• :36 Herd Killing
• 6:36 Dead Cities
• 5:39 Her Face Forms In Summertime
• 6:19 We Have Explosive
• 4:10 Everyone In The World Is Doing Something Without Me
• 5:46 My Kingdom
• 2:50 Max
• 5:43 Antique Toy
• 6:58 i - Quagmire
  • ii- A State Of Permanent Abyss
• 5:38 Glass
• 7:32 Yage
• 5:32 i - Vit Drowning
  • ii- Through Your gills I breathe
• 4:49 First Death In The Family

Where can FSOL possibly go next? They've already conquered the dancefloor, the chill space, and the smoke-filled stoner lounge. It seems that their attentions are now global in scope. This album just covers the entire universe of sound, it seems, and despite featuring some familiar FSOL mannerisms, it still sounds like nothing you've ever heard before..

We start out with "Herd Killing", an amazingly harsh blend of industrial noise, fucked up beats and a guy shouting. Almost Meat Beat Manifestoish but with a distinct FSOL layer of gloss. From there it's into the ominous pure techno strains of "Dead Cities", evil melodies gliding smoothly over intricate Kraftwerkish beats. Next up, a bit of relief in the form of "Her Face Forms In Summertime", which combines a gentle Mountain Goat-ish guitar with some big booming ISDNish drum loops.

Just when you think they're slipping back into a comfortable style, however, they knock you out with "We Have Explosive", which features a total fuck-off rhythm with some harsh ring modulation. It also mixes in heavy metal guitar cut ups, more shouting, and a nasty voice intoning "We Have Explosive" repeatedly. If you dropped this on a dancefloor, people would run for cover. Harsh, hard and nasty, but totally grooving.

"Everyone In The World Is Doing Something Without Me" is a pure choral piece. Just voices (real? sampled? impossible to tell) with one or two synth sweeps for effect. It's otherworldly and incredibly haunting and beautiful. Stately and grand.

"My Kingdom" has an eastern flavor with a nodding stoner drum groove that sounds suspiciously real. If anyone here is familiar with Ozric Tentacles' easternish pieces, this one bears a striking resemblance, minus the hippy guitar stuff...

"Max" is again a strangely beautiful piece, with piano, acoustic bass and some sort of muted horn - maybe a soprano sax? It almost seems like they're taking the piss here but every once in a while the sweet sweet melody breaks up into a minor key or a dissonant mode.

"Antique Toy" reminds me of Speedy J, actually. The percussion in particular has that rapid plinky rolling style. Of course there are some pure FSOL touches like the farting distorted percussion and the gorgeous pads that float over the whole thing.

"Quagmire/A State of Permanent Abyss" is the inevitable drum and bass track. It's almost like every artist working today is contractually obligated to produce some d'n'b... Fortunately, FSOL apply their usual creative genius and come up with something that is totally unlike anything you've ever heard before. It blows away Squarepusher, Plug, Photek and all the rest. There's some horn charts, a completely messed up analog bass and the most bizarre collection of drum loops and hits. Crashing glass and splashing water breakdowns. Congas from the 27th plane of reality. Utterly indescribable.

"Glass" wouldn't have been out of place on "Lifeforms". It has a beautiful arpeggiated melody and some completely warped synth squiggles that somehow manage to be abrasive and totally in tune at the same time. A lovely little drum groove comes in and makes the whole thing totally nice and friendly.

Which is good, because "Yage" is kinda creepy. It reminds me of Brian Eno's "clouds of sound". There's a beautiful sweeping synth wash over the whole thing and some plucked piano string noises and a drum loop way in the back through a ton of reverb and... describing it is pointless. It just pulls you in with waves of coalescing sound.

"Vit Drowning/Through Your Gills I Breathe" has an ominous 303 line and some lethargic 808 percussion. A murky melody line floats over the top and makes you nod your head in time with the 808 clap. The track is the exact musical equivalent of being on lsd at 5 am when you're so tired that you just want to fall asleep but you know the chemicals will make it utterly impossible and the clock keeps ticking and you wonder if you'll ever be the same person again but you realize that's impossible because every molecule in your body is constantly moving and ....

"First Death In The Family" is some kind of mad marching music... a procession of the damned through the gates of the dead city, or something. It's ominous but not without a note of hope.

Goddamn I love these guys. 10/10.

The reason this text needed some correction is the nasty way the tracks are printed on the backside of the cover. Different fonts, some tracks numbered, while others are not. The first impression you get is that the CD seems to hold 15 tracks, but the CD-player can only find 13. To increase confusion there are 14 tracks mentioned in the text which tells what samples are used.

Date: 22 Jan 97 02:36:11 +0500
From: [e-mail address stripped] (Aaron Michelson)
Subject: Re: (idm) FSoL: Dead Cities -- a theory
  
My copy of Dead Cities is the Virgin Canada promo, with the tracklisting 
typed out clearly on the backcover. Some of the tracks are splitnames... 
that's why there are 15 titles for 13 tracks.
 
:: FSOL "Dead Cities"
 
 1. Herd Killing
 2. Dead Cities
 3. Her Face Forms In the Summertime
 4. We Have Explosive
 5. Everyone In the World is Doing Something Without Me
 6. My Kingdom
 7. Max
 8. Antique Toy
 9.  i) Quagmire
    ii) A State of Permanent Abyss
10. Glass
11. Yage
12.  i) Vit Drowning
    ii) Through Your Gills I Breathe
13. First Death in the Family