Nothing polarized fans more these last few years than The Future Sound of London’s
Isness. The division started with how this record was released: was this an
Amorphous Androgynous release (the more ambient side of FSoL) or was it a Future
Sound of London record? The confusion isn’t helped with the release of Amorphous
Androgynous’ The Otherness, a companion record to The Isness which is,
essentially, a collection of re-edits and alternative takes of what has gone
before.
If you thought FSoL had vanished into their own arses to smoke dope and drop acid
with The Isness, then you’ll find The Otherness to be another hour of the same.
It’s a bit like finding a strange knobby object in your basement and, when you cut
it open, it’s just as strange and knobby on the inside as well. Instead of being
a reflection, The Otherness is simply a mirrored copy of The Isness. Though with
slightly different knobs.
In either case, the 21st century finds The Future Sound of London (and their alter-
identity Amorphous Androgynous) embarking on an idyllic perambulation about the
English countryside. FSoL launch themselves deep into psychedelia and get lost in
a incense haze of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd influences and raga-esque echoes of
the Beatles when George Harrison was bringing all of his new friends by the
studio. The aggressive beats and haggard voices of Dead Cities and the endless
languid ambient excursions of Lifeforms have been replaced with a pharmaceutical
exploration of navelspace. They’re grooving on the breath of nature, kids, lost
in a summer haze of their own editing.
If you’ve been here already with The Isness, then you know what you’re going to
get. If you haven’t, this is a slightly less lysergic-tinted landscape (like the
difference between being there and seeing someone’s home video of the same place)
than what is offered with The Isness. If you can hear these records in isolation –
– separate and distinct from the remainder of the forward thinking oeuvre of The
Future Sound of London — and you don’t mind feeling like you’ve just dissolved a
couple of tabs on your tongue and have tripped back to the 1960’s, then The
Otherness might light your brain.
The Otherness is out now on Psychobaby Records.
