FSOL: Archives 5 & Environments II

More from the FSOL boys. From the Archives Vol.5 and Environments II!

Two albums of why you love FSOL (Lifeforms, ISDN, Dead Cities) and none of

why you don't (This Isness, The Otherness, Alice in Ultraland, Mello Hippo Disco Sucko et al)

Exclusive Digital Downloads at FSOL Digital, (likely will get cd/vinyl release eventually as the other Archives and Environments I did)

Environments 2 sounds awesome. did you buy these? $18 is steep for downloads from these guys, getting greedy.

So how was this release (Environments II) received among yourselves (ha-ha) then?

I don't actually know very much of FSOL's material yet but what I know is brilliant (Lifeforms & Dead Cities), I'm about to buy Environments I and ISDN, which are probably worth it too, are they? I read ISDN was kind of calmer than the others, is this true?

ISDN is a must, and some of it is calmer, especially toward the album's end.

I would hold off on Environments; it's very average.

Get one of the From The Archives albums before you get Environments.

  endangered betche said:

I would hold off on Environments; it's very average.

Well to be fair it is almost 15 years old (the first one anyway)

The reactions to Environments seemed pretty optimistic I thought... well, yours and "marcnplymouth"'s at least.

http://forum.watmm.com/index.php?showtopic=28423

I like Lifeforms a lot and the concept I imagine to be behind Environments sounds very interesting to me...but then, I could be completely wrong. Does it sound raw, "un-polished" or something? I don't think I'd mind.

If you like Lifeforms then you'll like Environments as it's from the same era. I mean it's been digitally cleaned up, but it's still got the same old school early 90s Ambient House feel to it.

Sounds perfect actually - I think I'll stick with my shopping list.

Environments II is much better than the first.

agreed

What are the "from the archives" ones? Collections of B-sides? Re-releases?

  autopilot said:

What are the "from the archives" ones? Collections of B-sides? Re-releases?

Cleaning out the hard drive, methinks; although some tracks seem to have elements of other properly released songs.

Environments II is my second favourite after Dead Cities. I think it's really nice, it's everything I've always wanted from them. I prefer their pretty ambient tracks over their dark trip hoppy tracks. Sure, the only stand out tracks are Glacier 1 and 2, but it's all just so "nice" that I really don't care.

Environments and ISDN both arrived - I like Environments. It's darker than I expected, which was a nice surprise. Also it surprised me that the themes were a lot more civilization-centered and "urban" than the album title and cover art suggested for me, Lifeforms seems to be dealing with more rural and natural themes (despite the airplane sounds and some of the track names), maybe that's why I found Environments to be rather unsettling in comparison. It seemed like there wasn't so much on there all together (in terms of variety, not duration) after the first listen, but that's actually changed now, it just needs a different approach. Some of the faster or the more rhytmic bits are sick, and the atmospheres are worth it too.

I haven't given ISDN a listen yet, will soon.

Got Environments 2 there on Friday and really enjoyed the couple of spins of it over the weekend, a very nice release.