Well, it’s taken me almost a year, but I’ve reached the end. When I started this blog, I had a lot of thoughts going around in my head, and I was hoping writing all this would help me clear them out. And I think it’s worked. After all this in depth analysis, I’m really looking forward to being able to just listen to my favourite band again and enjoy their music for what it is.
It’s been incredibly interesting, following their music from the earliest days right up to the present. Although I’ve certainly listened to some things in order before, I’ve never done a fully chronological play through like this before (and I almost certainly won’t do again!). Being able to hear every release, transmission and performance in context, with accompanying quotes where relevant, has enabled me to understand and appreciate Brian and Gaz’s music more than ever, and revealed some interesting things that I’d never even considered when I started this blog. I might have thought I knew everything there was to know before this, but I’ve learned so much from the process.
It’s also allowed me to reassess a lot of their music. With a lot of stuff going on in recent years, including some radical changes in sound, a ramped up release rate, some negativity on the FSOLBoard, the fanbase shift from the board to Facebook, having to deal with the nonsense Gaz writes online, and – particularly – my own mental health problems, before starting this blog I had begun to wonder if I was really a big FSOL fan still. I’d maybe talked myself into thinking I liked some releases less than I do for various reasons (largely due to an excessive idolisation of the 1993/1994 material), and that, combined with one or two recent releases I’m slightly less fond of and the lack of many conventional albums in recent years had just soured my enjoyment a bit. At this point, I feel much, much more positive about the band, their music and their future. Which is a huge relief in itself.
This has also led me to really enjoy some records in years. Although I always knew it was great, I found a new love for Dead Cities while writing the blog. After so many releases and transmissions with a particular sound, the slightly starker, more melodically beautiful and melancholic sound of the album absolutely resonated with me in a way it hadn’t done is as long as I can remember. It was really like discovering the album for the first time again. I had very similar experiences with Environments Five and Six and particularly Archived Environmental Views, which has now become one of my favourite FSOL albums. And the re-recordings have really been a source of some of the band’s best material in recent years which, along with Music for 3 Books, have been excellent albums in an era defined by tracks and mixes, which I find generally less satisfying (although not as much as certain FSOLBoard members!). I’ve even discovered an bunch of material I really like on an album I’d previously considered not my thing, The Cartel Vol. 2. With Environment Seven just around the corner, I’m enthusiastically awaiting some wonderful new material…
Not everything I’ve taken away from the experience has been positive. The first three From the Archives albums are patchier than I remember – despite a lot of great tracks on them – and, although I still adore the 2002 mispress version of The Isness, on the whole I’ve found my opinion on most of the later Amorphous material has dropped a little. It has led me to wonder whether my initial love for Alice in Ultraland and The Peppermint Tree was more to do with the lack of new Dougans/Cobain material at the time than my genuine love of the music.
My favourite FSOL and FSOL-related releases, as of 25th January 2022:
Lifeforms
Environments II
Dead Cities
Environments 4
Archived : Environmental : Views
Environment Five
ISDN
My Kingdom
The Isness (2002 Mispress)
Cascade 2020
Environment Six
From the Archives Vol. 9
Blackhill Transmitter
From the Archives Vol. 7
Lifeforms Paths
Music for 3 Books
Last but not least, thank you to everybody who’s read along, and given me feedback. I hope you enjoyed this, and maybe even learned something! It’s been a labour of love, and a difficult one at times, but knowing that other people have enjoyed it to has given me the strength to keep on writing when I’m had one of my ‘why the fuck am I spending all this time on this?’ moments (they happened far more often than you might think).
And with that, this is done. Until I remember something I’ve forgotten in a few days. I’ll keep the blog updated with new releases as and when they come along. With around seven more planned for this year that shouldn’t be too long…
Fractional Difference 