Art Science Technology – A.S.T.

Released on:
A.S.T.

Runtime: 4:19

In the grand scheme of the FSOL catalogue, ‘A.S.T.’ is a somewhat unremarkable track. The use of the guitar and organ from the intro to ‘Something Better Change‘ by The Stranglers is fairly unsubtle – enough to give the full band a co-writing credit – and the general bouncy breakbeat track feels somewhat slight. There are samples of crowd noise in there, which lend it a very early ’90s feel, and the few synth sounds used are fairly straight-forward.

Further listens reveal some interesting elements, however. The track never stands still, instead continually breaking from the Stranglers sample to bring in new elements, most notably the mid section at 2:10, with spacey synths, a one-off piano chord, a brief bongo loop and a melancholic gated synth riff. This part, in particular, hints at the complexity the pair would bring to their music as they grew as producers.

Another aspect that will be familiar to longtime fans introduced here is appearance of recurring sounds: tracks were jammed in the studio, resulting in numerous alternate versions and related tracks. The synth bass in ‘A.S.T.’ features on the following track, ‘Esus Flow‘, while the gated synth middle reappears on ‘Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix)‘, which gives the whole EP a nice connected feel.

‘A.S.T.’ has never been a personal favourite of mine, and its importance mostly comes from its position as the first official Dougans / Cobain track. That said, it’s quite a fun piece, and despite it sounding a world away from the FSOL sound that would develop, deep listening reveals many of their iconic production practices date right back to this early point.

As a quick aside, I will only be referencing officially credited (and, occasionally, widely discussed) samples here. There are plenty of other places online one can find a list of uncleared samples used in their music.

Credits
Written by B. Dougans, G. Cockbain, B. Duffy, D. Greenford, H Cornwell, J. Burnel.
Engineered by Yage.
Produced by Humanoid.
Executive producer Tim Jones.
Recorded at Earthbeat London 1990.