The Future Sound of London – Papua New Guinea

As fans, we often picture the Passion Music ‘alias of the week’ era as being spread fairly evenly over the 1990-1992 era, but the real bulk of the story takes place in 1991, a year that started with the first Pulse EP and ended with the track that would go on to usher in international success for the band and lead them to depart Jumpin’ & Pumpin’.

That track, of course, was ‘Papua New Guinea’, although it wouldn’t be until six months after its initial release that the world at large would catch up. The first pressing was already delayed, originally given a catalogue number of 12TOT17, one before May’s ‘Tingler‘ release. J&P were largely a hardcore label, and while the band’s Smart Systems and Indo Tribe material fit right in, outliers like ‘Papua New Guinea’ were treated with some suspicion, much like the melodic techno of earlier release Principles of Motion. “We actually had problems getting the record company to even bring it out,” Garry revealed in 1992. Eventually, a promoter for the J&P / Passion group, Darren, pushed J&P to release the track, recognising its originality. Initial plans to put the track out as Mental Cube were quickly scrapped – in Garry’s words, “up to this point Mental Cube had been selling well and Jumpin’ & Pumpin’ were getting touchy and protective about the name – they didn’t understand ‘Papua’ – thought it was shite and therefore didn’t want it as a Mental Cube track,” although the decision was agreed upon by the band themselves, who realised that ‘Papua’s futuristic exoticism and ambient textures were the perfect fit for their own pet project, The Future Sound of London. At this point, FSOL tracks had only been released on the first two Pulse EPs, and three of those were light years ahead of their other 1991 material in terms of sampling and production complexity; in hindsight, it seems bizarre to think any other alias would have been right for the ‘Papua’. In Garry’s words, “The Future Sound of London is our left of field stuff that we risk getting trashed for on every release.” This time, it seems, the risk paid off.

Up until now, the pair’s releases had largely adopted the same kind of cyberpunk imagery as most UK hardcore of the time: blocky fonts, futuristic pixelated graphics, titles either sciencey (‘Critical Ebb‘, ‘Pulse State‘) or unnecessarily aggressive (‘Bite the Bullet Baby‘, ‘Visual Attack‘), tracks themselves largely bleepy techno, hoover-led rave or futuristic house. Everything about ‘Papua New Guinea’ was different, from the conga loops, flute melodies, ethereal female vocals and atmospheric synth pads, to the exotic title and tribal-looking mask of the front cover. The decision to make something so distant from the British rave scene was at least somewhat deliberate, as Garry related on the EBV website: “we’d never been to Papua New Guinea – in fact we’d both been hardly anywhere – it suddenly occurred to us that we could go to Papua and collect DAT recordings but in a way this was in itself now a tradition – a way of enhancing ‘the story’ – enhancing ourselves – making ourselves look worldly – providers of experience and anecdote – why not sit at home and save time – obviously this has a personal price – we missed out on the experience of life and people but at the same time we were just interested in the end result – and the end result had the flavour of Papua and no further relation”.

Many of the unconventional sounds came from sampling, of course. The band’s subtle use of samples had been increasing over the previous twelve months, and hit a new peak here. Garry explained to the Guardian in 2015: “We didn’t feel like we could work with exotic musicians but we wanted to bring that level of depth into sampling, which was the ability of two skint boys in their early 20s to seem exotic and worldly without asking anybody’s permission.”

After a period of releasing EPs, Dougans and Cobain clearly felt more confident in tracks again: not surprising, with a track as strong as ‘Papua’. After going through a period of knocking out tracks left, right and centre, far more time was spent on ‘Papua’, the pair spending a week working on the three track 12″. For the final time, the original version was given a mix name, the ‘Dali Mix’, which would go on to be known as the ’12” Original’ for the rest of their career. The B-side features two alternate versions, including a much earlier, largely ambient version of the track, ‘Dumb Child of Q Mix’, and the acidic ‘Qube Mix’, which remains exclusive to this 12″ to this day.

Although clearly a product of its time (and, structurally, not so far away from something like You Took My Love), the cover is quite different from the rest of Buggy’s 1991 work. The usual blocky fonts are replaced with a simpler, more readable sans-serif typeface, and the now iconic mask image features comparatively little digital alteration. Only really the cover’s monochrome nature connects it with previous J&P releases. The credits get another shake-up, with Yage returning as engineer and, at this point, producer, while Tim Jones is once again given an executive producer role. The Freaky Deek and Earthbeat logos are both present and correct.

Despite the label’s lack of belief in the track, ‘Papua New Guinea’ sold well. With the burgeoning ambient house scene providing sonic relief from the onslaught of rave, thanks to The KLF and The Orb, dance music listeners of the time were increasingly interested in sounds from the wider world of electronic music, and ‘Papua’ came along at the perfect time. The initial pressing sold out quickly, with second hand copies being traded for unheard of sums. Realising the commercial potential in the track, Brian and Garry waited until they had a new set of remixes before allowing the track to be reissued; in the interim, Jumpin’ & Pumpin’ finally released the long overdue Accelerator to keep the track on the market. But those are both stories for another day.

In October 2003, this three track edition was reissued on S12, Simply Vinyl’s dance 12″s imprint.

Release date: October 1991.

Other issues:
Papua New Guinea (1992)
Papua New Guinea (1996)
Papua New Guinea 2001
Papua New Guinea Translations
Papua New Guinea (Marco V Mix)
Papua New Guinea (2007)
Papua New Guinea (Original) / Murmurations
Papua New Guinea / Stolen Documents

Tracklist:
12″ (12TOT 17 / S12DJ107)
A. Papua New Guinea (Dali Mix)
B1. Papua New Guinea (Dumb Child of Q Mix)
B2. Papua New Guinea (Qube Mix)

Credits
Written by Garry Cobain, Brian Dougans (sleeve).
Written by Brian Dougans / Garry Cockbain (labels).
All tracks recorded and mixed at Earthbeat Studios – London – 1991.
Engineered and produced by Yage.
Executive producer Tim Jones.
Artwork and profile control Buggy G. Riphead.
Divine intelligence from Freaky Deek Records.
Published by Skratch Music Publishing.