“Ok, let’s go.”
“Five, four, three… transmit.”
Wherever they found these samples, it was a great spot. Used in the majority of the 1996 shows, they’ve become a familiar part of the FSOL language. Broadcast on the same day that Dead Cities was released, the show broadcast to Edinburgh’s Forth FM, on the Bonus Beats show, starts in a very similar manner to the previous Radio 1 transmission. ‘We Have Explosive (Part 4)’ is basically the same as the released version, unlike the looser, more improvised feel of the Radio 1 version. It closes with the Mary Hopkin vocal sample from ‘My Kingdom’, threatening to follow the previous show’s structure exactly, but then takes a sudden turn into elephants and other animal sounds, which are distinctly un-Dead Cities sounding: it’s ‘Accompaniment for Melodious Expression’, known at the time under the name ‘Womb’. Over the top of the saxophone-sampling track is a new sting – a robotic voice saying “The Future Sound of London live via ISDN,” followed by “You are entering audio copyright zone two. Warning, spoiler technology is in use.”
“You have been programmed with a lot of confidence chips.”
One of many, many samples from the 1993 sci-fi martial arts B-movie Knights used throughout the tour. Next up, interestingly, is a track by Leon Mar’s then-new alias Oil, which would be released the following year on FSOL’s fledgling EBV label. Although clearly Mar would have given permission for the track’s use, the appearance of another artist on a show which is promoted as a live gig by FSOL is quite a strange choice. It’s followed by an environment called ‘Slow of Motion’; interestingly, most of the Dead Cities tour environments were released on the From the Archives series, and they tend to be music and sound collages, rather than based around specific vocal samples; the movie dialogue tends to move around and be used in different environments and tracks depending on the transmission. ‘Antique Toy’ follows, with a number of electronic sounds and spoken samples added over its first half. The track continues into its closing environment, crossfading into ‘Dark Matter’. One of a huge number of Dead Cities era pieces left off the album, it’s a dark, heavily percussive number. The inclusion of many of these outtakes gives the Dead Cities tour a very different feel to the album itself, the darker sound, combined with the environments containing more field recordings and organic sounds, coming closer to the supposed ‘urban decay’ label given to the album itself, a bleak exploration of the remains of a city rather than a walk around a current urban landscape. The track closes with an airy environment with female vocal samples, and a voice stating “Take a sample there.” It’s an enjoyably meta sample, given the band’s penchant for sampling.
‘Her Face Forms in Summertime’ appears in its live incarnation, quite a different take on the track, with a different bassline, a more straight-forward breakbeat and a different structure. The backing ambience and guitar parts are the same as the album version, but the arrangement – also lacking the cymbal washes of the original – gives it a more lively, bouncy feel in contrast. An interesting take, but lacking some of the beauty of the album mix. The closing environment is more intense than on the album, and overlaid with the old “moving further into the future” robotic voice. The band then launch into ‘Yashica’, one of the many unreleased drum n bass tracks from the Dead Cities sessions, a piece that shares the vocal sample from ‘Glass’s closing environment. As with ‘Dark Matter’, it takes the transmission in a much darker direction. The track moves into a closing environment which would later appear on the single version of ‘We Have Explosive (Part 4)’, another track utilising the same vocal sample.
“Have you ever had the feeling that you were uncertain that you were where you sensed yourself to be? That you were in fact under observation in a white hospital?” ~ from King of Marvin Gardens.
The darker, more aggressive mood is set aside briefly for a second Oil track, the incredibly funky ‘Slight of Hand’, later to be the A-side to Oil’s EBV 12″. It’s overlaid with numerous samples from Knights, as well as “I have to say, that’s the most amazing story I’ve ever heard. What amazes me most is that you were taken in by it,” from The Shawshank Redemption. With ‘Swarm’, the transmission version of ‘Absent With Concept’, the show heads back into darker territory again, with more dnb rhythms and a track replete with doom-laden sirens. It fades into an environment of reversed organic sounds and, amazingly, 1994 track ‘Environments – Birds’. This leads into ‘LA4’, a brighter, more mellow track than most of the then-unreleased pieces from the era; this one remains unreleased to this day, never appearing on an Archive album. The live version of ‘My Kingdom’ plays out with the usual structure; on this transmission, water samples are included after the big synth build-up. It fades into the unreleased ‘Kaaawa’ environment which, in turn, leads into the only unknown track from the transmission. A rare example of a FSOL track with lyrics, a (probably) sampled voice sings “you left me here and now” and some less decipherable words (“in this broken house”?) over huge washes of dramatic synth chords; a fast drum machine beat comes in near the end. Animal and human voice samples from ‘Accompaniment for Melodious Expression’ are overlaid. This leads into another very organic sounding environment, later found on ‘We Have Explosive (Part 1)’, including the “It’s tough out there, it’s a goddamn jungle” sample from the 1992 film Hero.
None of the transmission’s environments are remotely similar to the vibe of Dead Cities itself, and suggest that the shows were put together very differently to before. The 1993 and 1994 transmissions felt like blueprints for Lifeforms, an album which was effectively a selection of the best tracks and environments from the radio shows; here, it feels much more like the album was completed and then the band began developing the broadcasts. Perhaps unsurprising, then, that the atmosphere of the shows is closer to that of the more desolate sound of the ‘We Have Explosive’ single, recorded around the same time, than to Dead Cities itself. The appearance of ‘Max’ at this point is almost jarring, the track being the epitome of the bright, beautiful and polished side of the album that’s mostly missing from the live shows.
“Well, how about that? Thank you, we wish you all the best luck in the world!” ~ more King of Marvin Gardens.
‘Mains Interrupt’, another environment later to appear on From the Archives Vol. 2, with layered voices and drones, bookends a very rare appearance of the original version of ‘We Have Explosive’, a track normally absent from the transmissions. The section of ‘Mains Interrupt’ following ‘Explosive’ is overlaid with the “You were right, and that’s why tonight…” closing sample.
Unlike the 3D Headspace Tour, with its ultra-media approach incorporating visuals sent to computers from the studio, the 1996 transmissions were entirely audio-based. Talking to Launch Online, Garry explained the approach: “We think that the visual aspects of music are beginning to deceive people now, it’s been here a few decades. What we’re interested in is the game you can play with ears, the ability to sit in your front room and start using your ears instead of just looking. It’s like radio theatre. If you want to experience our transmissions you don’t come to hear and watch us, we’re not into the visual element. FSOL are about the ears.”
The transmission was released in The Pod Room on 1st February 2010, with the usual cover image given a green and yellow tint.
Tracklist
00:00 Transmission Intro
00:43 We Have Explosive (Part 4)
04:30 Accompaniment for Melodious Expression
08:20 Oil – Psycho Crab
12:40 Slow of Motion
13:26 Antique Toy
18:20 Dark Matter
22:21 Her Face Forms in Summertime
27:17 Yashica
32:29 Oil – Slight of Hand
36:02 Swarm
39:18 Environments – Birds
39:36 LA4
41:33 My Kingdom
46:35 Kaaawa environment
47:16 Unknown
50:22 Max
53:19 Mains Interrupt
54:12 We Have Explosive
59:35 Mains Interrupt
1:02:12 Transmission End
Fractional Difference 