If it’s odd – albeit in a typically FSOL way – that the second show of December 2001 was released as the first part of the second Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble show (and the first as the second part), then even stranger is that the version released through The Pod Room was not the same as the broadcast. Both begin with the now familiar pairing of Jeff Buckley and Dead Can Dance, but other than a couple of other tracks, they diverge wildly at this point. In fact, the Pod Room version is bizarrely more similar to the Annie Nightingale show it came packaged with than the actual broadcast version, with a fair amount of overlap. I sometimes wonder if they do this stuff just to keep fans on their toes.
Radio 1’s One World show announced that The Future Sound of London would be providing material for broadcast right at the start of 2001, before any new material had been released at all, and fan expectation was that it would be an ISDN transmission. Of course, by December, it was clear that it would end up just being another psychedelic DJ mix, and many fans had even given up on the show happening by the time it was announced.
After a weird bit of early electronic music, the Pod Room version introduces one of its very few new pieces, ‘Dove’ by the British psych-funk outfit Cymande, a track that appears on both versions of the show, followed by the flower power-meets-easy listening of Bobby Callender’s ‘Rainbow’, a very Gaz choice. A run of now familiar tracks follows, and then it’s time for some Morricone soundtrack funk and a rare appearance by the band’s friends Simian. Other than an unidentified bit of folky psychedelia, the rest of the mix is all material previously heard at this point.
The bootleg version begins with a Gary Lucas sample, “hitching a ride on the cosmic freeway with The Future Sound of London.” After the Buckley/Dead Can Dance section – overlaid with “what is love?” spoken samples – things remain in familiar territory for a while, with Miles Davis, the full version of ‘The Lovers’ – bizarrely, the only Dougans/Cobain production to appear on any 2001-2003 psychedelic mix – James Last and numerous others, mixed together with synth squelches, “hey, what’s happening man?” samples, ocean sounds, other odd noises, and even a voice stating “The Future Sound of London on One World,” a sting created especially for the show. The “More noise please” monologue introduces Mahavishnu Orchestra’s ‘You Know You Know’, its first appearance in one of the band’s radio mixes, similarly for Led Zeppelin’s ‘Friends’ afterwards. Gabriele Ducros, Bo Hansson and The Monkees close out the show with previously unplayed material.
On the whole, it’s a shame that a different mix ended up in The Pod Room, as the radio version is probably the superior, with a number of unique tracks, more use of environments and samples, and less repetition with the Annie Nightingale mix it came packaged with. As ever, with mixes of this period, it’s FSOL in name only, and in hindsight forms part of the wider Amorphous Androgynous story.
Combined with the Annie Nightingale show, this two-part instalment of the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble series is probably the best starting point for all the 2001 mixes, being better quality than the live recordings, and musically more comprehensive than the Mello Hippo Disco Radio Show mixes. As with all of the mixes added to The Pod Room in November 2008, the show has been unavailable for purchase for many years; unusually, it has yet to turn up on the Monstrous Bubble Mixcloud page.
Tracklists
Pod Room Version
00:00 Jeff Buckley – Tongue
03:06 Dead Can Dance – The Host of Seraphim
09:42 Unknown
11:15 Cymande – Dove
17:32 Bobby Callender – Rainbow
19:37 The Busy Signals – Whale Watch
21:10 Sohail Rana – Soul Sitar
22:44 Noonday Underground – London
25:09 Ennio Morricone – Nadine
26:27 Simian – The Wisp
29:58 Harvey Mandel – The Lark
32:32 Unknown
34:43 Miles Davis – Dark Magus (Tatu)
39:10 Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations
41:17 The Mystic Moods – Cosmic Sea
43:46 Jefferson Airplane – Today
46:50 Color Climax – Power-Pac
48:46 Si Begg – The Sound of Freakin’ the Frame
52:06 Stomu Yamash’ta’s East Wind – Wind Words
54:17 Mecki Mark Men – Opening
56:15 James Last – Here Comes the Sun
59:59 End
Broadcast version
00:00 Jeff Buckley – Tongue
01:23 Dead Can Dance – The Host of Seraphim
06:03 Miles Davis – Dark Magus (Tatu)
12:00 The Future Sound of London – The Lovers
17:15 Cymande – Dove
22:44 James Last – Here Comes the Sun
25:00 Portishead – All Mine (Instrumental)
28:23 Dick Hyman – The Minotaur
31:16 Steven Jesse Bernstein – More Noise Please
31:52 Mahavishnu Orchestra – You Know, You Know
37:05 Led Zeppelin – Friends
39:45 Roy Wood – You Sure Got it Now
40:09 Gabriele Ducros – Sigla R.P.
41:33 Dr. Timothy Leary – Genetic Memory
42:16 Bo Hansson – De Svarta Ryttarna / Flykten Till Vadstället
47:38 The Monkees – Porpoise Song
50:45 End
Fractional Difference 