9th March 2008, and another massive update of FSOLDigital. Among the forthcoming releases listed is The Woodlands of Old by Yage. Quite a surprise, given that the name hadn’t been in use as lead artist for material recorded after 1992. A clip of the title track on FSOL’s MySpace page was enough to convince everyone that this wouldn’t be a continuation of the sound found on Fuzzy Logic, but a new musical project entirely. A list of titles was given by the band’s management in the weeks that followed, with the album eventually being released as part of a surprise update to FSOLDigital in May, which involved a major overhaul in the site’s design. The official description given: “From the deserts of the middle east to the rain forests of Brazil – odd rhythms eerie melodies”.
In many ways, The Woodlands of Old is a typical early FSOLDigital release: probably a bit too long, with a few too many tracks, and gaps between every track. The main difference is the sound, something which was worlds away from anything put out on the site before. Although there are synths used throughout the album, a significant amount of the instrumentation is sampled or performed: layers of percussion, electric and acoustic guitar, bass, violin, sitar, strings, piano and voices. Although that suggests something of an Amorphous vibe, it’s pretty different, with a much darker sound, and a generally looser feel, with tracks ranging from tribal ambient to avant-garde jazz in style. The actual lineup is not listed, although the album is considered to be largely the work of Brian. His neighbour, ex-Propellerheads member Will White, plays drums, and is credited as co-writer on ‘The Yage Letters’; many of the instruments will have been played by Brian, with others no doubt sampled from records and possibly the hours of recordings made for Amorphous albums. The closest thing to it, before this point, is probably The San Monta Tapes by Heads of Agreement, with a similarly dark rural atmosphere and emphasis on acoustic instruments, although the two are still stylistically pretty different. For once, the track titles feel very focused, largely describing odd natural scenarios, often woodland-based. This is at odds with the largely disparate source of titles on older FSOL albums, and helps with the atmosphere of the record, although does make the titles themselves a tad less distinctive.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, with 30 releases in the first 18 months of FSOLDigital, many got overlooked, and this is one of them. It’s not an album you see regularly referenced within the fanbase online, which is a shame as it is tremendous. It’s clear that the band think so too, as it was the first side-project work to get a physical release, coming out on CD four months after the digital version. I’ve seen copies in shops, so it’s definitely out there, but deserves a lot more recognition. The CD art is a continuation of the style of the marvellous front cover, featuring paintings by Brian’s wife, Lysa Bartlett. The images are incredibly atmospheric and heavily textured, a blur of abstract imagery and identifiable figures, the front looking like a tribal painting, the booklet featuring a skeletal figure in front of a bridge, a painting of a bird and a cat, an incredibly eerie image of what looks like a screaming face, a traffic-filled street, and others. Brick-like textures show through some of the images, giving them a worn look. It’s a shame that some of them are slightly pixelated, as this does the wonderful paintings no justice. Oddly, the disc art features and old Yage logo from Fuzzy Logic and some wireframe images, strangely at odds with the raw, tactile images on the rest of the art. The graffiti/splatter logo is on the disc, alongside a very small EBV/exploding head combination.
Release date: 11th May 2008 (digital), 19th September 2008 (CD).
Tracklist
CD (CD TOT 60)
1. The Woodlands of Old
2. An Odd Question from a Forest Bird
3. From Thunder That Shakes
4. The Yage Letters
5. The Hunters Moon
6. Mountain Cloud Descending
7. Procession
8. Crow Hushing the Floating Woods
9. The Mahogany Tree (Shelterd)
10. He Laughed Himself to the Centre
11. Unsettling Sky
12. Humbled Before Your Presence
13. Who Had Such Foolish Care
14. Circle the Corn
15. Centipede
16. Dry Wind Blown
17. Haxaal’s Dream
18. Heavily He Flies
19. The Dark Pines
20. The Sun Lends Warmth and Comfort
21. A Welcome Beneath Night’s Darkness
Credits
All tracks written/engineered/produced by Yage.
‘The Yage Letters’ written by Yage/White.
Will White – drums on ‘The Yage Letters’, ‘Centipede’ and ‘Heavily He Flies’.
Artwork by Lysa Bartlett.
Published by Future Song Publishing.
Fractional Difference 