Released on:
Touched
Runtime: 3:08
Touched Music is a label run by Martin Boulton, with all profits going to charity. For the first release, Martin contacted a number of electronic musicians, including big names such as 808 State, Arovane, Kettel and, of course, FSOL, as well as many artists from the underground. Enough came through to add up to a 123 track digital compilation, sold at the time for a mere £6. Happily, hundreds of people bought it, bringing huge sums of money to Macmillan Cancer Research.
FSOL provided two tracks, including ‘Lizzard Crawl‘, itself having gained sentience and developed a plan to appear on every single FSOL-related release known to man. The other, ‘Lakeside’, is the first properly fleshed out FSOL compilation track since 1996 (‘Ocudate‘ being little more than a brief sketch). It opens with the now very familiar sound of water flowing, over which a flute plays. This is FSOL in full ambient mode. EMS sounds swirl around, choir samples come in, field recordings are added, and it all becomes incredibly textural. Flutes reappear again in the second half, while a large number of sounds from the sample library are liberally strewn all over the track. It’s not a bad piece, but does feel more like an extended environment than a fully structured track, the sort of thing that would work brilliantly on an album in the way ‘Ill Flower‘ does, but not as three minutes out of context. It’s a shame it didn’t end up on one of the Environments.
In the hope of remaining sane, I shan’t write out the full tracklist, simply noting:
40. Future Sound of London – Lakeside
41. Future Sound of London – Lizzard Crawl
Fractional Difference 