31st August 2021. Martin Boulton casually mentions a Mind Maps 2 CD coming on Touched before the end of the year. Given the current release rate, fans are relatively unsurprised. The general belief was that it was going to be the mix played to promote the release of the first Mind Maps CD. This was denied pretty early on by both Martin and Brian, although the truth is somewhere closer to the speculation, as around two thirds of the mix comes from that earlier one, albeit chopped up and sometimes played in different orders, with a handful of new pieces thrown in for good measure. Once again, I shall approach it as a transmission rather than an album.
The mix pulls no punches in starting, cutting pretty much straight into a remix of JT and The Bee’s ‘Angel Moss’. The childlike, playful collaboration between John Tejada and Plaid collaborator Benet Walsh is, even in its Yage remix format, so utterly un-FSOL in sound that it provides a real wtf moment right at the start of the mix. There’s then the usual answerphone message before heading straight into another unreleased remix of a Touched artist, exm. Touched, although in some ways a diverse label, does have a particular focus on shiny, melodic sounding IDM, with sounds reminiscent of the late ’90s and early ’00s, and this track is no exception: once again, it’s incredibly un-FSOL-like in its overall aesthetic and melodic sensibilities. After an answerphone message from Rob Manley, there’s an unreleased Humanoid track, sounding like a halfway house between the dark IDM of KAAGE and the acid sound of 7 Songs, with vocal samples over the top.
Following this is the first chunk of the earlier preview mix, covering roughly the first 13 minutes, with an alternate version of ‘In Solitude We Are Least Alone’, the Alina Kalancea / Yage collaboration, an ambient synth environment and ‘Mokguxtlk’. The third unreleased Touched Music remix follows, Yage reworking Heogen’s ‘Shall We Go There’, another glossy melodic IDM piece which is a world away from the usual FSOL sound. Then it’s back to the earlier mix, with the Willem de Ridder sample and ‘Long Green Field’. The next new track is an alternate take of previous Touched track ‘Sol A r Skies‘, a denser version with layers of quiet overdriven synth or guitar in the background. “His intention, wanted to make beautiful objects…”, originally heard on The Electric Brain Storms 12, leads into an unreleased track, with manic chopped up breaks continually alternating with an atmospheric synth pad. Then there’s an answerphone message of someone shouting “oi oi oi, you, Scottish bloke, Scotty,” undoubtedly from somebody desperate to get in touch with Brian.
Another chunk of the earlier mix follows, with the unreleased SickOnes remix, an ambient piece for guitar and chanting, and the Cluster-esque track. This then cuts to a track from later in the mix that I’ve described as sounding a little like Boards of Canada meets Chiastic Slide-era Autechre. A synth and answerphone environment, the Apertures track ‘Missing Skies’ and the opening section of the ‘Max’-sampling piece are also flown in from that mix, and then it skips forwards to the earlier mix’s closing section, with a snaky flute loop, some beats, a synth environment, and more answerphone messages to end.
As with the first volume, the CD-only release went on sale directly after the Mixlr show, with the 500 copies selling through in around 24 hours. The CD art matches that of the first volume, with more satellite imagery given digital colouring, and no tracklist or any real mention of the content. The featured artists list is longer, although both ‘sT8818r’ and ‘BDog’ were added by Grid Pattern rather than the band. “Another journey through uncharted soundscapes with The Future Sound of London, Humanoid, Yage, Synthi A, Apertures, sT8818r and BDog.” Five symbols along with the Touched logo appear on the back. A reissue of the CD is expected to be released alongside Mind Maps 3 in 2022.
Mind Maps 2 is probably my favourite of the various Touched-related mixes released to date, with an excellent array of different sounds and textures that create a fairly consistent tone throughout. The three remixes for Touched Music artists near the start aren’t my cup of tea at all, not being a particular fan of that particular kind of IDM sound, but otherwise I think every piece here is excellent and although it doesn’t quite work in the way a traditional album does, it’s the closest the mixes have come to creating a sound like the classic ISDN transmissions.
Tracklist
00:00 JT and The Bee – Angel Mossv3 (Yage Remix)
03:50 exm – Depth Light (Yage Remix)
07:45 Humanoid – Unknown
11:14 The Future Sound of London – In Solitude We Are Least Alone (Alt Version)
14:25 Alina Kalancea / Yage – Unknown
19:03 Unknown
20:33 Forest Trails / The Future Sound of London – Mokguxtlk
24:07 Heogen – Shall We Go There (Yage Remix)
31:08 FSOL + Dan Pemberton – Long Green Field
33:26 FSOL – Sol A r Skies (Alt Version)
37:38 Unknown
40:47 SickOnes – Unknown (Yage Remix)
41:48 Unknown
43:10 Unknown
46:34 Unknown environment
47:02 Unknown
49:44 Apertures – Missing Skies
51:47 Unknown
53:00 Unknown
54:40 Unknown
57:07 End
Fractional Difference 