The Future Sound Of London – Archived : Environmental : Views

It's odd to think that, before the release of Environments 4 in 2012, there had only actually been a handful of properly new FSOL tracks released in the previous 15 years, and most of those hidden away on albums described as "great lost albums from the '90s". Five years later, this triple album comes along, including a second disc which is effectively part of the Environment Six trilogy - along with Six and 6.5, it's one of three albums that was recorded during the same sessions. (Incredibly, since then, outtakes from these sessions still appear from time to time on the band's Calendar albums.)

Once again, Brian Dougans - who is in charge of finalising FSOL albums and, judging by the style of this record, doing most of the music - shows off his skills at curation as well as production. While clearly stylistically similar, the Environmental disc here is tonally as different from those other two parts of the trilogy as they are from each other. Here, the mood is stark, vague, cold. Mist lightly rolling over moorland towards a chilly winter seashore. There's heavy use of texture throughout, with the trilogy's familiar mix of synths and IDM beats regularly combined with crackling, crumbling timbres, muffled field recordings, saturation and murk. The music is mostly quite minimal, generally a series of repetitive miniatures, but the dense textural layers add interest to anyone listening closer. It's yet another approach for a band whose music rarely repeats itself.

The CD version includes the whole of Environmental and rounds it out with a few complementary pieces from the other two albums, and two bonus tracks. Personally, I wouldn't have included the bonus tracks but would have filled out the disc with some of the previously unheard 'Views' tracks from the third LP, as these are almost all stunning. At one point in 2009, it felt like the 'new FSOL album' that we believed was coming would actually be a modern classical album laden with strings and pianos. This never happened, but Views compiles tracks in that style from previous releases with a bulk of new compositions. Award winner soundtrack composer Dan Pemberton is a significant player here, with his piano lines playing alongside more beautiful textural aspects. With little in the way of samples or beats, it's a very atypical FSOL record, and in some ways feels like a coda to the early '10s era's more melancholic side of the band. It's also incredibly beautiful.

The first disc is Archived, which combines a number of tracks previously released on the From the Archives albums with a selection of unheard tracks in the range. It's easily the patchiest of the three, especially with some of the new pieces clearly being much newer than the '90s works elsewhere on the disc. For those who didn't bother with the earlier Archive albums and find the series generally unappealing, however, a number of the best tracks from those albums are present here, meaning it's a decent way for more casual fans to have a few of those tracks.

Archived : Environmental : Views continues the band's creative renaissance in style.

i have to disagree with 'reTcon.' i don't think this release flows very well. i much prefer some of the 'environments' and 'from the archives' releases in of flow. also, i feel like there is a stronger d'n'b influence on FSOL over the last years and it is super annoying to me. some of the tracks on this release have that influence, but of course there are many that don't. they'll have a typical, fantastic 90's FSOL sound in a couple of tracks, then a d'n'b influenced track pops up and is startling. it's easy to make your own playlist out of this, but it's about $30 for the full digital , so it's expensive i think for digital files.

Realy great album, like Liforms even better!!! Especially third LP - amazing!!!

Loved this LP, i feel cheated that it was an RSD release, but later its sold on their website with full codes cheaper. I would love a digital copy of this 3 LP set.

Skip all the patchy archive and environments releases most of which are hard to listen through; THIS compilation, stretched out on three vinyls is the one you need ( It's a pity the CD only contains the second record and a few tracks from the other two, but if you like, you can purchase the version, which contains all of the tracks) . All elements fit together perfectly here, finally FSOL have made the right choices when going through their archives. This time they have managed to create an album on which all tracks flow seamlessly into one another to create an even flow - the closest the "band" have come to creating something like an album in the past years. This said, there are two other releases that come close to this though; they are: Environments 1 and the utterly brilliant Environments 4 (update: and From The Archives 9) which have become some of my favourite ambient albums!

If you're a fan of Lifeforms, I'd recommend this album.
Love it! :-D

I have copy 1194, each disc is flawless and sounds great. The black matted cover attracts fingerprints very easily.

Actually I received my new order from Deejay.de and everything's ok. All LPs play good, no warping, sound clear. Looks like I had a bad stock issue from first order.

Sorry. I need to correct my comment. Actually apart from the fact that all 3 are warped , unfortunately the second one " Environmental" both sides is affected the most. The needle jumps on it like crazy. Warped close to the record edge. Need to flatten them somehow. So, yes it looks like all of them are affected.

Why don't FSOL provide codes with their records? That's actually very annoying...