Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Cascade
2. Ill Flower
3. Flak
4. Bird Wings
5. Dead Skin Cells
6. Lifeforms
7. Eggshell
8. Among Myselves

Disc 2:

1. Domain
2. Spineless Jelly
3. Interstat
4. Vertical Pig
5. Cerebral
6. Life Form Ends
7. Vit
8. Omnipresence
9. Room 208
10. Elaborate Burn
11. Little Brother

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5019 in Music
• Released on: 1994-05-23
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Dead Skin Cells", "Cerebral", "Spineless Jelly": the song titles on the second full-length from U.K. duo Future Sound of London (a.k.a. Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans) almost read like chapter subheadings from a Biology textbook. And not without reason. Evolving beyond the florid environmental techno of their previous Accelerator and the hit single "Papua New Guinea", Lifeforms concentrates on Future Sound of London's painstaking construction of tiny, crystalline arrangements of organic sound. Guest stars include Curve's Toni Halliday, percussionist Talvin Singh and guitar pioneer Robert Fripp, but you'll be as hard pressed to identify their individual contributions once they've been diced and folded into the mix. Too animated to be tagged "ambient", yet not as propulsive as earlier Future Sound of London offerings, the intricate charms of Lifeforms proliferate with repeated listenings. --Kurt B. Reighley

Customer Reviews

Groundbreaking stuff
This is like nothing else I've heard, even from FSOL. I must admit I wondered what on earth I'd bought when I first heard it, but once I'd got to the end I got it. Swirls of ambient noise give way to some of the most beautiful electronic melodies you can imagine.

It's got loads in common with classical music, you have refrains that pop in and out at various points throughout the album, in fact they even sample Pachabel's 'Canon in D' in 'Domain'. This isn't a pop record. You can't just stick it on whilst you wander round the house and expect to like it. You have to actually sit down and listen to it as a whole to appreciate just how amazing it is.

Highly recommended, but the recommendation comes with a warning to expect the unexpected!

An electronica classic
It's pretty much all been said here about this wonderful album. Disc 1 alone would be enough, but to add a more chilled second disc to compliment the first is just too good. Unforgetable melodies, fabulous soundscapes and an awesome vibe.

You need this album to chill to, drive to, read to, work to... You get the idea...

A staggering electronic masterpiece.

Electronica's 'White Album'
A sprawling double-helping of the finest that synthesisers and samples can offer. Like listening to the life on the ocean floor, or perhaps in the densest rainforest; this album is to take in at a long sitting. The melodies are there, the beats are huge; but by making them analog, organic, the sounds haven't dated one bit. This album could have been released anytime between 1976 and 2006, and we'd all still agree it's 'of its time'. In fact, the 'life' in the recording is the most interesting thing here. It's sound is a musical parallel to a wildlife documentary!

At once dark and uplifting, I remember one review from 1994 which described this album as 'having its own DNA'. I agree entirely; this is synthesised, organic, analog life, and it wraps around your speakers with its green, evolving branches. Let it develop!