Radio Active August 1994 Future Sound Of London aim to infiltrate broadcasting and permeate TV and radio, rejecting the traditional roles of studio musicians to fashion themselves into a complete 'broadcast system' with control over every aspect of the audio/visual mix.NIGEL HUMBERSTONE discovers what it's all about. As visionary but reluctant musicians, Future Sound Of London are in the fortunate position (courtesy of Virgin and their publishers, Sony) of being financially supported in the pursuit of their experimental approach to audio/visual manipulation and production. Having caught the public's eye in 1988 with their Stakker Humanoid project, they continued to infiltrate the dance music scene, surfacing in 1992 with the acclaimed crossover-underground hit 'Papua New Guinea'. Submerging once again, they worked under a proliferation of aliases, including SemiReal, Mental Cube, Smart Systems, AST, Indo Tribe, Candese and Yage. But the success of 'Papua New Guinea', which peaked at 22 in the charts, was enough to secure a lucrative deal with Virgin. Thus FSOL's ambitious multi-media plans have slowly been taking shape, with the ultimate aim of operating as an 'audio/visual broadcast system'. In the meantime, under the name Amorphous Androgynous, they released 'Tales of Ephidrina' on their own EBV label in 1993. This was followed by their debut Virgin release, the 30-minute, six-part single 'Cascade'. 'Lifeforms' (the single), featuring the voice of Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, was set for release early this year but subsequently withdrawn due to contractual litigation. Lifeforms (the album) was released in May. Partners Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans initially met in Manchester in 1986, where they both studied Electronics. Despite a brief hiatus around the time of the Stakker 'Humanoid' single, the pair have since worked together continuously, and have forged an effective, though unlikely, musical alliance. Cobain's effervescent and visionary enthusiasm often sees him going full circle with his arguments. But he is the charismatic mouthpiece to the band, throwing countless ideas around whilst Dougans, more restrained and reticent, will studiously piece the input together and manipulate it in order to create the final product. For this interview at their north-west London Earthbeat studio, Dougans adopts a standing position behind the mixing desk, leaving all the talking to Cobain, only to occasionally be drawn into conversation. LINK THEORY Having listened to FSOL's new Lifeforms album, I felt its dominant feel was one of fluidity; how did they achieve this effect? Cobain: "I guess the radio shows have been quite instrumental in building up that sort of flow of consciousness feel. [Throughout the last year FSOL have put together a number of broadcasts for Kiss FM]. Because with that we tend to bury things in huge reverbs and overlay tracks on the top. We do a lot of dubs between the ADATs and Macintosh (running ProTools), get it synced up to Creator, and we'll have maybe a sequence coming in at the end of the track which then flows with some overlaid samples into another section. So we keep bouncing it back between those formats until we've got it to sound fluid." The album was recorded in a linear fashion rather than being edited and compiled at a later date? Dougans: "Yes -- linear, but flexible." Cobain: "It's an overall aesthetic that we've been working towards, and links and morphing are an extension of that. With this whole idea of non-linear music I think people's minds are tuned to the abstract like they've never been before. We've spent a lot of time writing links and what we've come up with as part of this 'link theory' is the idea that a track should only be in for as long as it's working, which means that you have to retain a critical awareness of what you're doing. Our whole mentality is getting away from singles, and that's not such a good thing, because the best way to sell albums, traditionally, is to have singles." Do you feel pressured in any way by your record label? Cobain: "No -- the whole idea in signing to a major was that we had big ideas and we felt that we could educate them as much as they could help us. Our whole idea is to become a broadcast system, and by that we mean putting together audio/visual projects for cable TV and radio." These future plans that Cobain is hinting at will include the use of the developing technology of digital transmission, namely ISDN, to broadcast live from their studio. May 14th saw their first 'live' Radio 1 broadcast (as part of Pete Tong's Essential Selection show). Following that, FSOL are planning a promotional 'radio tour' via ISDN to radio stations up and down the country. Cobain: "Basically the idea is to break away from the hypocrisy of the way that electronic music is being forced on the road by a load of rock journalists. I've nothing against electronic music going on the road at all, but I don't think it's the best forum for hearing that kind of music." The potential for digital broadcasting and ISDN is enormous -- consider the possibility of an almost instantaneous release, with an act like FSOL composing a track in their studio during the day and broadcasting it live that evening. No mastering, production, artwork or distribution -- just pure, instant access. But of course the next logical step, and one that FSOL are working towards, is the combined transmission of sounds and picture -- an audio/visual broadcast. As a step towards achieving this, FSOL plan to release a seven-minute pilot film with the Lifeforms album. "It will be like a showcase for a film that we've been trying to get off the ground for years," explains Cobain. "But there's been incredible red tape because the music industry is a music industry not an audio/visual one, so we've had to do different deals on the side with people like Sony, our publishers. "Our aim with the next album is to have a major cinematic release; a really high-end technical film with an amazing soundtrack. We're getting into broadcasting and we're permeating TV -- so basically we're taking control over everything." FSOL are essentially interested in creating visuals that are as strong as their music, but getting access to top- end visual equipment has not been easy -- highlighting the disparities that still exist between the audio and audio/visual worlds. Cobain: "Just look at how samplers have come down through the years to their current level. We're desperately trying to get access to what history isn't allowing us -- the top- end computer visual side. In the music world the hierarchy has broken down between producers and engineers -- it's all gone. Now nobody blinks an eyelid if somebody says 'I write, produce and engineer' -- so what, everybody does! However, in the film and video industry it hasn't happened, and our idea is that when that does happen, then musicians will start interpreting their own music visually, and become as adept working with these systems as they are working with music systems. "We have a philosophy about sound and vision that a lot of people with a lot more expertise in the video industry just don't have, and musicians are capable of it -- there's no video maker who can make a video better than the one that I've got in my head." DE-LEARNING Around the time of 'Papua New Guinea', the influences of dance music were evident in FSOL's music. But this style has now largely been shunned by the pair -- a process which they frequently refer to as 'de-learning'. Cobain: "What I mean when I refer to 'de-learning' was that we were just electronic musicians when we first met and we didn't have a particular focal point. Then dance music happened so we switched off and focused on that, like a lot of people did. It was a very 'homely' area to be in at the time -- it felt very safe and made you feel like you belonged somewhere. "But dance music has ceased to be productive, and it's no longer productive for us at all. So we've been trying to de-learn that process from 1988 onwards -- in order to get back to what we were like before, where we were really scared of what we were doing because we didn't know what it was, there was no 'home' for it. "Every time you hit the keyboard it's like 'I've heard that before'. It's trying to come up with something that is not only coherent but a new form of coherence, something that we haven't done or heard before. And that's really difficult without getting self-indulgent. It's a thin line, because I don't want to spill over into the 'avant-garde' quagmire, which would be an easy step for us to take right now -- like an album of complete sound, not a track in sight: a complete three-dimensional headspace. Maybe we'll do it anyway!" Do you find normal instrumentation restrictive? Cobain: "I don't find it restrictive; I just find my ability sorely lacking. Every time I go to a preset keyboard and expander I just write complete cheesy crap, and it's only when we get into the samplers that we're able to do something that sounds good." Have you got into building your own instruments like the Aphex Twin? Cobain: "Well we both come from an electronics background.