The Future Sound Of London
From The Archives Volume 5

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What their label says...

Brian Dougans and Garry Cobain began their musical partnership and friendship in Manchester, England, in the mid 1980s whilst the two were studying at Manchester University. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time when they first began working in various local clubs. In 1988, Brian embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid.  

In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, followed by the breakthrough classic ambient dub track Papua New Guinea in 1992, which was also the first release under the Future Sound of London moniker.

Lifeforms followed in 1993. The new work was almost entirely free of percussion and was truly ambient across both discs. It was a top 10 hit in the UK album chart, and is still hailed as one of the greatest ambient electronica albums ever devised.   

In 1996 they released Dead Cities. The new material was a mixture of ambient textures and hard gritty dance music. Promotion for the album culminated in a headline slot at the Essential Festival in Brighton in 1998. Once again utilising ISDN they played the gig from their studio in London.