Gaz Cobain- tactile instruments/vocals/has a bash at expression of all kinds/ technology of the gods/the gizmo
Brian Dougans- Master of the Gizmo/Compassionate Technology Inc
Dave Sanderson- owl vocalising and conga rhythms of the ancients
Gary Lucas-His Guitarness
Stu Rowe- Parasite guitar and the lost chord
Baluji Shrivastav- sitar, tabla and the Om
Mikey Rowe- Analogue Overlord of the Vintage Key and Hammond splendour dimension
Virgil Howe- Drum Circle of One Dianne Harris- Woman with burning vision
Influences
Flying on a wing and a prayer in the eternally present- cosmic consciousness and sweet bloody mindedness- preposterousnessnessness! Wholefoods-healing-naturopathically speaking of course!! Psychedelic- COSMIC- freaky love grooves- DONOVAN- Rotary Connection, Crosby Kills Hash and Fun, Mahahvishnu Orchestra ,Miles Davis,George Harrison,Osho,David Icke,the Zep and the Floyd, free radicals, expressionist truth seekers,Lao Tzu,ALan Watts,Vipassanah,COffee Enemas ! the Rebel Yell- the Voyagers, Technology of the GOds and God Concepts , the Ancients, Atlantis,Pin Hole Photography, the Om, Colloidal Silver and Charcoal, the Plaeides, Yoga - UNION- AH!!! INDI-AAAAAAH!! the sitar and the eternal drone -Ravi and ANANDA
Krishna,Buddha,Socrates,Krishnamurti, Thank you THANK YOU- spiritual warriors-SOUL-diers !! cosmic space music of every kind-Opulence ,Love celebration- ostentation- free expression-mind expansion- any time anywhere- !!!! Tantra and the TaO- sex is the egg from which the bird of love will finally flyQuantum Theory- splitting the atom and finding a big fat OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM !
Sounds Like
a MONstrous Psychedelic Bubble exploding in your MIND !
Man is not a creature hanging onto nothing-
but someone destined to join leaf, tree and
wind by the thread of love
to the serious arbiters of taste,gaiety,fantasy and foolishness are seen as frivolous and suspect.So the highbrows turn gratefully instead to works of boredom and despair and proclaim such solemnities to be masterpieces '
-James Broughton
It is a far , far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought '
-J.K Galbraith
AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS is the psychedelic band created by The Future Sound of London, A SAMPLERDELIC FUNKOID ROKTRONIC cosmic ambient oozescape merging the sonic with the lyric -the beat with the beat-less -the classic rock with the epic freeform roll -the mantra with the tantra -to convert the how? into the Tao -To merge the possibilities of technology with the plausibility of NO-OLOGY -to combine a love for the forgotten treasures of old
with the unfolding mysteries of the new-to combine the electromagnetic machines with psychedelic dreams, cosmic consciousness with sweet bloody mindedness- the lizards with the wizards and the infant with the Sage and to come out the other side smelling vaguely of roses or maybe sandalwood or even EUCALYPTUS!!
MAY ALL BE LOVED MAY ALL BE FED MAY ALL BE HEALED
Sometime during the 5 year recording /production and writing process of their 6th album THE ISNESS , The Future Sound of London (Brian Dougans, Garry Cobain ) began to realise that this latest paradigm had accidentally formed a 'virtual' band and they were no longer who they thought they were-whether partially , completely or maybe even momentarily . Further to that it was no longer strictly true to call it FSOL. After the naturally arising initial confusion caused by such free wheelin' artistic abandon had cleared for long enough to catch a glimpse of the multi splendoured cosmic potential that lay ahead it was decided to create a new/old band and for that 'band' to take the name The Amorphous Androgynous
.It included in its tender folds a varied and motley bunch of friends and musicians who had contributed throughout the extensive recording process 1997-2002 in which the album was conceived and recorded- It was 'virtual' because the musicians never actually performed in a room together. They each came in turn and laid down tracks and performed to an evolving musical oozescape that became increasingly far fetched and adventurous in the minds and wizardly hands of Dougans and Cobain as the time spun by from 1997 to 2002 .
By the time of its release in late 2002 THE ISNESS revealed itself to be a 'cosmic psychedelic soup of influence' like a 'modern progtronic-rock opera' for the 21st century- it wasn't far off in terms of scope, adventure and imagination to the Beatles' Seargent Pepper's which had been first heard in that pivotal year of 1967- coincidentally the year Cobain was born. Interestingly this the most adventurous of the BEATLES" work erupted from the frustration , restriction and mundanity of 'gigging' and its vast sonic scope was never attempted live because it was deemed too daunting a task. So it remained one of the most startling 'studio' creations of musical history. Similarly the Isness completed at FSOL's studio the 'GALAXIAL PHARMACEUTICAL' mid 2002 was born also out of frustration and restriction but this time the frustration came from the limitations of being perceived as one of the world's premier electronic ambient acts of the last decade. The Isness like its famous forefather or foremother(!) remains one of the most ambitious albums of the last three seconds at least in this universal cul de sac we call earth and likewise it too seemed destined to remain as a studio creation only
' this other worldly masterpiece is so far out you need a telescope to see it - an album
of infinite possibility' 8/10 NME .......' it's sound is like a beam of white light from heaven ' 6/5 MUZIK
' a modern psychedelic classic' MOJO
The 'virtual' band which FSOL had unwittingly assembled 'the AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS' during these extensive recordings comprised many staple key players:
Gary Lucas -guitar maestro, continuing his own musical odyssey from the time spent in Captain Beefheart in the late 70s through to penning some of the most astonishing and intricately harrowing Jeff Buckley songs such as 'Grace' and 'Mojo Pin " through the years of solo touring and extensive recorded work ranging from chinese pop to film scores.
Baluji Shrivastav - sitar guru and revered classical Indian musician
Mikey Rowe - keyboard wizard in the vintage dimension who popped in for 'tea ' whenever back in England fresh from his extensive touring as keyboardist in the SHERYL CROWE band and prior to that as OASIS' touring keyboardist baecame a pinion in the amorphous armoury of sound exploration.
Augmented in 2005 with the owl like arrival of Dave Sanderson specialising in vocal aeronautical engineering and putting a hand(and a leg) in whatever else happens to be going down at any given time plus the fortuitous meeting with the magnificent Virgil Howe ( yes son of the legend Steve Howe from Yes) laying down the new magnificent beat and all derivatives thereof plus the lost chord and some others being added to the soup by multi-instrumentalist Stu Rowe and suddenly the Amorphous were getting ready to fly in potential or probable would-be parallel universes or multiverses!!
it gradually dawned on the FSOL mutant morph-lovechild that it would be an interesting experiment to bring this 'virtual' band 'the AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS' together for the first time and jam together to complete the cycle - the virtual now becoming manifest- ! The band who had never played together but who had been fused, spliced,sampled and processed in the masterly FSOL gizmo so as to form the impression of the wildest effortless jam , the ultimate seamless technicolour dream now reconvening to interpret that fusion-
WOW! What a TRIP that IS/WAS !!! THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON had never seen fit to conventionally tour their studio creations prior to this, prefering in 1996 at the time of their prophetic urban doomscape DEAD CITIES to play from their studio EARTHBEAT down ISDN digital phonelinks to radio stations across the world. This began to extend to carefully selected venues with digital video links by mid 1997 by which time after a breakdown of sorts and a period of illness which led to extensive travel, healing, fasting, yoga and meditation COBAIN, along with partner DOUGANS laid the first seeds of what evolved into the weird and wonderfully enlightened/unenlightened world of the AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS and THE ISNESS
Along with some of the earlier mentioned players The AMORPHOUS supergroup
includes COBAIN himself who sings, struts and orchestrates the organised pandemonic chaos from an enigmatic electro pod looking for all the world like a long lost son of George Harrison as he punctuates the heady odyssey of rocktronica / cosmic funk / backwards psychedelic stomp through to beautiful ambient folktronic flute and sitar ragas with the odd song or two of love and divinity and mello hippos, all the while beats and samples spew
and collide like the Spector Wall of Sound has undergone sudden cross fertilisation with the hippy mutant child of FSOL conceived on a rickshaw ride with the MAHARISHI looking on cackling wildly while in the background a giant kaleidoscopic exploding light fantastic video show hints at the meaning underpinning the universe- suns setting as planets collide and explode in shards of white light and bearded robed hippies dance in hypnotised mantra to the exotic beat.
Meanwhile in London the more taciturn but 'all-knowing' DOUGANS busies himself steering the FSOL mothership through this 'white knuckle ride' occasionally casting an eye at a videofeed of the concert proceedings, he smiles as he muses on the bizarre twists and turns of this recording odyssey which has spanned over a decade and brings him now to fatherhood of a new dimension ! Don't expect to hear Papua New Guinea or any rave anthems though missus !! This band are AMORPHOUS and ANDROGYNOUS - they've
shapeshifted and only seem transfixed to the eternal NOW!!! - this AMORPHOUS entity is nothing less than GRIPPING - catch this BAND if you can - they're in another dimension !!!! THE 4TH TO BE SPECIFIC ! 2012 light years from home !!
Brian Dougans- Master of the Gizmo/Compassionate Technology Inc
Dave Sanderson- owl vocalising and conga rhythms of the ancients
Gary Lucas-His Guitarness
here's a short film of the album. . .
It is a far , far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought '
-J.K Galbraith
AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS is the psychedelic band created by The Future Sound of London, A SAMPLERDELIC FUNKOID ROKTRONIC cosmic ambient oozescape merging the sonic with the lyric -the beat with the beat-less -the classic rock with the epic freeform roll -the mantra with the tantra -to convert the how? into the Tao -To merge the possibilities of technology with the plausibility of NO-OLOGY -to combine a love for the forgotten treasures of old
with the unfolding mysteries of the new-to combine the electromagnetic machines with psychedelic dreams, cosmic consciousness with sweet bloody mindedness- the lizards with the wizards and the infant with the Sage and to come out the other side smelling vaguely of roses or maybe sandalwood or even EUCALYPTUS!!
MAY ALL BE LOVED MAY ALL BE FED MAY ALL BE HEALED
The 'virtual' band which FSOL had unwittingly assembled 'the AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS' during these extensive recordings comprised many staple key players:
Gary Lucas -guitar maestro, continuing his own musical odyssey from the time spent in Captain Beefheart in the late 70s through to penning some of the most astonishing and intricately harrowing Jeff Buckley songs such as 'Grace' and 'Mojo Pin " through the years of solo touring and extensive recorded work ranging from chinese pop to film scores.
Mikey Rowe - keyboard wizard in the vintage dimension who popped in for 'tea ' whenever back in England fresh from his extensive touring as keyboardist in the SHERYL CROWE band and prior to that as OASIS' touring keyboardist baecame a pinion in the amorphous armoury of sound exploration.
Augmented in 2005 with the owl like arrival of Dave Sanderson specialising in vocal aeronautical engineering and putting a hand(and a leg) in whatever else happens to be going down at any given time plus the fortuitous meeting with the magnificent Virgil Howe ( yes son of the legend Steve Howe from Yes) laying down the new magnificent beat and all derivatives thereof plus the lost chord and some others being added to the soup by multi-instrumentalist Stu Rowe and suddenly the Amorphous were getting ready to fly in potential or probable would-be parallel universes or multiverses!!
