The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans.

They have been described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act,[1] covering techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.

[2] While keeping an enigmatic image and releasing music under many aliases, the band found commercial success with singles "Papua New Guinea" (1991) and "Cascade" (1993), and albums Lifeforms (1994), ISDN (1995) and Dead Cities (1996).

In the following years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a number of singles and EPs, including "Q" and "Metropolis", later featured on the 1992 compilation Earthbeat.

The song was based upon a sample from "Dawn of the Iconoclast" by Dead Can Dance and a bassline from "Radio Babylon" by Meat Beat Manifesto.

[7] That year, the Future Sound of London released a limited-edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York, and several appearances on BBC Sessions hosted by John Peel.

In 1996, the band released Dead Cities which expanded upon these early demos, in a mix of ambient textures and dance music.

[citation needed] These sessions were the basis of the band's later psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the subsequent album series From The Archives.

In an interview, Cobain revealed that he had been undertaking spiritual experimentation and had dealt with a bout of mercury poisoning, with over one hundred times the amount deemed to be safe.

It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions.

They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices.

[20] The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar;[21] they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.

[22] Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006.

The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences.

[27] The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room[17] and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD.

[28] The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller[29] and Pop Levi,[30] and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear[31] on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label[32] On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album would be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and was set for release in 2012.

[33] In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he was considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes.

However, as the project was shelved in November 2012,[35] the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel.

On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".

[39] Similarly, Environment 7 is planned as a trilogy, the first volume released for Record Store Day 2022 under the name Rituals.

[46] Alongside books, the band have further explored multimedia, including a series of digital artwork releases as NFTs on Foundation[47] and a pair of synthesisers created in collaboration with Digitana, the SX-1 and the HALia,[48] the former being manufactured as of July 2018,[49] the latter still in pre-production.

[57][58][59][60][61] Meanwhile, Cobain, in collaboration with Dougans and new co-producer Enrico Berto,[62] began work on new Amorphous Androgynous material, with a double album of versions and remixes of the track "We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal" appearing in 2020.

[63] Alongside contributors such as Paul Weller, Ray Fenwick and Brian Hopper, the release features lead vocals by Peter Hammill, who is also credited on the album cover.

[9] Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.