This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“To float in inner space / It’s the most extraordinary place.” So say U.K. electronica duo The Future Sound of London on their mind-bending new disc — and after listening to it, I’m inclined to agree.
The Isness, the first album in six years from Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans, is a chemically induced headphone trip to the centre of your mind. Or at least theirs. It turns out to be a place where ’60s psychedelia and ’70s blaxploitation co-exist in harmony with ’90s electronica and ambient; where hooty Beatles Mellotrons intertwine with sizzling rock guitars and buzzy sitars dance with whistling flutes; where lapping waves give way to computer-game bleep-bloops; where lazy acid-drenched grooves stretch out in a meadow in the afternoon sun and watch puffy little clouds of melody change shape as they slowly drift across the horizon; and a place where the melody from Still the One I Want can be transformed into a swirling, sweeping ode to Mother Nature. Extraordinary ain’t the half of it, mate.
