As the 1990s progressed, Electronic Music continued to evolve dramatically with the newer and more accessible technology from people such as The Future Sound Of London (aka FSOL). After their initial efforts around the Papua New Guinea tune along with their debut album Accelerator (1992), which was deemed a sell-out at the time, they broke significant new ground with their second album Lifeforms (1994) which was a classic in its own way. This enabled the FSOL to shift creatively and artistically in the world of Electronic Music. Two years later in 1996, Dead Cities was released and was considered another milestone in the world of Electronic Music. The album was produced by The Future Sound Of London and was released on 28 October 1996 on Virgin Records, being recorded at Earthbeat Studios in London. The Future Sound Of London is the duo of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. With its iconic artwork and interesting music, this ought to be a very good listen in its own way, so let’s take a listen to this album and we shall hear if it is any good.

1. Herd Killing begins with a ton of a detailed sound montage, and cut up Amen Breakbeats. This sounds interesting, detailed and glorious throughout. A really great tune emerges with muted wah-wah guitar and other fantastic sounds throughout. A really sweet listen, this is definitely interesting and worth your time. A great and combined montage of sound that sounds absolutely wonderful. Very, very cool to listen to. This is extremely and wonderfully detailed musically. A winner in other words. It wraps up with dark textures and other freaky sounds to conclude with. Very different.

2. Dead Cities morphs into a dark and brooding tune, with some commentary at the start about murdering a man who looks like yourself, launching into a great IDM-styled pastiche with breakbeats and other textural ongoing. This is suspenseful, surreal and excellent. A really great tune to hear, this six-minute-long piece is a glorious masterwork of textures and uniquely dark sounds. Rarely has an EDM album sounded so dark, disturbing and confronting throughout. This is also musically accomplished and very interesting to listen to. The FSOL knew how to make intellectually accomplished music that makes for a great listening experience, period. A really rapid-fire and interesting piece of music. The amount of detail throughout the sounds is indeed, impressive. There is a breakdown in the second half, with some interesting and nicely indescribably awesome textures. All in all, a really powerful and awesome listen. This is exactly the sort of music you need to hear when playing zombie-killing video games. It sounds very, very good. A warped and dark tune. Towards the end, the beats stop and layered vocals enter, which are creepy and pitch-shifted. Soon enough, dark textures enter and this disturbing experience rolls on. Whispered vocals at the end are a freaky reminder of the world past the potential upcoming apocalypse, followed by other sounds to conclude as this tune segues into the next track.

3. Her Face Forms In Summertime sounds equally as freaky, with acoustic guitar parts in the background and other odd textures. This is a tripped-out (but not in a pleasant way) and surreal tune that sounds very different. It has elements of future sounds and Jazz mentality, which sounds completely different. If anything, this album is the perfect music for you if you want to hear a bad LSD trip, set to a soundtrack. The breakbeats and Jazz sensibilities on this track are very good, however. The attention to detail on these tunes is also very fantastic. This is exactly what Syd Barrett would have heard in his own LSD trips, given at one point he was tripping every single day. Regardless, this does sound very, very good to listen to. The music and fragments of sounds are very futuristic and wonderful to listen to. A sensationally good tune to listen to, this sounds tripped out and surreal to hear. Snatches of gospel vocals are in the second half, and this tune sounds weird as heck. Some distorted electronics follow, and indeed, this sounds extremely freaky. A seriously messed up listen, but fantastic simultaneously. Vocals occur but in the weirdest way possible. This wraps up and segues into the next track.

4. We Have Explosive launches into a more straightforward tune with beeps and bleeps that sound truly fantastic. This sounds very interesting and nicely layered throughout. A very danceable and catchy tune without lyrics or words, this is a driven and breakbeat-styled piece of music that sounds incredibly cool. A hit single from the album, this is a cool and excellently driven winner of a track. A punchy and interesting tune with layers of sound and instrumentation, this is a solid gold winner of a listening experience. Very powerful and enjoyable from start to finish. An absolute winner of a tune to listen to, this sounds like music from a thousand years into the future, not of 1996. Very invincible and catchy throughout, this is a supremely wonderful and cool tune to listen to. A solid gold and a wonderful tune to hear. The mixture of IDM, Techno and dark Breakbeats make for an absolutely sensational listening experience from start to finish. A real joy to hear, this has some seriously intelligent and wonderful music breakdowns, and this is a truly powerful, punchy and awesome tune. This breaks down towards the end with a vocal sample and a huge head rush of sound. Absolutely wonderful, and a must hear from this album. Worth it 100%. The outro sounds weird.

5. Everyone In The World Is Doing Something Without Me is a weird track with distorted voices and really odd textures. Some looped vocals stating the track title are here, as are a bunch of bad LSD trip-styled sounds and textures. This sounds weird, yet amazing in its very own way. Some opera vocals are present as well, and this gives this track a Classical Music edge. Although this is brilliant, it isn’t easy music listening. In any case, this music is a winner in its own way. Creepy, dark and musically accomplished, the FSOL knew how to make great music, period. The second half of the track is a scary listen and has multiple dark textures with the looped Opera-styled vocals. The vocals fade away, followed by a head rush of sound, leading into the next track. This sounds very scary.

6. My Kingdom sounds surreal from the start, with some interesting and detailed textures. This gradually leads into a piece with chimes, tripped-out sounds and other great textures to hear. Soon enough, cut-up beats enter and this tune gets going nicely. This sounds very interesting and easily could be a piece for a horror movie soundtrack. In any case, this is a great piece of music. The FSOL made some wonderfully intricate and sweet-sounding music on this particular tune. The drum beats in particular sound really awesome, choppy and realistic sounding. Nonetheless, one of the standout points of this album which sounds absolutely amazing. Very, very cool to listen to, through and through. Wind instrumentation is present as well. In the second half are an array of wind instruments, more choppy drumbeats and a pleasantly enjoyable listening experience for EDM fans. This really does sound great. Some opera-styled vocal samples emerge towards the end, and this piece of music sounds really intricate and lively. A great listen from start to finish. Worth it through and through. The sound montage at the end is fantastic.

7. Max begins with some dark piano and is a much shorter piece of music at less than three minutes long. It has some dark and freaky soundscapes that sound nicely melodic. Again, this is continuing the masterful and dedicated hard work that The Future Sound Of London did on this album. The melodies throughout are very different. A good piece of moody melodic work, this music certainly is different. It sounds like a film piece, this particular track, and has some interesting melodies throughout. Some reversed melodies are on this tune, just as this wraps up.

8. Antique Toy is a glorious IDM-styled piece with some awesome cut-up beats and melodies that are fairly repetitive. This is yet another cool tune that sounds absolutely marvellous and enjoyable throughout. This has many cut-up melodies and pieces of percussive sounds that are extremely cool. An intricate piece of music that sounds really quite good, this flows very nicely from start to finish. An awesome piece of music that sounds very out there and leftfield, FSOL really made music from an intellectual place. This sounds extremely well-driven and very decent to listen to. It has a primary groove over where the cut-up beats and melodies exist, in the most descriptive and intelligent way that an instrumental of this sort can be. In any case, this is one of the better listens from this album, a fascinating and interesting piece of music. In the second half are whispered female vocals and splashes of water, with some interesting melodies over the top. This is quite a surreal listen, and certainly dark and suspenseful. This gradually leads on to the next track with some electricity and freaky sounds to blow your mind.

9. Quagmire/In A State Of Permanent Abyss is not a reference to the character from Family Guy, which wasn’t around until 1999. Instead, it is a deep, dark and disturbing listening experience with some interesting sounds throughout. This is a seven-minute-long piece of mastercraft that sounds absolutely wonderful to hear. It has some beats lead in after a bit, alongside some cut-up IDM-styled sounds and other cut-up melodies and structured sounds, including bongos. A really cool tune to listen to, this music is extremely wonderful to listen to. The music and sounds on this tune are very decent and different. It has a large element of Techno here: cold, dark and hard futuristic sounds. The cut-up beats and random sounds are a good mixture of IDM, however. This does sound incredibly wonderful. The music and sounds are very futuristic and otherworldly. In the second half, there is a change of beats and melodic structure that moves and shits dramatically in an excellent way. Warped music and sounds are present here, and this tune is a very interesting listen. It is difficult to describe a lot of this music experience as it sounds so unique in a way. Towards the end are liquid and water sounds, followed by another head rush of musical melodies to hear. This sounds amazing, and it is a great and futuristic listen to hear. Very, very wonderful music, and awesome to hear. The lengthy outro segues into the next tune.

10. Glass begins with a high-end saxophone patch which is very melodic. This album takes a turn for the quirk here. It sounds magical, though. A simple listen with cut-up melodies and beats throughout, this is a different listen from this album, a bit like what Lifeforms (1994) was. A different tune to hear, this is definitely different to hear. Out there, wacky and detailed, this music is very strange to listen to. The main saxophone melody continues for a while, before launching into the next section at hand with some sturdy beats and textures to match. This is a very strange listen, and it sounds warped and surreal throughout. In the second half, it morphs into a simpler and more direct tune with bass and beats to reflect the magical adventure of music at hand. This sounds impressive, even for a lesser track of this album, and points out that this album is a very artistic and consistent listen. An adventurous and interesting tune, it gets darker towards the end, with children shouting in the background over a deep and dark set of musical melodies. This gradually shifts into chaos, before segueing into the next track. A different tune, all right.

11. Yage is seven and a half minutes long. It begins with a mash-up of strings and otherworldly sounds. This is exactly like a DMT trip should be in music terms, sounding completely out of this universe. The sounds and loops on this track are very different to listen to. A wacky and different tune to listen to, this takes the experimental nature of what was on Lifeforms (1994) and takes it to the next level in terms of music listening. Snatches of percussion are in the background, alongside human and animal sounds. This gradually launches into a really timeless and interesting piece of music that sounds superb and sensationally great. There are some memorable sounds from this tune, with some awesome wind instrumentation and Techno/IDM sensibilities that are really cool. A fantastic listen throughout, this music is a wonderfully artistic and driven listen. In the middle are Eastern-sounding instruments, matched alongside some tripped-out and different sounds that are completely unique in the history of music. This music is indeed, best to hear at home with some good-quality headphones on. The music and instrumentation is very, very different. The stringed instrumentation sounds very metallic and quite unusual. This track continues on for some time, sounding indescribably good. Snatches of original samples and wordless voices are present throughout this track. It gradually begins to wind up very nicely with some freaky sounds after seven and a half minutes. Very otherworldly.

12. Vit Drowning/Through Your Gills I Breathe begins with snatches of conversation, and repeated melodies. Beats enter, and this tune gets going very nicely, with some Roland TB-303 sounds as well. This continues into a good piece of music that is minimal and different. This continues the dark and rather scary concept of this album. The music is completely different to anything else out there today and is a great representation of what EDM and IDM can do in a musical sense. A really sweet tune to listen to, this is as close as this album gets to instrumental Acid House. It also sounds very dark and warped throughout. In the midsection, this music is dark, deep and disturbing. A great summary of the darkest of Acid House with some interesting changes throughout. The second half of the track has some repeated melodies and sounds that are really sweet to hear, mixed in with some other unusual melodic sounds to match. Snappy drumbeats enter towards the end of this tune, followed by children’s laughter, seagulls, piano and acoustic guitar. Very different. A good listen.

13. First Death In The Family is the final track on this album. It begins with strange melodies, and heavy beats and enters into a pounding and punchy tune. This, again, sounds very, very different to anything else ever recorded in the history of music. Some strange, childlike melodies are played here, alongside some deeper, darker and more adult melodies. A really dark-sounding piece of music is present. This is an artistic, excellent and dramatic listen that sounds quite different. The midsection has some roaring noises, followed by a ringing bell and some silence. This silence continues on for some time, a minute or so. Soon enough, the sound of traffic and a deep, dark bass guitar emerge and a Rock Music jam plays out. This has some surreal sounds added into the mix, and this is eventually slowed down and faded out. The album ends with some freaky sounds with a hint of delay on them.

This is a very good album to listen to that uses an EDM/IDM template to explore the depth of the human psyche. Nobody before or since has made an album quite like this. Instead of using heavy guitars or out-there lyrics, The Future Sound Of London does its best to scare you senseless with its original and pioneering sounds on this album. This is a very good album that is great for that purpose. The only real flaw on the album itself is that some of the tracks could be cut down length-wise, but even so, that is a fairly minor flaw at that. Should you listen to this album? If you are prepared for dark and psychologically disturbing music, then this is your album. If you are looking for Pop Music, however, you may not wish to hear this album.

Dark, scary and confronting.

8/10