"Unlike reviews that state this album is worthless and simply old material repackaged, only five of the tracks here are available elsewhere (one of those, Chawawah, is only available on the UK vinyl edition of the album). Of the other nine, the alternative version of Elysian Feels and Goodbye Sky may be familiar to you if you're lucky enough to have picked up the accidentally released alternative version of the album. Otherwise, the album is comprised of unreleased tracks and remixes.
So what to expect in terms of quality? Well, the music is still in the new-Amorphous Androgynous vein of the band, largely psychedelia influenced, with guitars and sitars playing a large part in the proceedings, although due to the remix-nature of the record, things are a little more electronic than The Isness. The four versions of Divinity from the now-scrapped EP vary in quality... the live "Band" version is a touching take on the original, whilst The Conga Run adds in overly-fret-wanking solos which ruin the piece. The Mello Hippo remixes are all excellent, however, and it's worth tracking down the full EP there. The new remix of The Lovers is the best of the three commercially available versions, adding a whole new eastern groove to the otherwise slightly lacking piece. The new songs also vary in quality; Goodbye Sky is a brass-led run through Beatles psychedelia - a definite opinion splitter - whilst Rural Green is slow, relaxing trip-hop, which would feature nicely on one of the band's earlier FSOL releases. Theram is, however, an unfocussed sketch with a similar vibe to The Isness' Guru Song.
Overall, the record is a good companion to The Isness, but should be treated as such. If you're a fan of the original record, it's definitely worth getting ahold of. Luckily it seems to be pretty cheap everywhere, meaning it'll probably be worth the cash."
Part of limited edition CD set
Kort Kramer | South Florida, USA | 10/11/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This album actually is the second CD from the 4000 copy limited edition import - Present Amorphous Androgynous - The Isness. The tracks order is changed a bit and the songs have been shuffled, with one or two actually being swapped out, but in essence, it is that CD plus an extra track. If you already have the limited edition "Isness" then there is little need for the album. But if you don't and are a fan of FSOL, then you can't go wrong with this release.
Maybe it's not their strongest collection of songs, but still head and shoulders above most electronica/psycadelica/ambient. Here is the track listing for the limited edition second disc, and you can see for yourself the similarities and differences.
1. Elysian Feels [Abbey Road Version]
2. Yo-Yo [Abbey Road Version]
3. Goodbye Sky
4. Lovers (Love Is the Lover)
5. Maharishi Raga
6. Band (Divinity)
7. Rural Green
8. Chanvanvah
9. She Sells Electric Ego
10. Chinese Whispers
11. Slo-Mo
12. Conga Run
13. Theram
14. Toy Piano
As a fan of the aforementioned genres and FSOL in general, this is a must have for me. I don't have the limited edition Isness."
Abundance of spirituality, ambience, and cinematics
music fan | Dallas, TX | 12/31/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album is an astounding piece of ambient work that carries across a good bit of FSOL ambient style but leaning more toward the cosmic, spiritual sonic rendition instead of the acid house, trip-hop elements. It can be considered experimental but I would not consider it to sound so abstract as some of the work of other ambient producers. The album definitely has that cinematic flavor and is a great album to listen to if you want to escape the cares of this world for a little while. I very much look forward to more releases from Amorphous Androgynous!"
A totally eclectic, unfocused album
R. Kausch | 01/26/2007
(2 out of 5 stars)
"FSOL's love child and experimental album "Isness and Otherness" (under the name Amorphous Androgynous) is the culmination of two hard facts: The Beatles did all the drugs in India, and while it made their music palatable, the experience cannot be repeated a generation or more later.
Isness is the "feel good album" for strung out wannabe hippies with no viable entity to rebel against. Since Everest has already been climbed and movie stars are kidnapping native children from the 3rd world to match their luggage, there are no truly "Foreign" frontiers when it comes to music and culture. I mean, hell, I've never been to India, but my buddies girlfriend makes some killer samosas and National Geographic takes me anywhere I want to go for $30 a month - and that's just basic cable.
The style, a fusion that gets lost somewhere between "contemporary elevator" and "Little India Restaurant and Pub" whilst taking strange detours through the Beatles and Joplin (when she was sober enough to walk) is one that took a full 6 listen throughs to actually make any sense of. There's simply too much going on in this album to really comprehend what they were going after: if they were going after anything at all. One occasionally latches on to an overall theme, and then it gets pissed away with discordant blips and bleeps - much like someone with Tourette's Syndrome trying to perform CSNY's "Daylight Again". Good melody buildup, variations on a theme they established three tracks earlier...then suddenly "BLEEP BLIP!"
That being said, it's groovy stuff, I'm beginning to really dig on it. Feel like I should be wearing plastic frame glasses and a turtleneck and be sipping fair trade coffee from small, ceramic mugs with "indigenous" script from a make believe tribe of non discriminating, happy and prosperous custodians of the earth.
Either that, or I just didn't do enough drugs in college.
My hangup, perhaps, is that I honestly believe Future Sound of London peaked with "Dead Cities", although I'm only passingly familiar with their newer releases. I'm not saying they should hang up the keyboards - but I'd be interested to see who guru'ed them in the studio to produce this rather "eclectic" or otherwise random vomiting of sound bytes."