The Future Sound of London

British duo who met in the 1980s in Manchester. Their very influential discography shows off influences spanning acid house, hardcore techno, ambient, krautrock, '60s psychedelica, and more. Previously Dougans, as Humanoid, had a UK Top 10 hit with Stakker Humanoid (UK 1988) (opens in a new tab). Together as FSOL, they scored a major crossover success with Papua New Guinea (UK 1992) (opens in a new tab). Their first full-length Accelerator (UK 1992) (opens in a new tab) charted their dancefloor-friendly early career, after which FSOL moved into deeper, more album-oriented world. Lifeforms (UK & Europe 1994) (opens in a new tab) was a double-disc set spanning long stretches of breakbeat-flavored ambience. It was followed by Dead Cities (UK 1996) (opens in a new tab) which added hip-hop, trip-hop, industrial textures, and bleak urban imagery into their mix of influences. Their ISDN (UK & Europe 1995) (opens in a new tab) album compiled music from their ISDN-uplinked radio broadcasts from the mid-1990s. After Dead Cities came out in 1996, they felt like they were moving in the wrong direction and they dropped off the radar after the mix in mid 1997.
After a 4 year long hiatus in which they were surrounded by rumors of insanity and drug addiction (whereas the real situation was mercury poisoning from teeth fillings and some soul-searching travels), the Papua New Guinea Translations (UK 2001) (opens in a new tab) concept remix album came out in 2001, followed by the full-length The Isness (US 2002) (opens in a new tab) and more material under the Amorphous Androgynous name.
In March 2007 they finally went independent and launched FSOLDigital.com releasing dozens of unreleased material (under the From The Archives series), as well as old and new material from their other aliases. One of the most anticipated albums in ambient history, got released 13 years since its recording, and then Environments continued as a series, the first volumes were reproduced old material blended with new neoclassical material. By the time they reached Environment Five (UK 2014) (opens in a new tab) in 2014, all recorded material was brand new.