If, like your reviewer, you'd rather taken your eye off FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON'S activities since the prolonged gap grew wider following 1996's cool, but disorientating and apocalyptic "Dead Cities", you'd be pardoned for thinking "What the fuck...?" if you took their eventual 2000 comeback album "The Isness" at face value.
Aftre all, since when were sitars, ragas, flutes, mellow vibes and (gasp!) SONGS such an important part of this (supposedly) singular, forward-looking electronic duo? Of course, as Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans will tell you, songs and communication and spirituality are vital to their oeuvre, and - given a chance - "The Isness" is actually a perfectly logical (if more organic) step forward. Back to the future, if you can live with that.
Fast forward a little and now we have "Amorphous Androgynous - The Mello Hippo Disco Show": ostensibly an 8-track mini-LP reworking tracks from "The Isness." According to Cobain, this was actually intended to be issued under the name Amorphous Androgynous rather than FSOL, but such are the pressures of commerce. Anyway, don't panic: the gentle and effective vibes contained within will sort you out happily enough.
Although there are (mostly) beginnings and ends here, the 8 tracks flow seamlessly, with Cobain and Dougans taking you on a magic carpet ride intertwined with far more mystical Eastern vibes than you previously thought healthy.
However, you's be foolish if you believed FSOL had entirely forsaken technology, as strident, funky beats, bleeps and bloops do find their niche in the fragrant sonic stratosphere here, not least when collaborator and ex-Compulsion guitarist turned DJ/ remixer Garret Lee presents a nifty remix under his "Jacknife Lee" banner.
Garret's mix ebbs neatly into the strafing mellotrons and spot-on drums, flute and (shock horror!) electric guitar overload (played, I think, by Cobain himself) of "Slo-Mo", one of the most satisfying things here, though it must be relayed that "...Mello Hippo..." does work best as an entity, and its' undulating grooves easily tempt you into staying the course.
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"...Mello Hippo...", meanwhile, creates a startling runaway for strings, flutes, unabashed (and lovely) sitars and Anjali Saga's gorgeous Eastern voice to taxi down and take flight. The "Strawberry Fields"-style throb from Oasis session man Mike Rowe's keyboards is never far away, and it's effective in setting up the requisite dreamlike quality.
But then you also shouldn't assume FSOL have gone soft, either. "Trying To Make Impermanent Things Permanent" is more typical of the "Dead Cities" past, with found sounds, samples and beats skittering past and snatches of ideas briefly morphing and fading before a (slightly more uneasy) groove settles and the mischievous orchestral score kicks in.
Although technically a sister piece to "The Isness", "...Mello Hippo..." cocks a snook to the likes of forgotten World Music dance heroes like Transglobal Underground and Ultramarine before slipping into a consciousness all its' own and suggests that FSOL (under whatever umbrella) have not only cemented their reputation for fine electronica, but have wedged open the doors of possibility for the future again.
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