Customer Reviews

Tales of Ephidrena

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this could easily be the soundtrack to a modern sci-fi
thriller, you realize after listening to the whole disc that
it is a visualization engine for itself.

Like another reviewer here said, this music goes well
with black lights and dry ice. Every time I've heard
it since I purchased it in '94, it's sounded different.

I haven't tried this, but I imagine this would go well
with a William Burroughs or Philip K. Dick novel.

Also, like Future Sound of London (it's the same guys), this
is definitely headphone music. You won't really get a sense
of the presence in the sound when it has to image into
open space. That's kinda freaky all by itself, when you
think about it.

This is good 'personal' listening music, but it won't retain
guests at parties, so don't even bother bringing it out for
that. It will provide interesting company when you're alone.

It's been many years that have come and gone since "Tales of Ephidrena" by Amorphous Androgynous but even then, it's still hard to believe how great and innovative that this record sounds even by todays standards. I've had mixed feelings about music of this type. A lot of it is just repetitive beats but this is something else. Like a good number of techno albums even back in early '93, this album contains some familiar samples from movies in the past. Even today, this is in my opinion one of the strangest and most psychedelic sounding records that I own in my collection.

Arguably one of the scariest and deservedly so openings is that of "Liquid Insects". Major 80s movie buffs will recognize the sound effects at the beginning which are the robotic/organic sound samples taken from scene from the 1987 movie "Predator" which were the alien-being's infrared vision. The sounds are difficult to explain but boy did they spook me when I was younger. The "Predator" effects instantly stop and give way to a series of jungle stream effects and tribal drums followed by what sounds like boiling water and laser effects and animal sound effects before a rumble blasts it into a bizarre ominous techno song with a strong pulsating rhythm, metallic percussion and piercing horn effects. "Swab" although a bit short is a great track that has a more hip-hop rhythm and less of the jungle/rainforest pursuit atmosphere and a more underground techno atmosphere. Around the middle of the track a strange melodic laser like effect instantly comes in and does a octave-lowering effect followed by robotic voice effects. The same strange chord effect in slowed pace ends "Swab" and transitions us into a peaceful New Age/like track called "Mountain Goat". The title of the track is perfect for the mood of the song. The chord effect echoes throughout the track and a beautiful acoustic guitar fades in and ambient intro also comes in an culminates in a light electronic beat for about 30 seconds before the track ends and the water effects give way to chime-like effects and a flute and pulse effect introduces us to the fourth track "In Mind". The chime-like effects fade away and are for a few seconds left with just the pulse sounds and the beautiful flute. I must admit I love this part of the track and the raindrop effects in the background. A woman's voice and a machine-like sound whirrrring effect crescendos in the background and a light rhythm comes in. Although this is the track that I pay the least attention to and is my least favorite on this album, "In Mind" is still a very good song. A very strange flute effect and electronic effects similar to the 50 second track "Sticky End" by The Orb ends "In Mind". An echoing tapping effect coupled with creepy animal sound effects introduce us to the fifth song entitled "Ephidrena", my favorite song on this entire album. A strong punch-like beat comes in with electronic dingling effects, followed by a very strong pounding techno beat and bobbling bass. "Ephidrena" gets more and more intense, the bobbling bass melody becomes increasingly electronic and more trancey as the song progresses. The beat is awesome but if you have the bass up too much, you might end up rattling everything around your house. At eight minutes, this is a great epic trance classic. The next song entitled "Auto Pimp" is a close competitor to "Ephidrena". The song begins with a laser effect and a helicopter hovering overhead until a beautiful techno-beat and a dramatic melody come in to create a marvelous trance classic. The beats stop at around 5 minutes and the keyboards echo onwards and an electronic buzz keyboard riff comes in a faster (like 16th note) melodic rhythm fades and gently ends "Auto Pimp" and merges into the seventh track "Fat Cat". If you are familiar with it you will easily recognize the flute melody. The song actually samples Peter Gabriel's "Hope of These" from the Passion soundtrack and adds a new beat over it. Although it's not necessarily on the scale of it's parent track, "Fat Cat" is an excellent song and has a beautiful melody. The album concludes with the closing track "Pod Room". The ending of "Fat Cat" brilliant leads into beautiful echoes of whales and flutes but then merge into a pulsing techno beat and a very eerie electronic bass melody that perfectly melts into the pulsing rhythms of the track.

"Tales of Ephidrena" is a hidden gem that is unfortunately now a difficult album to find but should one be able to stumble upon a copy of it, it is highly recommended to have. By the way, Amorphous Androgynous is now known as Future Sound of London and although I've enjoyed later releases under that moniker such as "Dead Cities" and "Lifeforms", "Tales of Ephidrena" is the album that I always come back to the most. It's one of the best purchases I've ever made and after more than a decade since it's release and when I first heard it, TOE still holds up as among the most innovative records of the 1990s.

On a break between their Lifeforms and ISDN albums, The Future Sound Of London released this album under the pseudonym Amorphous Androgynous. While ISDN is a transition album between Lifeforms and Dead Cities, and tends to pull both ways, Tales of Ephidrina is more together. The tracks blend together in a similar way to Lifeforms, and the overall feeling is very similar. The ambiance of the tracks is somewhere between melodic Ambient and easy Techno with minor World Music touches. this is music for the mind. You put your headphones, and flout away, possibly into a virtual world created by their regular artist, Buggy G. Riphead.

If you didn't already know, Amorphous Androgynous is actually the Future Sound of London. Tales of Ephidrina was crafted from the sounds "leftover" from Lifeforms. Tales of Ephidrina is a kinda of experimental mix of atmospheric ambient and techno, creating a sound that will appeal to fans of electronic music with a fat bassline yet retain the armchair listening of ambient. The soundscape Tales of Ephidrina creates is like a surreal alien world, shifting from soft textures to hard hitting beats. Probably the least recognized album by FSOL, but my favorite, it blows all their other work out of the water. The only dissapointing thing is that the album is under 50 minutes. Don't expect it to sound like anything FSOL has ever done before though, it's much much better.

jacob adams is wrong in asserting that these are leftovers! there was to be an ep,by amo andro,called environments,which later appeared on the lifeforms video,and re-worked within lifeforms.(ephidrina blew my head off when i first heard it!) some excellent parts to it,as with all fsol stuff. if you have an interest in electronic music,get it. very sample heavy(even by there standards!,but this album bridges the gap between the dance orientated 'accelorator',and the ambient'lifeforms'(obviously!) so the trax are quite polarized into either group.check out the cascade ep if you can still get it!

Apparently "Tales of Ephidrena" was material that didn't fit into the kind of soundscape of "Lifeforms". So this is sort of an album of b-sidse, although that term should be altogether thrown out in regards to the Future Sound of London. So this is a departure from the norm. However, it lacks the kind of creativity and drive that is all over the rest of their work.

(8/10) "Liquid Insects" provides a good start, basically a Future Sound of London style tune with a thicker and dancier beat. Includes a wonderful sample of the movie "Predator" to start things off. Lots of driving rhythms, this is basically a dance floor tune! How's that for a departure for FSOL?

(8/10) "Swab": some big industrial beats with lots of honks and squeaks inbetween. The constant introduction of new rhythms (especially the new bass line halfway through) keep this song fresh and interesting. Great polyphonics and production on this track.

(8/10) "Mountain Goat": Amorphous Androgynous goes 3 for 3 to start the album. A great tune built around a little jumpy acoustic guitar line. Just keeps moving, very warm sounding. The effects are top notch, as per usual, and the new beats keep things interesting. A great ambient track that seems like it would fit on "Lifeforms".

(6/10) "In Mind": repetitive, uninspiring, and just aimless. Doesn't seem to do anything.

(7/10) "Ephidrena" is almost a good track. Good pulsating beat and a good rhythm to it as well. But again, overly repetitive...it just drags on...

(6/10) "Auto Pimp" falls into the same hole as the last two. Starts with a good groove and then gradually gets more and more uninteresting.

(6.5/10) "Fat Cat": repeat above sentence! Too much meandering, lacks the focus of the first 3 tracks.

(5/10) "Pod Room": unbelievably repetitive, and doesn't even have a strong groove to start. It's incredible to think that the masters of ambient music made this song.

Ultimately, "Tales of Ephidrena" starts very strong, the first 3 tracks parallel the strength of any other ambient recordings at the time. But the wheels fall off for the last 5 tracks. It just gets dull and very very repetitive! I recommend this for huge fans of FSOL only, I think others will have great troubles listening to this.

I bought "Tales of Ephidrina" cold way back in '94. I loved it! It's not "comfortable" and it's not for parties. The Highlight being: "Liquid Insects". An insane masterpiece, especially if you play it with a strobe light and dry ice. (That's cliche'd, yes, but it still works.) "Mountain Goat" is mysterious and haunting and the track "Ephrdrina" made me dance in motions I didn't think I was capable of. I'm surprised this suckers still available. Not for the timid.

This is one of my favorite cd's. If you dig hypnotic beats and far out sound effects then you will dig this. Several of the tracks have samples similar to bits on ISDN but in much more finished, produced fashions.

This is definitely not for techno fans who want to hear Dido with a beat, but if you are up for something different, bizarre, but still freakin cool, this is a great buy. Like ISDN, great for long drives, but you can listen to selected tracks too.

This is a good album, and those familiar with FSOL won't need a lengthy explanation of what to expect. That said, the only thing that keeps me from being more enthusiastic is that I got it after I heard the 1993 Kiss FM mix that contains most of its tracks, and I was kind of let down by the album. That radio mix has, for instance, a killer version of "Fat Cat" that's about 13 minutes long; the album's 4 minute version was more of a buzzkill than anything else.

If you can find the mix, get that instead. It's way better. If you can't, this is still pretty good stuff.

Amorphous Androgynous (which everyone knows better as the Future Sound of London) released their album Tales of Ephidrina right before Lifeforms. It was claimed at the time that this was a collection of outtakes from Lifeforms -- if this is true, then it's because these tracks are at such a different level. Personally, this is one of my favorite electronic albums of all time. It's not just ambient, it's ambient that wants to house you. The opening track "Liquid Insects" sounds the way Jurassic Park should have been. My favorite track, "Auto Pimp," begins with an eerie sample with helicopter rotors thrumming in, then builds to a harpsichord-like melody over a driving beat and didgeridoo -- instantly catchy and unique. The beatless tracks, such as "Mountain Goat," unfold layer after layer of beauty. Samples are scattered throughout the album, but they're integrated in such a way as to make them seem wholly organic to the compositions. It's an astonishing album and one that will stand the test of time.