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Dead Cities (album)

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This article is about the Future Sound of London album. For the M83 album, see Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts.

Dead Cities
Studio album by
The Future Sound of London
Released28 October 1996 (1996-10-28)
Recorded1996
StudioEarthbeat Studios, London
GenreIDM, ambient techno, big beat, dark ambient
Length70:11
LabelVirgin
ProducerThe Future Sound of London
The Future Sound of London chronology
ISDN
(1994) 		Dead Cities
(1996) 		Environments
(2007)
Singles from Dead Cities
  1. "My Kingdom"
    Released: 14 October 1996
  2. "We Have Explosive"
    Released: 31 March 1997
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Alternative Press[2]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[3]
The Guardian[4]
Muzik[5]
Pitchfork8.0/10[6]
Q[7]
Sputnikmusic4/5[8]
Tom Hull – on the WebB[9]

Dead Cities is the third studio album by the British electronic music duo The Future Sound of London. It was released through Virgin Records in October 1996. The record entered the Dance Albums Chart at No. 2 and the Albums Chart at No. 26.[10]

Overview

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The album art consisted of 3D graphics, photography, and writing complementing the album's themes, combined via digital image editing. This was created primarily by the band and then-frequent artistic collaborator Buggy G. Riphead. A limited edition release of the album included a 196-page book, containing additional artwork and writing in the same style.[11]

"My Kingdom" and "We Have Explosive" were released as singles. The "My Kingdom" music video was directed by the same artistic collaboration, whereas the "We Have Explosive" music video was directed by 2D-animator Run Wrake.

Track listing

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Though the album contains 13 tracks, the track listing on the back insert of the CD is ambiguous, as 15 song titles are listed, with most of the second half of songs not numbered. The common interpretation, confirmed by the promo edition of the CD, is listed here:

  1. "Herd Killing" – 2:37
  2. "Dead Cities" – 6:37
  3. "Her Face Forms in Summertime" – 5:38
  4. "We Have Explosive" – 6:19
  5. "Everyone in the World Is Doing Something Without Me" – 4:10
  6. "My Kingdom" – 5:47
  7. "Max" – 2:48
  8. "Antique Toy" – 5:43
  9. – 6:57
    • "Quagmire" – 5:13
    • "In a State of Permanent Abyss" – 1:44
  10. "Glass" – 5:38
  11. "Yage" – 7:32
  12. – 5:32
    • "Vit Drowning" – 4:48
    • "Through Your Gills I Breathe" – 0:44
  13. – 4:46
    • "First Death in the Family" – 2:18
    • silence – 1:00
    • "Dead Cities Reprise" (hidden track by Headstone Lane) – 1:28

Samples and other information

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  • "Herd Killing" is the shorter edit of a remix of track 4; the full version is called "We Have Explosive (Herd Killing Mix)" on a single.[12] Both feature several samples from the Run-DMC album Tougher Than Leather.
  • "Dead Cities", contains a vocal sample of Laurence Fishburne from the film Deep Cover.
  • "We Have Explosive" was used in the second game in the "wipE'out"" series, wipE'out" 2097, for the original PlayStation. The song was also used in the film Mortal Kombat Annihilation.
  • The vocals on "Everyone in the World Is Doing Something Without Me" were performed by Canadian opera singer Rebecca Caine.
  • "My Kingdom" prominently features:
  • The title of track 11, "Yage", was a previous alias of FSOL, and still their alias for their own sound engineering credits.
  • The title of track 12, "Vit Drowning", refers to Vit, a Chinese restaurant owner friend with the artists. His face appears on the "Far-out Son of Lung" cover, and he appears in the "Teachings From The Electronic Brain II" and "My Kingdom" videos"[13]
  • Whether it was coincidental or otherwise, the album's final track, "Dead Cities Reprise" (hidden track by Headstone Lane), is of a very similar nature to the predominant sound and style that FSOL adopted for their following album, The Isness, released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous (except in the US, where it was released as FSOL for commercial reasons).

Charts

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Album – UK Albums Chart

Year Chart Position
1996 UK Albums Chart 26
UK Dance Albums Chart[10] 2

Singles – UK singles chart

Year Single Chart Position
1996 "My Kingdom" UK singles chart 13
1997 "We Have Explosive" UK singles chart 12

References

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  1. ^ Raggett, Ned. "Dead Cities – The Future Sound of London". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  2. ^ "The Future Sound of London: Dead Cities". Alternative Press (101): 74. December 1996.
  3. ^ Sacharow, Anya (22 November 1996). "Dead Cities". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  4. ^ Bennun, David (1 November 1996). "Hell out there". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Howe, Rupert (November 1996). "Future Sound of London: Dead Cities (Virgin)" (PDF). Muzik (18): 128. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  6. ^ Josephes, Jason (November 1996). "Future Sound of London: Dead Cities". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 15 January 2006. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  7. ^ "The Future Sound of London: Dead Cities". Q (122): 122. November 1996.
  8. ^ STAFF, Trey (2 November 2007). "The Future Sound of London – Dead Cities". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
  9. ^ Tom Hull, Hull (12 November 2023). "Grade List: Future Sound of London". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  10. ^ a b Redmond, Steve, ed. (9 November 1996). "Specialist Charts: Dance Albums" (PDF). Music Week. London: Miller Freeman Entertainment. p. 19.
  11. ^ "The Future Sound of London – Welcome to the Galaxial Pharmaceutical v7". Secondthought.co.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  12. ^ "Release "We Have Explosive" by Semtex – MusicBrainz".
  13. ^ "Future Sound of London". Archived from the original on 18 May 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
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