DJ Mixed Magazine, October 1st 2002

FSOL and the Poisonous Teeth

10.01.2002
He's Lost The Plot: FSOL And The Case Of The Poisonous Teeth.



By Kieran Wyatt

The Future Sound of London had the entire UK (and everyone else who was listening to electronic music back then) up on its ears in part one of the 90s. 'Papua New Guinea' and 'Cascades' from Accelerator (1992)? Lifeforms (1994), Dead Cities (1996)? c'mon! But then Garry Cobain, nursing a few extreme maladies, disappeared into the world with only a backpack. How out of touch did he get? FSOL's second half, Brian Dougans, could only track him through his credit card statements. Now he's back with The Isness (hypnotic):


Interviewer: What was wrong with you?

Garry Cobain: You reach this extreme place where the fucking radio plugger or record buyer is saying they don't like the single or the remix. Fuck that.

Interviewer: But I thought you had something physical wrong with you.

Garry Cobain: Yeah, poisonous mercury fillings in my teeth.

Interviewer: And you ended up in Los Angeles?!

Garry Cobain: It was only when I arrived that I realized LA was Hollywood. It was really quite naïve of me. I just hadn't thought about it.

Interviewer: And now your music's all Hollywood...

Garry Cobain: Music should be overblown and ostentatious and have vision. But we don't make music by committee, like they make Hollywood films.

Interviewer: In other words you're an obsessive...

Garry Cobain: Oh yeah for sure. I've been sleeping on the floor of my studio on an inflatable bed. I can't let this thing go until [the album's] out there. I've dedicated my body to this record.

Interviewer: Why did you stop making music?

Garry Cobain: I couldn't understand why electronic music wasn't twisting my melons any more. Dance music had become a market place with rules and businesses. There was no growth or the ability to poke into areas of consciousness.


THE REST IS HISTORY
Conspiracy theories, Yogic meditation, Hollywood-as-vampire-breeding-ground, rock singer Ian Astbury, 60s psychedelia, future lust, Alcoholics Anonymous, Brad Pitt, the meditation revolution, prog rock, sitars, the corrosive mercury fillings in your teeth, the new spiritual awakening. The stories of Garry Cobain's disappearance is well documented on futuresoundsoflondon.com. But here's a cute clue into the nature of this mad duo: As a means of reconciliation after the five year separation, the two took bicycle rides in the countryside; Communicating bike to bike via little walkie talkies, the two were soon creating odd remote sound collages...right there in the middle of nature.