A Tribute To FFM Shadow Orchestra Mix

[Low Entropy]

3 From I.O. - Fairlight
69 Juice - System Of Love (Feelin' Mix)
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Yamantaka
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Killing Zoo (Cleaner Edit)
FFM Shadow Orchestra - D.N. Acid (Katakomb Mix)
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Killing Zoo (Distortion Mix)
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Comprehension Of Sweet Sounds (Original Orchestra Version)
Terrorists - Prayer Of Our Clan
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Radio Inferno
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Sweet Breakz
Terrorists - The Fist Of The North Stars
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Das Ende Vom Anfang
Terrorists - Violence
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Elektromagnetischhalluzination
Terrorists - Women Aren't Human
FFM Shadow Orchestra - Canto XXL

A Tribute To FFM Shadow Orchestra Mix

Mixcloud: http://www.mixcloud.com/low_entropy/dj-low-entropy-tribute-to-ffm-shadow-orchestra-mix/
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3j2dci3wdm9hjha

[Low Entropy]

i wrote a little text about ffm shadow orchestra:

my appreciation of ffm shadow orchestra runs for a long time now. like most of the acts in my early days of hardcore, i discovered them through the c8.com site in the mid 90s. i remember when i first read the name, i assumed it must be a strange rap group from frankfurt. i soon learned better, since stevvi (who ran the old pcp website, which was hosted at c8) put up some preview tracks by them. they became some of the first underground hardcore tracks i ever heard, when i was 15 year old, and i instantly liked what i heard. i remember stevvi wrote that marc had send him some white labels, so he doesn't know who wrote these tracks, but he assumed it was the ffm shadow orchestra. since then, and probably before then, the orchestra was always associated with some sort of mystery. fast forward one year, it's 1997 and i'm in the container record store in hamburg. i spotted two new releases that really stood out from most of the rest of the vinyls. the cover art intrigued me, and on the backside there were printed lyrics to the song. that was really something stunning for me, underground hardcore with full vocals and lyrics! i immediately bought the records, without prelistening to them. i think only at home i realised i bought something by the ffm shadow orchestra, because of the weird font they used i couldn't really decipher most of the text at first.
the records were interzone 1 and 2 (the name of the label is a reference to william burroughs and/or the movie naked lunch, by the way), and i instantly fell in love with them. the tracks had such an outerspace feel to them, pure phuture, with long ambient intros that would make one feel as if one is travelling among the stars. over the years i've listened to a lot of futuristic music, but ffm shadow orchestra is still something that stands out with it's vibe, and there is something else to it, not just phuture, or rather, a special brand of phuture sound that no other artist did yet.
here ends the text of my personal story with the ffm shadow orchestra, so i'll talk a bit about the mystery surrounding this act. the first mystery is of course, who are they actually? they have not released on any other label outside of the pcp family, and almost nothing is known about the persons behind this project. needless to say, they seem to never have done any live perfomances either. in fact, for a long time, i thought it is just another strange project done by marc, miro or thorsten, or all three together, using a different name. it seems though that the people behind the orchestra have released under other names on pcp too, using aliases such as "terrorists" or "3 from i.o.".
another mystery is the nature of their releases themselves. around 2000 i noticed a release called "ffm shadow orchestra - radio inferno" in the phuture-rave record store on the web. it's a full album, only released on cd-r. who released it? why didn't it get a proper release? is it really the same guys - it sounds much different to their earlier releases? one might never know.
the biggest strange thing is maybe that the ffm shadow orchestra is still much less known than other acts of their era, or especially other pcp acts. they had a lot more going on than a lot of acts - fully lyricized tracks, big productions, good ideas (on one of their records all four tracks are an hommege to the classic movie "killing zoé", for example). they really would have deserved much more recognition, in my opinion.

[nekro]

FFM Shadow Orchestra has got thorsten's name all over it imo

the CD comp is an outstanding piece of work

[Low Entropy]

yeah thorsten is one of my "main suspects" too... i find it hard to believe that the orchestra are actually 3 different guys that made such great and excellent produced hardcore just to disappear then.
love the CD, it even has a hint of miro/stickhead in my opinion.

[drstrange]

FFM Shadow Orchestra has got thorsten's name all over it imo

the CD comp is an outstanding piece of work

Really? I always assumed it was Miro, has the same kinda programming and production feel as he used in the Kotzaak records after #5. I always thought this was a bit of a precursor to that.

[drstrange]

As an aside, the programming on Killing Zoo  is insane.

[Destiny]

Quote from another forum about who were FFM Shadow Orchestra:

Darius G. = Darius Gawlik = Syrius 23
DJ U-Man = Bosko Jovanovic

[Low Entropy]

yes it could be miro too... it's a thought that ran on my head too... if you listen to miro's kotzaak work before the label first stopped (till kotz 9), then the darius g. and radio inferno stuff, and then his later kotz works, it almost feels like a seamless progression...

@destiny: yes that's the credit on the records, but pcp is known to sometimes use "real name" sounding aliases too... just think of "frank dogge" and kotzaak, who turned out to be another acardipane alias too...
also the credits on the ffm shadow orchestra releases are changing, for example the radio inferno CDr is credited to "mephisto".

[Communiqations]

Destiny is right. U-Man is Bosko Jovanovic and Darius G. is well, Darius G.
I think Glenn had some contact with Bosko in the past. Do remember the name somehow. I know Darius is a real person and not a fictional name. It was likely that he would join the Remember The Phuture party, but yeah, things turned otherwise unfortunately.

The only real mystery from FFM Shadow Orchestra is Oto Kurao...

[Low Entropy]

thx for the info, michel!
i assume oto kuraro is one of the pcp camp then, which would explain the pcp production style of the interzone releases...