Furious Angels is the debut album by Rob Dougan

Rob Dougan

Rob Dougan, also known as Rob D , is a genre-blending music composer. Mixing elements of orchestral music, trip hop, and bluesy vocals, his work is tangentially relatable to electronic music. He was known primarily for his breakthrough 1995 single "Clubbed to Death ", further popularised by 1999's...

, released in June 2002 in the United Kingdom and in July 2003 in the United States and Europe. It was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package

Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package

The Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package has been presented since 1995. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1995 to 1997 the award was known as Best Recording Package - Boxed...

.

Release

Furious Angels was originally released as a single-disc album (14 tracks for its world edition, 15 for its home UK edition) dominated by vocal tracks. It was then rereleased as a two-disc album, disc one featuring all 15 songs and disc two featuring 10 instrumental versions of the vocal songs from the first disc, as well as two music videos; there's also been a special-edition set adding a booklet of lyrics and photographs. The album was written, produced and mainly financed by Rob Dougan himself, rather than a studio, with funds generally raised through the licensing of tracks from the album to film and television.

Songs like "Born Yesterday", "There's Only Me" and "Clubbed to Death

Clubbed to Death (song)

Clubbed to Death is a 1995 song by Rob Dougan. It was given renewed attention in 1999 due to its inclusion in the film The Matrix. It was re-released as a single in 2002 with new remixes.-Release:...

" were called the highlights of the album.

A 2003 article in The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 noted:

Disc one

Disc two (instrumental)

Influences

The classical part of "Clubbed to Death 2" (only on the UK version of the album) is built around Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

's "Prelude No. 4 in E-minor" (from Preludes, opus 28). The piece was played in the classic film The Amazing Mr. X (1948).

Song usage

Many of the tracks from the album have been licensed for use in feature films, advertising, or on television. It is most memorable for its songs being in the Matrix series and on Top Gear

Top Gear (current format)

Top Gear is a British television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It began in 1977 as a conventional motoring magazine show. Over time, and especially since a relaunch in 2002, it has developed a quirky, humorous style...

. The song Furious Angels is used by the Los Angeles Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...

 to introduce the visiting teams. The instrumental version of this song also appears in the opening FMV sequence of Grand Prix 3

Grand Prix 3

Grand Prix 3 is a computer racing simulator by MicroProse. Released in 2000 by Hasbro Interactive featuring the 1998 Formula One season...

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External links

• Japanese inspirations for Furious Angels (Archive.org copy, original dead or under reconstruction)
• Piano adaptation of Elgar's Enigma Variations in MIDI file format (104 kiB) Close to Clubbed to Death are parts 0:00–2:00 and 16:00–16:30.