In August 1994 Future Sound Of London released Lifeforms as a single, an edited version actually ending up being played on Top Of The Pops with a none- more 1994 computer graphics video. Lifeforms was recorded with Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser on vocals- but Liz ended up expressing some dissatisfaction with the final result, saying she sang her heart out for 'eleven fucking hours' but her vocal ended up sounding like a sample. FSOL's Brian Duggan disagreed.
The full EP release came in seven parts, Paths 1- 7, sequenced as one long ambient piece. The original version was Path 3 (coming in with a tempo change at eleven minutes forty in the download below and the edited single version Path 4 (about twenty minutes in). It was also judged by the Guinness Book of Records to be the first to be the first internet download.
Lifeforms is a very good piece of ambient/ ambient house- experimental, futuristic, ambitious and richly layered, a little time locked to the mid- 90s maybe but very enjoyable and engaging with tribal drums, birdsong, thumping kickdrum, tabla courtesy of Talvin Singh, piano and synths and multiple shifts in pace, tone and tempo.
2 comments:
I’ve been on a deep FSOL trawl recently so this is right up my strasse. Thanks, Adam!
I would really like to hear the 'Eleven fucking hours' mix. Hearing Liz Frazer on a more extended vocal mix surely needs pulling out of the FSOL archive. Maybe we should start campaigning for this now.
-SRC
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