Released on:
Cascade
Runtime: 6:10
Opening on the ‘Cascade’ single’s first actual environment – utilising similar samples to ‘Omnipresence’ – ‘Cascade (Part 5)’ is structurally and stylistically very similar to ‘Part 1‘, opening with subtle downtempo sounds before building up to an ambient-breakbeat piece replete with strings and eastern sounding melodies. The tracks are melodically unrelated, with no shared samples, but the style of the piece brings the single full-circle. The track is also an intriguing look at the group’s working process: in the same way that ‘Part 3‘ is the root of Lifeforms track ‘Elaborate Burn’, ‘Part 5’ later found life in radically reworked form as ISDN‘s original closing track ‘An End of Sorts’. And, similar to ‘Part 1’, the string line here was used as the basis of the Berlin School section of ‘Environments Part 2’.
Away from the trivia, it’s a tremendous piece in its own right. A dramatic epic that shows off the full extend of the group’s masterful command of both sound and melody, ‘Cascade (Part 5)’ concludes the band’s first multi-part single in fine form. A dark, unsettling environment closes the track with reversed sounds and a long, forlorn note echoing away to silence.
Credits
Written & produced by The Future Sound of London.
Engineered by Yage.
Recorded at Earthbeat Studios – London 1993.
Fractional Difference 