Released on:
Lifeforms (Single)
Runtime: 4:04 (listed as 4:02)
The ‘Lifeforms’ single closes with a fairly dark, slightly sinister, and oddly amusing track. The combination of plucked and portamento violin that opens ‘Path 7’ used to make me laugh when I first heard it, and it still retains a certain humour to this day. There’s something about bendy sounds that’s just inherently funny. A single snippet of Liz Fraser’s vocal is used throughout the track, alongside a choir synth, and layers of percussion. The watery drum loop from ‘Path 1‘ returns here, bringing the single full circle, and the vocal and string elements also feature heavily in ‘Path 2‘, making the three tracks feel like a loose trilogy. At the end, Liz Fraser’s voice fades away into reverb on a strangely tense note, a dramatic and strangely unresolved closing moment that rounds out the whole Lifeforms era in a suitably bizarre manner.
I used to find the track amusing, and that didn’t sit quite right with me. Over time, however, the track has become my favourite on the single. The gloomy, surreal tone is utterly bizarre, and that makes it feel completely FSOL.
Credits
Written by The Future Sound of London & Elizabeth Fraser.
Vocals by Elizabeth Fraser.
Produced by The Future Sound of London.
Engineered by Yage.
Recorded at Earthbeat Studios and September Sound, London.
Fractional Difference 