Released on:
ISDN (Black)
ISDN (White)
Runtime: 2:33 (Black), 2:26 (White)
Even a heavy going album like ISDN needs to take a break, and this two minute ambient piece fits that bill. A single major chord runs throughout the piece, on top of which the band’s sample library is liberally sprinkled: backwards guitar notes, opening manhole covers, clanging metal, a brief, quiet reversed tambourine loop, whistling noises, a backwards sample of a voice announcing “we love our children!”, the ever-present wordless female vocals. Remarkably, the use of a major chord manages to make these sounds seem somewhat friendly, rather than sinister, as they might well do in another context. It retains the slightly claustrophobic feel of its parent album, but nevertheless acts as a brief moment of brightness.
The CD indexing on the two different versions of the album places the intro and outro environments in different places: the black edition includes the ‘Zeebox‘-sampling outro of ‘The Far Out Son of Lung…‘, while the white edition includes the “not bad for a human” Aliens sample. The track is credited as being taken from the New York transmission; a slightly longer version of the track can be heard on the earlier VPRO broadcast.
Credits
Written and produced by The Future Sound of London.
Engineered by Yage for EBV.
Recorded live at Earthbeat Studios London 1994 during an ISDN transmission live to The Kitchen New York 5/11/94 (Black).
Recorded live at Earthbeat Studios London 1994 during an ISDN transmission live to The Kitchen New York 3/11/94 (White).
Fractional Difference 