Released on:
From the Archives Vol. 1
Mushroom 11 Soundtrack
Also known as:
Field of Flower
Underground (Field of Flowers)
Runtime: 5:20, 5:09 (Enhanced), 2:36 (Mushroom 11)
Some Archive tracks are easy to place, others much less so. ‘Field of Flowers’ falls very much in the latter camp: starting with gated voice samples, it could easily be one of the more pastoral pieces from Lifeforms, but the chopped up breakbeats feel much closer to Dead Cities, while the guitar samples bring it closer to ISDN‘s sound. That said, live transmissions and archive tracks have, over the years, proven that a broad range of tracks and sounds were created for each album, and it was in the album curation that the particular stylistic and thematic cohesion came together, rather than each record starting with a specific mood in mind. If I was pressed to put a date on ‘Field of Flowers’, I’d place it in between ISDN and Dead Cities, concurrent with tracks on the ArtFutura transmission. But I could be way off. The track is led by a bright melody and the gated vocals, although there are regular atmospheric breaks with added gentle percussion, and it features the classic FSOL structure of numerous elements appearing in different combinations throughout, meaning there’s comparatively little repetition. The 2007 version features an outro environment of numerous bizarre samples and field recordings, that close the piece on a much darker tone; this is cut shorter for the enhanced version by crossfading into the following track. The track was originally named ‘Field of Flower’ on its first digital release, and also turned up on the Mushroom 11 Soundtrack on the ‘Underground’ level, in a two minute edit.
Credits
Written by Brian Dougans, Gaz Cobain.
Produced by The Future Sound of London.
Engineered by Yage.
Fractional Difference 