FUSE* – Train-Tracs

A great EP by Hawtin, for the proper ambient-techno experience, listen to "Kaboose" "Bajack" and "The Day After [MV's Mix]" in sequence.

Interestingly, mine was purchased new in the day, and is in a generic Warp Records sleeve - purplish grey on light grey Warp logo, nice plastic sleeve for the record though. I never knew there was a cover for this version (which made finding this hard to do actually!), and AFAIK this is the only white vinyl version.

As reviewed by me in December 1993:

Train Abuse: A "hard" mix, trying to be "intelligent" with syncopation and dynamics, but ending up being just a noisy, bubbly stew of the same old distorted & reverbed 909 noises. Reminds me of 808 State's "Firecracker" but without the innovation. The sparse occurences of a few beeps, train noises, 4 chords and a barely-audible bassline barely offset the artillery fire from the overdriven drum machine. It sounds like he's trying to make quantity substitute for quality by triggering every sound in the box and it's just 5 years too late. Add some horns and you've got the Ohio State Marching Band.

Kaboose: Just as much 909-based percussion as in Train Abuse, but this time low in the mix, with the 4 simple chords in the foreground. The first half is fairly dancey, then more ambient layers fade in and the percussion drifts out. Things get quieter and spacier until the end.

Drum-Trac: Yikes! More of the same noises from Abuse, but this time arranged in a more traditional layered mix. He plays with the pitch on the ride cymbals to nice effect, and the hi-hats and claps fade in, then everything drops out, then things come back in again, with an added bassline (sort of...it's one note, with lots of echoes...) This kind of hard trance is what Hawtin does best. Even nicer is he knows not to drag it out too long. Thumbs up.

Bajack: WOW! This one is mixed by Mark Gage (Vapour Space). High class, well produced trance. The 909 is low in the mix and intensely delayed to the point of being a textural background to the echoing 303 and comparatively dry 808 on top. Analog sweeps and synthesized "ahh" tones add color. My only complaint is that in this case, 8 minutes is too short!

The Day After: "intelligent" ambience, hard to describe. A fat, wobbly bass sound, those same 4 chords (this time from a digital box), no kick drum but more (guess what!) 909 sounds in your ears... the clicky noizes, mmm my favorite (cough). This is one of those "intelligent" tracks I don't understand. Perhaps someone more qualified to review it should talk about it.

Confusion: A straightforward Hawtin trance ditty from 1991 that slows down to half-speed in the opening minute, then speeds up again. Nothing special, but a nice thing for those who missed it the first time around.

Approach & Identify: A rougher, sparser 1990 bleep track built LFO-style around a sample from "Logan's Run". If you ask me, this is a lot more "intelligent" than Black Dog, but you didn't ask me, did you? Great stuff.

Summary: 7/10. A worthwhile Hawtin sampler with a fair amount of innovation. A Vapour Space remix and a bleep cut from the grave saves the disc from 909 overkill.

Techno, Ambient, Acid.
great quality.

A good single taken off my all-time favourite album. That said, I never really rated "Train Trac.1" but Richie Hawtin does some tricks here, from the 13 minute ambient/acid "Kaboose" mix, to the electromagnetic "The Day After". Mark Gage's remix is excellent too.

I picked it up on white vinyl at the time and missed those two mixes, but Warpmart seemed to find a whole batch of the CD singles down the back of the sofa a few years ago so I scooped it up at long last...