Plaid – Trainer

Like three albums jumbled up in one compilation: Mbuki Mvuki, and an album of compilation tracks, and an album of unreleased tracks, plus the Android EP (the other half Anything and Yak sourced from Mbuki Mvuki).

Some good sequencing going on: Reishi, Uland, Tan Sanu is an excellent IDM EP by themselves.

I find myself going back to this compilation more than the rest of the Plaid output, probably because of its roughness, which in 2021 is very much welcome. Right now I am listening to a lot of early ravey/hardcore/idm/detroit techno stuff from B12, the 4 hero guys, Kirk Degiorgio and similar and maybe it;s because how my ears have been changed during the lo fi house years but I like that non polished quality more. And there is a lot of non polished gems in here, some polished ones (the whole first CD except for the ravey Uneasy Listening) and some techno bangers like the ones from Tura in the second CD. There is no bad Plaid release, but this may be the best of them all.

of the 26 tracks on these 2 discs, about 15 (~60%) of them should not be missed
5 (~20%) of them are on my BEST OF ALL PLAID collection (CAPITALIZED)
disc 1 - 2anything, 3slice of cheese, 6summit, 8yak, 9scoobs of columbia, 12ESHISH, 13blah 14NORTE ROUTE
disc 2 - 2whirling of spirits 3choke & fly 4small energies 5jolly 8REISHI 10TAN SAU 12ANGRY DOLPHIN
the rest are also good, definitely worth the investment in your essential IDM collection

"Uland" is a previously-unreleased variation on the track "Island" (part of the "Parasight" EP on Rising High).

Nowadays, Plaid's TRAINER sounds incredibly rough -- but for all its rough edges, it still manages to be ahead of its time, even the slightly embarrassing neo-rave of "Uneasy Listening." “A Slice of Cheese” is uncommonly good piece of lounge before the word was applied to every piece of downtempo out there, and “Link” and “Summit” show the melodic forwardness that made the Black Dog such a seminal group. And you can’t ignore the breaks on the Latin stormer, “Scoobs in Columbia,” that makes much of the current Latin explosion seem like nacho cheese. The unreleased “Chirpy,” “Prig” and “Eshish” shows aspects of IDM at its most beautiful Black Dog-esque heights (indeed, Ken Downie, Plaid’s former Black Dog mate, objected to the release of this material), and “Nort Route” is the perfect distillation of them. On the second disc, “The Whirling of Spirits” and “Choke and Fly,” originally released on the short-lived A.R.T. label, and “Small Energies,” continue this path. The driving “Letter” goes more tribal, while “Soft Key” veers in a more acidic direction and “Uland” goes back to mellow. The final two tracks, which appeared on the late, lamented Clear, lead us to the Plaid’s Warp days. “Android” has a soft electro feel into it, while “Angry Dolphin” is a little more breaks-oriented. If this is considered Plaid’s training, then it’s no wonder that they’re still running strong today.

What was intended to be a comprehensive collection disappoints with the disinclusion of essential early Black Dog tracks. Also, those who have tasted various MP3's of some of these tracks will discover inferior mixes and criminally short edits ("Uland" most notably).
Despite providing essential CD release of some classic tracks, those who know the back catalog better will be saddened by what's missing.