Now that we've covered four of the "Pure Trance" releases, were are left with just the one - "Pure Trance 5", arguably the most unusual and legendary of the series.
Reports are scant, but the record seems to originally have had the title of "E-Train to Trancentral" (in reality the Stockwell Tube?) due for release in late 1988. Assuming this would have some of the structure of the subsequent "Last Train to Trancentral" (and a Moody Boys remix from 1991 does have Maxine Harvey singing "go to sl-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-p" which some fans have seen as being a sampled of "E-Train"), every version of KLF8 is unique in being a remix: there is no "original" version of "Last Train To Trancentral", or at least one that has seen the "light of day".
(For an indepth read on the original "Last Train" and its existence or non-existence, please check the following discussion from the old klf.de forum: http://www.klf.de/forum/showthread.php?thread_id=121). I particularly like the theory that all of the Pure Trance were recorded, but some unreleased. Later on, the KLF remixed the unreleased ones as hit singles - "Turn Up the Strobe" becoming "Justified and Ancient", etc. Of course, "J&A" is also based on "Hey Hey We Are Not the Monkees" from 1987 and samples the intro to "KSTJ" just before the chorus (the rising keyboard scale)).
The first appearance of a song with the roughly recognisable "Last Train" attributes (either the sliding keyboard intro or the distinctive Ski Sunday/Big Country trilling 3/4 of the way through the track) is probably "Go To Sleep", which only ever appeared on the 1989 "White Room" soundtrack. My own personal views on this track (which is available as a download through the "What Time is Love Story" post) is that it is not the original "Last Train", rather it's a remix or re-recording in the KLF's then-current pop-trance style. Stick it next to "Kyie Said to Jason" on an mp3 player, and you'll hear that it is effectively a follow-up track. Also, if you ever watch "The White Room" on Youtube, watch part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZfqOv0ca_o) at around 6.55, and you will hear a completely unreleased mix of "Last Train to Trancentral". This I suspect is actually the very, very, very first original mix. This is the bit in the movie I mean:
And here is an mp3 of the segment in the Youtube video - 90% "Go To Sleep" but crucially 10% something else:
http://www.mediafire.com/?xz0isztzc0w
It was the following spring, in March 1990, when "Pure Trance 5" finally emerged commercially. Perversely, or perhaps appropriately since its the KLF we're talking about here, the release was KLF8R - two remixes of the original unreleased track. The press sheet suggested that the original would be released "someday", and several years later Bill Drummond suggested that it "too good to be released". Housed in a pink and black sleeve (the colour slightly paler than with "Pure Trance 2", a promo 12" released a couple of months before had caused a bit of a stir, with the DJ Sasha in particular playing the b-side continually. Again perversely, the a-side of KLF8R was actually the less commercial track - using double-echo effects and train sounds to create the KLF's most minimalist ambient house yet (bare in mind, by the time of KLF8R's full release, "Chill Out" had already been out two months). The b-side was a more linear creation, even if it did break down to just drums and echo on several occasions (in fact, it was very similar to the track "Witchita Lineman Was a Song I Once Heard" on "Chill Out", with only the most minimal of changes). Both tracks featured the signature "trill" about three quarters of the way through the track (this time, shorn of the "Go To Sleep" synth horns).
KLF8R was limited to 2000 copies, but to add further legend to this rare release, roughly half were reported to be warped at factory and therefore unplayable. Strangely, none of these warped copies ever seem to appear anywhere, so it's possible either the damaged 12"s were dumped, or it was one of Bill and Jimmy's stories all along.
The b-side would experience another lease of life in the subsequent year, when it first appeared as a glorious, six minute final track to the compilation "Indie Top 20 Volume XII" (a home to a few rare KLF tracks) before finally appeared as track 3 on the "Last Train to Trancentral" UK CD single in 1991. Oddly, by this point the track was just known as "The 1989 Pure Trance Original", thereby getting around the whole tangled problem of what the "original" track actually was.
The a-side also appeared on CD, this time on another compilation called "Ambient House - the DFC Compilation", where it settled next to another contemporary piece of Jimmy Cauty ambience, with the "Why is Six Scared of Seven?" mix of the Orb's "A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain". This compilation CD is actually fairly common on Ebay, and can be picked up for around £10. It is well worth the purchase.
Sadly, I only have it at 128kps, but it *is* the only was to get KLF8R's a-side on CD. Here is the download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?doxtybderdj
Tracklisting:
A1 Morenas Hazme Soñar (6:13)
Written-By - Gemolotto* , Albanese* , Collino* , Lippoli* , Persi*
A2 Aqua Regia N.Y.C. Smile On Me (5:45)
Written-By - Akin Fernandez*
A3 KLF, The Last Train To Trancentral (Remix) (6:00)
Written-By - W. Drummond* , J. Cauty*
A4 Extreme Trasparenza (4:44)
Written-By - Gemolotto* , Rizzatti* , Sabadin* , Persi*
A5 Sueño Latino Luxuria (4:07)
Written-By - Gemolotto* , Albanese* , Damas* , Collino* , Lippoli* , Persi*
B1 Orb, The A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules The World From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Why Is Six Scared Of Seven?) (5:27)
Written-By - Paterson* , Cauty* , Ripperton* , Rudolf*
B2 Sueño Latino Sueno Latino (3:57)
Written-By - Gemolotto* , Collino* , Göttsching* , Persi*
B3 Morenas Somnambulism (5:55)
Written-By - Gemolotto* , Collino* , Persi*
B4 Aqua Regia Aqueanosolo (3:50)
Written-By - Akin Fernandez*
B5 Lux (8) Deep Down (New Age Instrumental Version Edit) (6:00)
Written-By - Sion* , Rizzatti* , Zafret* , Portaluri*
NOTE ON YEAR 2000 BOOTLEG REISSUE OF KLF8R:
Of the five bootleg reissues (apparently originating in Belgium) which were circulated briefly around British indie record shops in summer 2000, KLF8R is by far the most diffcult to spot (all the other issues seem to have printing errors). KLF8R however should be detectable as a bootleg because its pinkness is actually a lot ruddier and darker than the original (more puce than pink) and the run-out groove will be stamped rather than hand-scored. However, when you see a copy of Ebay it can be difficult to tell from a photo. Perhaps the best rule of thumb is to look at the sleeve where the big "5" (itself rounder than on the original) crosses over the second "A" in the word "Trancentral". On the original, the "5" covers the central spar of the "A", meaning the spar is black. On the bootleg, the "5" does not cover the central spar, so it is pink. Here is a photo of the bootleg release so you can compare:
Whats the pw for the ambient house archive?