2.017: What is the Pure Trance series?
Yet another KLF project that didn't quite get off the ground. It was envisaged as 10 x 2000 limited edition 12" singles, released weekly in September-December 1988. All the labels and sleeves were printed up as a batch lot to save money (and still survive - they can be seen in Pete Robinson's 'Justified And Ancient History', and some record dealers try to sell them for 25 pounds a time! Mad!) even though some of the tracks were unfinished. In the end a combination of location filming in Spain for the White Room motion picture taking precedence, and a complete lack of interest from the British public, lead to the series being cancelled, although 5 of the 12" singles were eventually released (unknown whether they contained the same tracks as first realised) and most of the tracks re-appeared as radio edits on the unreleased White Room soundtrack LP (see 2.008).
As envisaged the series was:
Pure Trance 1: What Time Is Love? KLF 004T
[17 Oct 1988 - released on time]
Sleeve: front: Large green '1' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on green background
What Time Is Love? Remix KLF 004R
[24 Oct 1988 - released 24 July 1989]
Sleeve: front: Large yellow '2' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on yellow background
Pure Trance 2: 3 a.m. Eternal KLF 005T
[31 Oct 1988 - released May 1989]
Sleeve: front: Large pink '2' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on pink background
3 a.m. Eternal Remix KLF 005R
[7 Nov 1988 - released 18 Sep 1989]
Sleeve: front: Large black '2' on pink background
back: Large pink 'KLF' on black background
Pure Trance 3: Love Trance KLF 006T
[14 Nov 1988 - unreleased but 2000 sleeves and labels printed]
Sleeve: front: Large orange '3' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on orange background
Love Trance Remix KLF 006R
[21 Nov 1988 - unreleased]
Pure Trance 4: Turn Up The Strobe KLF 007T
[28 Nov 1988 - unreleased but 2000 sleeves and labels printed]
Sleeve: front: Large yellow '4' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on yellow background
Turn Up The Strobe Remix KLF 007R
[5 Dec 1988 - unreleased]
Pure Trance 5: E Train To Trancentral KLF 008T
[12 Dec 1988 - unreleased but 2000 sleeves and labels printed]
Sleeve: front: Large sea green '5' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on sea green background
E Train to Trancentral Remix KLF 008R
[19 Dec 1988 - unreleased
However in January 1990, 'Last Train to Trancentral' was released with the cat no. KLF 008, first as a white label, then 2000 standard releases (of which 1000 were warped and not released). It is possible that this is the re-named remix of the original, but no-one knows. Another interesting note regarding KLF008R is that the label's "Other Data" is "Go to Sleep", not "Welcome to the Trance" as on all the other pure trance 12"s]
LTTC Sleeve: front: Large black '5' on blue/sea green background
back: Large blue/sea green 'KLF' on black background
NB Many copies of KLF 008R have a sleeve similar to KLF005T (pink on black) but the pink is a more fleshy colour than on Pure Trance 2.
All sleeve fronts also featured the name of the track, "THE KLF", a small pyramid blaster in a circle and "PURE TRANCE" in the colour of the number. For full tracklistings see Lazlo's KLF-discography. Love Trance and Turn Up The Strobe have probably never been recorded, but some of Go To Sleep is on the White Room film soundtrack (see 4.003) and it features on the bootleg demos tape (see 2.008). The chorus of Go To Sleep is also sampled on the 808Bass mix of LTTT.
Previous Question
Next Question