E-Train To Trancentral (Pure Trance)

E-Train To Trancentral is the alleged unreleased fifth entry in the Pure Trance series, originally scheduled for release on 12 Dec 1988 (and later rescheduled Sep 1989 according to Lazlo’s discography).

It is worth pointing out that the name E-Train To Trancentral never got mentioned in any official KLF completeist list – in August 1989 KLF008T was still listed as The Lover’s Side, and from November 1989 onwards the lists included 008T as Go To Sleep. The 1990 Cartel wholesale catalog just says it’s Last Train To Trancentral, while the Music Master catalogue from the same year does indeed list it as E-Train To Trancentral (which is the source for Lazlo’s entry), though both of them are only semi-official of course.

One copy presumably got sold via EIL many years ago, and one other person reportedly handled a sleeve with record once, though in both cases the contents could not be verified. The existence of A/B-side labels as well as proper sleeves (pink on black “Pure Trance 5 – The White Room” and sea-green/black “E-Train To Trancentral”) has been confirmed, but both have been presumably linked to notorious KLF bootlegger Mike Dutton.

Considering all the Pure Trance sleeves had been printed as one batch to save money, one would assume that, if 2,000 copies of the sleeve actually existed, a couple of them would have found their way onto eBay over the years, as have the sleeves for Love Trance and Turn Up The Strobe. To be fair the same can also be said about the aforementioned Lover’s Side and Go To Sleep variants of 008T of course.

The topic of the printed but unused sleeves comes up in a couple of magazines, including the April 1991 issue of Record Collector and the March 1991 issue of German music magazine Black Arts & Dance (which would actually predate the information from Record Collector), and both times the missing fifth Pure Trance entry is mentioned as being Go To Sleep as well.

1 thought on “E-Train To Trancentral (Pure Trance)

  1. Quote: “…….. though there is a brief shot in the Brandnew documentary where a sleeve for Go To Sleep can be seen sitting on a shelf in the background.”

    Does anyone know the full title of the documentary mentioned above where the “Go to Sleep” sleeve can be seen?

    I’ve looked on youtube at the KLF documentaries on there but haven’t seen the sleeve yet.

    The mystery and conjecture around both Pure Trance 4 and 5 continues now over three decades later. I hope we get some clarification on what was intended with them when they release Chapter 2 of SAMPLECITY THRU TRANCENTRAL, “Pure Trance Series“ over the coming months!

    I Hope they get the 5 chapters (or 6 including the “lost chapter” / “out takes” – to speculate, the Black Room maybe?), pressed onto vinyl and CD once we are all back to some sort of normality and the record shops are back open again.

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