Madrugada Eterna first officially appeared as an ambient B-side on Kylie Said To Jason in August 1989. This is the same version as the one prominently featured on Chill Out six months later.
However, a different version had already been featured playing over a short two-minute promo clip of the White Room roadmovie. There’s a quite pumping TB303 bassline underneath the melody (hence the mix is usually refered to as the “303 Edit”) and a groovy beat, with lots of the mad preacher’s vocals chopped up and spread across the track. Unfortunately the short snippet from the promo video is all that exists of this version since, like the movie itself, this version never properly surfaced.
In March 1990 The KLF had themselves pressed a limited run of (allegedly) 20 whitelabel promos. The 12″ pressing (listed below) features a slightly more laid back but still danceable mix, a shorter edit, as well as the original ambient version.
Whether or not Madrugada Eterna was meant as a accompanying single to either Chill Out – as suggested by one of the Info Sheets – or The White Room Soundtrack remains unconfirmed. In the end The KLF apparently didn’t like it and decided not to widely release it around the time, making the whitelabel promo one of the rarest KLF releases to find.
The Club Mix Edit eventually appeared on The White Room (Director’s Cut) in 2021 as part of the Samplecity Thru Trancentral series.
Tracks & Formats
KLF ETERNA 1
| 12″WL Single / Mar 1990 | ||
| A1 | Madrugada Eterna (Club Mix Edit) | |
| A2 | Madrugada Eterna (Original) | |
| B | Madrugada Eterna (Club Mix) | |
A bootleg of KLF ETERNA 1 featuring the club mix only was released by Mike Dutton as ETERNITY 23. Some of these feature a red sticker with Italian text on the sleeve in an attempt to disguise their true origin.
The edit on the White Room Director’s Cut is the same as the “club mix edit” from here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NdkFl6ATjU (from the “What Time Was Love” bootleg CD)
This is one of those. I do wonder how many versions of The White Room’s album exist.
I mean think of it one way.
You have Madrugada Eterna appearing in the Promo a whole year before Chill Out (maybe earlier??)
Then there is the Pure Trance Series which sleeves do say they are part of the upcoming White Room OST Album – but never had or were??
Sure, the Stadium House versions from 1990/1991 appeared on the reworked 1991 LP but that still wasn’t the origina 1989 version, nor the trance ones. It’s truly a mystery…
Oh better yet, the “Sheriff of Mu Mu County” too.
From the small snippet included in the Brandnew documentary that would have been a rework of The Lovers’ Side with Ricardo on vocals. Considering he was only introduced to Bill & Jimmy when Isaac could not do follow-up vocals after WTIL? that would put it in Stadium House territory.
Interesting, makes sense though.
Although I still wonder What Goes On? with the various White Room versions (listed in original comment – Pure Trance. Madrugada Eterna etc.) and if they ever existed in full to begin with.
Additionally having referenced it, is “What Goes On?” even a proper KLF thing or is it just some fan mix bollocks?