Following the ‘Papua New Guinea‘ reissue came another repackaging of Accelerator. With the band on good terms with Jumpin’ & Pumpin’ again, to release the Translations mini-album, it’s no surprise the label took it as an opportunity to get more mileage out of their back catalogue. The first disc is musically identical to the 1994 reissue, with two bonus tracks, albeit with the track times on the sleeve adjusted to match the different indexing on the disc this time. The second disc features ten remixes of ‘Papua New Guinea‘, including almost all of the 2001 versions (minus radio edits), as well as a new psychedelic mix by Mellow and four remixes from the early ’90s, including the first digital release of the ‘Monsoon Mix’ and ‘Andrew Weatherall Full Length Mix’. It’s a generous package and, due to the 2001 CD single mostly featuring radio edits, a necessary purchase for CD fans wanting the full picture of the era.
The artwork is… interesting. With Buggy out of the picture at the time, no new art could be created. Instead, the original cover is reproduced with the same font as the ‘Papua’ reissue, which feels almost like genuine FSOL, but not quite. Instead of the usual abstract imagery, the booklet only includes photographs of the band, albeit ones from 1995, some of which were seen in the white ISDN booklet, as well as on promotional imagery for the ArtFutura transmission. The pictures coming from an era not remotely relevant to the album nor the band at the time makes the decision feel very strange. The back cover includes the swirled image and “They entered the vortex” quote from the original release. Nobody is credited for artwork, with Buggy simply listed as creating original images. Elsewhere in the credits, the ‘Dumb Child of Q Mix’ is erroneously listed as ‘Dub Child of Q Mix’, and Andrew Weatherall is credited with creating the ‘Dub Mix’ rather than his own mix. Jagz and Gary Burns are omitted from the credits of his mix, too. Luco, Mental Cube and Yage are missing as writers and producers. There’s a small advert informing buyers of “future sounds”, showing the cover of the then-upcoming Papua New Guinea Translations.
As with the 1992 release, Australia received a licensed version through Addiction Records the following year; continuing from the 1996 version, Hypnotic also put out this edition in 2002 for the US market, in a double digipak labelled as Accelerator Deluxe.
There’s no definitive version of Accelerator, with each edition having different things to recommend it. For anyone not disposed towards completism and collecting, however, this version is probably the version to get: it might not look quite as nice on your shelf as other issues, but in terms of material, it’s the most generous, and many of the remixes are worthwhile.
Other issues:
Accelerator
Accelerator (1994)
Accelerator (1996)
Accelerator (25th Anniversary Edition)
Accelerator (30th Anniversary Edition)
Tracklist
2CD (CD TOT 2X / CLP 1218-2 / ADDCD079)
1.1. Expander
1.2. Stolen Documents
1.3. While Others Cry
1.4. Calcium
1.5. It’s Not My Problem
1.6. Papua New Guinea
1.7. Moscow
1.8. 1 in 8
1.9. Pulse State
1.10. Central Industrial
1.11. Expander (Remix)
1.12. Moscow (Remix)
2.1 Papua New Guinea (Blue States Full Length Mix)
2.2 Papua New Guinea (Mellow Magic Maze Mix)
2.3 Papua New Guinea (Simian Mix)
2.4 Papua New Guinea (Oil Funk Dub Mix)
2.5 Papua New Guinea (Dub Child of Q Mix)
2.6 Papua New Guinea (Hybrid Full Length Mix)
2.7 Papua New Guinea (Satoshi Tomiie Main-Path)
2.8 Papua New Guinea (Monsoon Mix)
2.9 Papua New Guinea (Andrew Weatherall Full Length Mix)
2.10 Papua New Guinea (Dub Mix)
Credits
All titles written by Brian Dougans / Garry Cobain.
Produced and mixed by The Future Sound of London at Earthbeat Studios.
Engineered by Yage.
‘Papua New Guinea (Blue States Full Length Mix)’ additional production & remix by Blue States.
‘Papua New Guinea (Mellow Magic Maze Mix)’ additional production & remix by Mellow.
‘Papua New Guinea (Simian Mix)’ additional production & remix by Simian at Trial & Error Studios.
‘Papua New Guinea (Oil Funk Dub Mix)’ additional production & remix by Oil.
‘Papua New Guinea (Hybrid Full Length Mix)’ additional production & remix by Hybrid.
‘Papua New Guinea (Satoshi Tomiie Main-Path)’ remix produced by Satoshi Tomiie for Def Mix Productions @ SAW.REC Studios NYC.
‘Papua New Guinea (Andrew Weatherall Full Length Mix)’ additional production & remix by Andrew Weatherall at the Workhouse [credited to ‘Papua New Guinea (Dub Mix)’].
Fractional Difference 