crucial

Blossom Tranq’d has just been re-released ( 2002 ) on an Instinct Ambient compilation.

Richie and Matthew Hawtin were considering rereleasing Blossom Tranq’d on Probe but that ended up being the Mono Ekagra ep.

<TABLE WIDTH=100% align=center>
    <TR>
<TD VALIGN=top ALIGN=left><B>Various: Plug In & Turn On</B></TD>
<TD VALIGN=top ALIGN=right><B>compilation [10 Mar 1994]</B></TD>
    </TR>
</TABLE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>2CD: 1994 US (Instinct Records; EX-267-2)</BLOCKQUOTE>
<TABLE WIDTH=100% align=center>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>[CD #1]</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left></TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left></TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>5:51</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Transit</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Prototype 909]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>5:53</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Extract</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Evolve Now]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>11:31</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Sound System</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[The Drum Club]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>6:18</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Wonderful</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[GTO]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>5:19</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Dive</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Human Mesh Dance]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>5:25</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Freakazoids And Robots</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Terre Thaemlitz]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>7:37</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>The Pill (Cycle High)</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Omicron]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>5:50</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Brasilia</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Cabaret Voltaire]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>5:57</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Again In Dust</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Mothering Noise]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>9:51</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Softly Sing The Angels</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Mysteries Of Science]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>[CD #2]</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left></TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left></TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>7:32</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Furry Meadows</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[The Drum Club]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>9:12</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Hovering Glows</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Terre Thaemlitz]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>2:35</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Pure (Beautiful Mix)</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[GTO]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>8:44</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Blosson Tranq'd</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Mothering Noise]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>11:48</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Diffusion</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Mysteries Of Science]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>5:17</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Human 2</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Human Mesh Dance]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>6:30</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Low Cool</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Cabaret Voltaire]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>6:25</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>A Thousand Dyes Over The Moist Earth</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Omicron]</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
<TD WIDTH=15% VALIGN=top ALIGN=right>4:40</TD>
<TD WIDTH=50% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>Convex</TD>
<TD WIDTH=35% VALIGN=top ALIGN=left>[Evolve Now]</TD>
    </TR>
</TABLE>

Various “Plug In & Turn On” – Tamara Palmer
In URB, Issue No. 36, June 1994. (Instinct) In a world where technology is increasingly commanding our lives, music is the main outlet where this advancement may still bear the human touch. Trance and ambient music are the genres in which the ideal song manipulates your mind, much as a machine performs the task at hand. Instinct’s double-disc set features 19 works of trance and ambient music performed by both new and established musicians within the genres. Each artist on the compilation has a song on both the trance and the ambient discs. This allows for an examination into the variations within the styles and allows the listener to hear how much the two genres overlap and the boundaries blur. The overall result is a worth effort, yet not a mindbending classic. Disc 1 is the trance section of the compilation, and each song seems to favor the softer, slower sort of trance, with most tunes staying well under 130 beats per minute. The Drum Club presents “Sound System,” which alternates between nearly beatless ambient and progressive house, the sure commercial hit of the compilation if there is one. The prolific Dominic Woosey, who is behind several projects including the label United Frequencies of Trance, uses a hauntingly ethereal background atop piano riffs in “Softly Sing The Angels,” by Mysteries of Science. “Again In Dust” marks the debut of Mothering Noise and is an interesting mix of tripomatic noises. The other debut is from Terre Thaemlitz with the electro-trance that is “Freakazoids and Robots.” Disc 2 is labeled ambient. Four of the nine tracks begin with bird noises, a bit disappointing that fowl play is still the old standby (but seriously, folks…). Mothering Noise proves its versatility with “Blosson Tranq’d,” a headtrip with psychedelic ambient guitar feedback resonating in the background. Mysteries of Science evokes a nature documentary in its tranquil tribal beats that comprise “Diffusion.” “Human 2,” by Human Mesh Dance remains in its signature spacey style. The most unique track is “Low Cool” by seasoned electronic pioneers Cabaret Voltaire, off of their earlier release Plasticity. This is a track that can only be described as “gansta industrial ambient” with its sample of two guys defining street slang over some dark, industrial Nitzer Ebb-type noise and reverb. Instinct presents a good exploration into the realms of trance and ambient with Plug In + Turn On, and a chance to hear new artists alongside established ones. It also shows the near uselessness of these classifications, as trance and ambient are unmistakably intertwined.

Various Artists “Plug In & Turn On (Music For A Technologically Advanced Society)” -Scott Framption
CMJ, Issue No. 10, March 14, 1994. (Instinct, 26 W. 17th St. #502, New York, NY 10011 / 212-727-1360) – Techno is evolving and mutating so fast, spreading through the club scene like a white-label virus, that the only way for those of us on the periphery to keep up is by scanning through the copious compilation discs that attempt to define the genre. That said, Plug In + Turn On is a friendly companion to techno’s multifarious goings-on. It divides its mammoth 130+ munute length into two discs, one “trance” and one “ambient,” and features some of the best-known names in electronic music (outside the WARP encampment), many of which supply a song to each disc. Cabaret Voltaire, which was fucking around with machine music back in the Pong days, and GTO (née Greater Than One) are the two most notable, but significant contributions are found in every corner of the collection. New York club DJ Terre Thaemlitz, for random example, came up with both the slyly danceble “Freakazoids and Robots” and the bizarre “Hovering Glows,” which offers nary a beat amid chirping birds, EKG beeps, voices endlessly distorted by echo and low growls that sound alternately like the contented purring of a huge cat and a flatulent pillow. If only it came in bottles: CabVolt’s “Low Cool,” Mothering Noise’s “Blosson Tranq’d” and Mysteries Of Science’s “Softly Sing The Angels.”

Some guy in philadelphia’s play list for 7.14.96: