El Tren Fantasma

Last updated
El Tren Fantasma
El Tren Fantasma.jpg
Studio album by
Released9 November 2011 (mail order) Flag of the United Kingdom.svg [1]
14 November 2011 (store release) Flag of the United Kingdom.svg [1]
Genre
Label Touch Music TO:42
Chris Watson chronology
Weather Report
(2003)
El Tren Fantasma
(2011)

El Tren Fantasma is a 2011 album by Chris Watson. It was released on 14 November 2011 by independent record label Touch Music on CD and 12" vinyl record.

Contents

Background

On January 26, 1999, the fourth episode "Los Mochis to Veracruz" of the fourth season of Great Railway Journeys was broadcast. The episode was presented by chef Rick Stein and featured the "Ghost Train" which traveled over a now-defunct railway Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México between Los Mochis to Veracruz. Chris Watson spent a month (or five weeks [3] ) working as a BBC audio recorder for the programme. [4] [5] In 2010, El Tren Fantasma was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. [5]

Track listing

CD release

No.TitleLength
1."La Anunciante"4:00
2."Los Mochis"6:29
3."Sierra Tarahumara"5:24
4."El Divisadero"5:34
5."Crucero La Joya"4:58
6."Chihuahua"4:34
7."Aguascalientes"3:26
8."Mexico D.F."9:14
9."El Tajin"10:16
10."Veracruz"5:44

The Signal Man's Mix iTunes release

No.TitleLength
1."El Divisadero (The Telegraph)"7:56
2."Veracruz (The Tunnel)"7:54

The Signal Man's Mix vinyl release

No.TitleLength
1."El Divisadero - The Telegraph"7:52
2."Veracruz - The Tunnel"7:50

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 82/100 [6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
PopMatters 9/10 [7]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [9]

Pitchfork 's Grayson Currin called El Tren Fantasma for "one of the best works of his career" with "an [sic] sonic adventure that consistently shifts from power electronics-like heaviness to the sunny-day delicacy." [3] BBC Music 's Spencer Grady praised the album for "Watson's ability to create whole worlds, entire lifetimes in the listener's imagination, beyond the moment of recording, comes to the fore." [10] Musicworks 's René van Peer also favoured the album with "[Watson] has painted fantastic, surreal images in sound." [11]

AllMusic 's Ned Raggett reviewed the album with "it's a marvelous portrayal in miniature of the tensions between the 'natural' and the 'man-made'." [2] The Quietus 's Luke Turner said it was a "haunting, powerful tribute and memorial to a marvel of engineering and the people who built, worked and travelled upon it." [4]

Personnel

Production

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Chris Watson - El Tren Fantasma (CD, Album) at Discogs". Discogs . 9 November 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Raggett, Ned. "El Tren Fantasma - Chris Watson". Allmusic . Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 Currin, Grayson; Masters, Marc (21 October 2011). "Turning the World Into Art". Pitchfork . Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  4. 1 2 Turner, Luke (2 December 2011). "Chris Watson". The Quietus . Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 Pescovitz, David (4 November 2011). "El Tren Fantasma: ambient recording of a ghostly train journey". Boing Boing . Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  6. "Reviews for El Tren Fantasma by Chris Watson". Metacritic . Retrieved May 26, 2025.
  7. Sole, Deanne (2 January 2012). "Chris Watson: El Tren Fantasma". PopMatters . Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  8. Utterly mesmerizing, psychedelic document of the random music made by machines and nature. [Jan. 2012 p. 127]
  9. Bowler, Paul (27 November 2011). "El Tren Fantasma - Chris Watson". Record Collector . Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  10. Grady, Spencer (November 14, 2011). "BBC - Music - Review of Chris Watson - El Tren Fantasma". BBC Music . bbc.co.uk. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
  11. Peer, René van (Spring 2012). "Chris Watson. El tren fantasma". Musicworks . Retrieved 16 August 2016.