El Tren Fantasma

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.

El Tren Fantasma
Studio album by Chris Watson
Released	9 November 2011 (mail order) [1] 14 November 2011 (store release) [1]
Genre	Avant-garde[2] electronic[1] experimental[1] field recording[1]
Label	Touch Music TO:42
Chris Watson chronology
Weather Report (2003) El Tren Fantasma (2011)

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.	Title	Length
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.	Title	Length
1.	"El Divisadero (The Telegraph)"	7:56
2.	"Veracruz (The Tunnel)"	7:54

The Signal Man's Mix vinyl release

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

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]

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."^[6] Musicworks's René van Peer also favoured the album with "[Watson] has painted fantastic, surreal images in sound."^[7]

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

• Jon Wozencroft – art direction^[1]
• Denis Blackham – mastered by^[1]
• Caminos de Hierro – photography by^[1]
• Ana Gonzalez Bello – voice actor [station announcer]^[1]