Accelerator is the debutstudio album by British electronica group The Future Sound of London. The album was first released in 1991 by the record label Jumpin' & Pumpin'. It is widely regarded as the group's most "club-oriented" album in that almost all the tracks have a sonic, dance-friendly vibe and it does not contain much of their later, more off-beat, complex, ambient techniques.
Release
Accelerator was released in the United Kingdom in 1991 by Jumpin' & Pumpin'. Following the commercial success of the single "Papua New Guinea", the album was re-released a year later with two additional remixes. Due to record label difficulties, it could not be released in the United States until 1996, where it contained a further remix. It was re-released, enhanced, in 2001 worldwide, with a bonus CD entitled Papua New Guinea Remix Anthology, which contained both old and new remixes of "Papua New Guinea", several of which had already been released on previous singles by the group. Accelerator marked the first time that The Future Sound of London worked with artist and frequent collaborator Buggy G. Riphead, who created the album's cover art.
Reception
At the end of 1992, British music magazineMelody Maker included Accelerator at number 21 in its list of the year's best albums, while "Papua New Guinea" was included in the magazine's list of the year's best singles. Reviewing the 1996 re-release, Option described Accelerator as "a weirdo futurist dreamland that's serene, exciting and even funny". Clash wrote that the album "pushed techno into new spheres of consciousness, one populated by pulsing rave waves, flickering ambient moods and giant dub squalls."
The original 1991 release also included the following credits: production on "Expander" by Mental Cube, production on "Stolen Documents" by Luco, and writing on "Calcium" by Yage. These three credits were removed for the 2001 release, which simply states: "All titles written by Brian Dougans / Garry Cobain. Produced and mixed by The Future Sound of London."
