The KLF: Album-by-single-by-album

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bunglejerry, Aug 24, 2017.

  1. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    Yep, that's it.

    Erm... you have noticed that the song titles in my write-ups are all active links, right?
     
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  2. acetboy

    acetboy Forum Resident

    Really? Wow, cool. Does anyone else know that?
     
  3. Bolero

    Bolero Senior Member

    Location:
    North America
    Haha no I did not!

    I'm often here on my phone though
     
  4. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    [​IMG]

    WHAT TIME IS LOVE (LIVE AT TRANCENTRAL) (July 1990)

    Here's a neat moment of poetry: the "Pure Trance" version of "What Time is Love" served, as I see it, as the transition from early-period JAMS to mid-period KLF. And then, once again, a new release of "What Time is Love", this time subtitled "Live at Trancentral" and the first element of the Stadium House trilogy, marks the entry into late-period KLF, the period characterised by mainstream popular success. "The final chapter, prophetic, poetic" indeed.

    And in a further neat twist, the a-side remix starts with the same MC5 sample that was included at the beginning of the very first JAMS single. And the repeated "Mu! Mu!" chorus is a reference back to the last single released under the JAMS name, "Burn the Bastards".

    By this time in the KLF's career, by my estimation they have deliberately set out for commercial success on three occasions: "Doctorin' the Tardis", which succeeded, and "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" and "Kylie Said to Jason", which both failed. I honestly don't know what Bill and Jimmy's expectations were when releasing this single just weeks after the defiantly anti-commercial Space. I don't know how it came to pass, though I can speculate that perhaps reactions they received while performing this song live in DJ sets set in their minds a fusion of the raw thrill of underground turn-up-the-strobe house music with the call-and-response excitement of a live stadium concert crowd. The two years since the release of the Pure Trance version had seen dance music encroaching ever closer on the mainstream, and Bill and Jimmy had in their hands two valuable assets: good pop instincts, and that magical, eternally mutable three-note melody that would crop up again and again throughout their career like a leitmotif.

    Like overnight-sensation "Doctorin' the Tardis", "Live at Trancentral" rose quickly up the charts, hitting its peak position of #5 scant weeks after its initial release, and staying on the charts for twelve weeks. A top-five placing certainly qualifies as a "hit", even if it's underwhelming compared to a chart-topper. Still, of course, the legacy of this release is how it launched the KLF as a commercial phenomenon, marketed with high-budget videos and TV appearances. The next year and a half or so would see six top-ten singles, a remarkable run by any standard, furthered by their decision to throw it all away when they were at their very peak. This would, of course, be a discussion-worthy career even if the music weren't brilliant. Which it is.

    In the United States, Chicago indie Wax Trax! Records gave it a try before major label Arista released it. The final commercial release on the KLF Communications label, "America: What Time is Love", was created not as a separate release but as a third kick at the can in the USA, again on Arista.

    On discogs.com, the combined entry for the Pure Trance releases and the Stadium House releases of "What Time is Love" has 70 items over 15 countries (this doesn't include "America: What Time is Love" or "***k the Millennium"). Even just sticking to the UK releases is tiring, but here we go: While KLF 004T and KLF 004R represent the original releases, we have the following to consider:

    • The main "Live at Trancentral" release is the 12", KLF 004X, with the striking black cover, matte with the name KLF in giant spot varnish, with the "Live at Trancentral" version on the a-side and the "Techno Gate Mix" on the b-side. KLF 004 (no appended letter) is a 7" with a shortened radio play version of "Live at Trancentral" on the a-side and the same version of "Techno Gate Mix" on the b-side. The same two tracks are repeated on both side a and side b of a cassingle, KLF 004C.
    • A CD single, KLF 004CD, has both the 7" and the 12" versions of "Live at Trancentral" together with, once again, the "Pure Trance" original version (its fourth appearance on a separate release).
    • There is a promo-only 12", perhaps called KLF 004P or perhaps indistinguishably named KLF 004X like the main release, that pairs "Live at Trancentral" on the a-side with the otherwise-unavailable "Wandaful Mix" on the b-side.
    • KLF 004Y is a second 12" release, subtitled "Remodelled and Remixed" and consisting of the "Moody Boys v. KLF mix", the "Echo & the Bunnymen Mix" and the "Virtual Reality Mix".
    "What Time is Love (Live at Trancentral)" (★★★★★): An amazing amalgam, for the most part this retooled remix of the underground "Pure Trance" anthem consists of the following: three verses of amiable self-referencing nonsense courtesy of Gee Street signee Isaac Bello, a sampled voice declaring, "I wanna see you sweat", rave sirens, crowd-cheering samples, all laid out on a bed of the original "Pure Trance" recording, with a more propulsive and pop-friendly drumbeat and bassline at the bottom. The thing that's stunning, though, is how seamlessly integrated it all is, how these disparate parts link and flow together to create an illusion of a full band cranking out a verse-and-chorus pop composition.

    The repeated sample saying, "I wanna see you sweat" was taken from an underground single called "To the Bone", released in 1989 on a minor American indie called Tuff City, recorded by a certain Wanda Dee. This relatively minor expropriation set into motion another of the many bizarre aspects of the KLF story that culminated, after Bill and Jimmy's retirement from the industry, with Dee touring Europe as the KLF, claiming to be the band's lead singer and creator of many of their ideas. Though it's tough to see Bill and Jimmy as people especially capable of feeling regret, this might well be a part of their life story that does indeed conjure up that emotion.

    While it's easy to consider this an example of the mainstream moving toward Bill and Jimmy's aesthetic than the other way round, you can see that the KLF did make a few conscious decisions based on an understanding of what sold and what didn't: most notably in what seems to me like a conscious decision to drop Bill's opinion-splitting voice. Of the six top ten singles that would come out during this peak phase, only one had Bill's voice on it, and that was the one credited to an alias. From now on, the voices on KLF recordings would be almost exclusively American or black, or both. And vocals would indeed be a prominent feature: in this particular recording MC Bello is very much the star of this recording; he's not overly charismatic, he doesn't have the greatest flow, he's not a great lyric writer (and since he's given co-writing credit on the mixes that include him, we can see he did write his own verses), but he's up to the job and he does commendably enough here.

    The main thing I can say about this top-five hit is that it's relentless. It does indeed rise and fall, but it has a non-stop drive that doesn't let up for a second. It's a blindingly-fast roller coaster ride from start to finish, and while every second of it evokes 1990, it's not as rooted in that time period as some of the KLF material that preceded it. It sounds just as great today as it did more than a quarter of a century ago.

    "What Time is Love (Live at Trancentral 7" Edit)" (★★★★★): MC5 f-bomb edited out, this radio edit shaves a minute and a half off the already concise 12" version, without sacrificing very much from the longer version - an instrumental section between the second and third verses is shortened and there are a few nips and tucks here, but all in all this is merely more bang for your buck - tight enough to cross over to the pop markets Bill and Jimmy had such a complicated relationship with.

    "What Time is Love (Techno Gate Mix)" (★★★★½): I don't have the first clue why the name of this remix is so incredibly similar to the earlier "Techno Slam" remix, with which this has nothing at all in common. I mean, the only thing this even shares with the "Live at Trancentral" version is the drumbeat - not a note of the original melody is present here, and neither are MC Bello, Wanda Dee or the Mu! Mu! choir. What is here is an absolute cornucopia of Jimi Hendrix samples, woven together like an abstract solo that extends the duration of the track. Back to Kopyright Liberation in other words (Hendrix gets no writing credit), though the whole thing is done more expertly than "Candyman". It's quite enjoyable, in fact, whatever a Hendrix fan might think about it. Or for that matter, whatever a raver might think: I couldn't imagine this getting much dancefloor play.

    "What Time is Love (The Moody Boys vs the KLF)" (★★★★): And handful of philosophical echoed spoken-word samples from different Rastafarian recordings introduces a hard-edged groove taken from King Tubby's "A Rougher Version". The Rasta teachings appear again and again throughout the track, but despite the dubwise origin of the musical sample, the remix doesn't have a reggae or Jamaican feel to it at all, having more of a post-electro Detroit techno groove. A robotic feel and a digital voice emulator producing the letters KLF brings this the closest the KLF ever came to Kraftwerk territory ("Live at Trancentral" actually does contain a Kraftwerk sample, though it's mere colour). The mix might be overlong at seven and a half minutes, with little activity beyond a series of other vocal samples and the appearance and reappearance of the main three-note melody.

    Towards the end, this bizarrely morphs into a slowed-down version of "Last Train to Trancentral", over which the "What Time is Love" melody continues, and even the "3 a.m. Eternal" blips make a cameo! Thus the entirety of the Stadium House trilogy is united for the briefest of instants.

    "What Time is Love (Echo & the Bunnymen remix)" (★★★½): Former Bill Drummond managees Echo and the Bunnymen, whose early Liverpool history intertwines with Drummond's tightly, were going through a tough time in 1990; their lead singer Ian McCulloch had left for a solo career, and drummer and resident bad-boy Pete de Freitas had just died in a motorcycle crash at the mythic age of 27. In the face of a swarm of negative reactions, the remaining members decided to forge on with a new singer and recorded a new album Reverberation in May 1990, to be released in November. Certainly the most "synergetic" cross-promotional activity the KLF ever engaged in was this well-timed remix, ostensibly carried out by this quintet, who were hardly well-known as house music remixers. On the label, each member is credited for participation, but did they cut the remix? Or was some of the instrumentation played by them? I have no idea. The cynic in me isn't particularly interested in finding out.

    This remix starts off being the closest here to the original "Pure Trance" version, but with voice samples and an electric guitar line adding atmosphere. As it proceeds, though, it gets more and more neo-psychedelic, like a new "Tomorrow Never Knows", with tablas, sitar effects, backwards guitars, everything but the Hare Krishnas. It is no doubt sheer coincidence that the concurrent Reverberation album was noted for its neo-psychedelic feel. In any case, the mix is strangely neutered, with the beat way in the background, making music unsuited for a dance floor but perhaps ideal for... well, for wherever Echo and the Bunnymen fans listen to their music.

    "What Time is Love (Virtual Reality Mix)" (★★★★): Described by some as a seven-minute version of Chill Out, this isn't actually excerpts from that album but more of a companion piece to it. Described as a remix of "What Time is Love", it really isn't: the melody of "What Time is Love" flits in and out of focus at various points, deep in the mix amidst a flurry of preacher-like voices unique to this mix, but the main element is probably the "3 a.m. Eternal" blips, which are a more-or-less constant presence throughout the track - for lengthy parts being really the only audio element in the track. Later on, after a completely unexpected drop-in of "Doctorin' the Tardis", we get the chorus of "Go to Sleep", and suddenly it's a remix of "Last Train to Trancentral". Then we get the sheep and the shepherd, and the Tuvan singer - all elements from Chill Out. There's even a piece or two from Space thrown in for good measure. Towards the end, we get a few extra drop-ins from "What Time is Love" to remind us which single this is. The whole thing is certainly intriguing enough, though I don't think anything happens here that isn't done better on Chill Out.

    "What Time is Love (Wandaful Mix)" (★★★★): Just as it says on the label, this is chock-full of samples from the Wanda Dee song "To the Bone", to the extent that at times it seems more like a remix of that song than of this song. Bello shows up most of the time, but mostly this is a variation of the "Techno Gate" remix, Hendrix samples and all. Actually, given the promo-only nature of this track, it's not impossible to imagine that this was the originally-intended b-side, before Jimmy and Bill had second thoughts about the extent of Wanda-sampling here. The Wanda quote that shows up most of them all here, interestingly, is the "Come on boy, do you wanna ride?" quote that would feature so prominently on the Stadium House version of "Last Train to Trancentral" (where of course the "ride" double-entendre makes more sense) - perhaps envisioning that future remix is what led the KLF to scrap this one. In any case "Wandaful Mix" is an interesting but inessential mix, which goes nowhere for a few minutes and then fades out.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. MGSeveral

    MGSeveral Augm

    More!More!
     
  6. TheLazenby

    TheLazenby Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    If anything, this remix solely proves that Wanda was the founding member of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, wrote "Doctorin' The Tardis" AND "Rock and Roll Part 2", and sometimes records under the fake names 'Bill Drummond' and 'Jimmy Cauty'.

    .....Oh yeah, she's the Orb, too, by the way. Those "fluffy cloud" samples? Totally Wanda's idea.

    :p
     
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  7. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    For the US Promo 1991 'What Time Is Love'
    The New Mix is actually a further edited 7 inch. Which is titled 'Live At Trancentral Mix'
    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Hermetech Mastering

    Hermetech Mastering Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Milan, Italy
  9. Bolero

    Bolero Senior Member

    Location:
    North America
    that rain gear, the sitars, the marshall stacks with the big light on it, are badass :D

    Hermetech, I may check out that book, thx
     
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  10. Bolero

    Bolero Senior Member

    Location:
    North America
    Careful, you might end up front page on Wanda's list of credentials!!
     
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  11. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    [​IMG]

    WAITING (November 1990)

    Of the many unofficial releases of KLF material that were put out there post-retirement, one, entitled Waiting for the Rites of Mu, was significantly higher-profile than the others, having been released by the otherwise-legit German label Echo Beach (check them out if you like dub) and thus having muscled its way into many a High Street megastore. Bill and Jimmy even felt obliged to comment on its illegitimacy.

    Its contents were two tracks, forty- and thirty-minutes respectively, taken from the audio tracks of two short films the multimedia-inclined KLF released during their time alive. One, Waiting, saw release in 1990 as a video cassette KLF VT007 and perhaps as an audio-only promo CD coded JAMS CD7. Whether or not the CD is legit, the VHS cassette certainly is, and the audio content is otherwise unavailable, so it gets an entry here. A brief one, mind you.

    Waiting (★★½): The packaging describes this video as “a 42-minute impression of the KLF’s 8-day visit to the Isle of Jura”, which is quite accurate. It is mostly video of Bill and Jimmy on the island in question, standing around doing… nothing much in particular. Lighting a fire, walking in woods, watching the seashore. Their rig is set up, featuring their giant Pyramid Blaster, and they seem at times to play around with it. The wind whips Jimmy’s hair throughout. There are animals. It last 42 minutes. That’s… it.

    You can view this video, if you so choose, as something parallel to Andy Warhol’s late-sixties film projects, or in the pop world John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s similar artworks, based around the notion that anything an artist does is art. Any other interpretation, really, renders the work horribly pretentious, a charge that I don’t think Bill and Jimmy minded having levelled against them.

    Given that the KLF were musicians (despite post-retirement efforts in the world of visual arts), the main focus of this recording is obviously the soundtrack, 42 minutes of otherwise-unavailable audio forming, in essence, a third album in the vein of Chill Out and Space.

    The simple fact, though, is that it’s nowhere near as good as Chill Out and Space, largely for the reason that it’s all so pointless, whereas those two albums were clearly artistic statements. There is no progression or movement: it is forty minutes long, but it could be four minutes, it could be four hundred, and it wouldn’t make much difference. But it’s not ambient mood-music either; while there is no movement, there is change, relatively constantly. Stuff comes in and out of the mix: extensive Jimi Hendrix excerpts (for the third time!), loads of monastic chanting, countless excerpts from other KLF recordings. Despite what the visuals imply, you get the feeling that this collage was put together primarily from a large stack of DATs that Cauty happened to have lying around his house. More than either Chill Out or Space, this includes snatches of rumbling hi-NRG dance music which, removed from its intended use on a dance floor, becomes another unobtrusive element of background noise.

    Scott Piering, a publicist who served as narrator on quite a few KLF releases, serves again as a ‘narrator’ of sorts in the form of a voicemail message at the beginning and end of this recording, which gives it its name. Among the minor entries in the KLF canon, this, despite a 42-minute runtime, is perhaps the most minor.

    Note: Uniquely among the KLF's efforts, Waiting appears to be unavailable on Youtube, being repeatedly taken down. Since it's obviously not Bill and Jimmy taking it down, I suspect it's the Hendrix estate. For people who have been following along through Youtube, don't worry. You aren't missing much.
     
  12. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
  13. Hermetech Mastering

    Hermetech Mastering Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Milan, Italy
    I need to grab it too
     
  14. OK, playing catch-up here, a few of my thoughts below:

    --------------------------------------------
    Love Trance
    --------------------------------------------
    The unreleased Pure Trance 3 has in fact been circulating since the mid-1990s in bootleg form and is available on Youtube. It’s possible to get lost down the rabbit hole here, but Jimmy has (apparently) confirmed via Twitter (since deleted, but archived by a fan) that the bootlegged version of Love Trance was real, though only a demo. It seems likely that a test pressing was made by accident (around 6 copies – plausible given the frenzied pace of KLF releases during this period and the fact that their regular pressing plant Damont did a standard 6 copies of test presses) and a couple of copies escaped into the wild. Original copies have appeared in Ebay, selling for hundreds of pounds.

    Adding credence to its authenticity, an alternative (though similar) version of Love Trance was released (bootlegged) by Positive Void Communications (https://www.discogs.com/KLF-Love-Trance/release/3200587). The origins of PVC are murky, but they’ve released deep and previously unknown KLF recordings in decent quality. Long term B+J cohort Gimpo is apparently involved and PVC allegedly operates with the acquiescence of Jimmy.

    What about the music? – have a listen for yourself on YouTube. I like it, though definitely a cut below the first two Pure Trance releases.

    --------------------------------------------
    Turn Up The Strobe
    --------------------------------------------
    By contrast, no plausible version of Turn Up the Strobe has ever been discovered, making it likely that it was never finished. Various later releases have been proposed as contenders for missing link status (Madrugada Club Mix, Kylie Said Trance, early versions of Grim Up North or Make it Rain), though this is just speculation.

    --------------------------------------------
    Madrugada Eterna – alternative mixes
    --------------------------------------------
    The Madrugada Eterna Club Mix was released in micro-quantities, then bootlegged. It’s very good – beats and bass are a bit primitive, not up to Stadium House standards, but still very nice. The beats and music occasionally seem to clash, though this issue may result from over-familiarity with the original. Never released on CD, except as a bootleg needle-drop.

    The real prize is the phenomenal 303 mix, a 2 minute except of which was used in the White Room promo. The full version was never released and all bootlegged copies use the short promo as the source. It’s been speculated that the mix was thrown together by Jimmy or another communicator for the Snub TV interview (see YouTube), which sounds plausible. Whatever the true story, a full version of the 303 mix would surely have been one of the crown jewels of the KLF canon. Perhaps a missed opportunity, but there you go.
     
  15. --------------------------------------------
    Chill Out
    --------------------------------------------
    Nothing much to add here, though this is clearly B+J’s definitive album-length statement. It works partly because the music is great, but also because of the cohesiveness of the concept and execution, right down to the evocative cover and track titles. I personally think Witchita Lineman works well in the context of the album, though I find the title slightly annoying (surely “Trancentral Lost in My Mind” would’ve been more suitable). Being brutal, it does kind of fizzle out a bit at the end and, with plenty of unreleased ambient experiments based around 3AM Eternal, perhaps it could’ve been even better! Or maybe that would be overegging the pudding.

    Anyway, if the KLF had disbanded after Chill Out, their place in the pantheon of electronic music would already have been assured, though they’d have remained largely obscure to the general public.

    -------------------------------------------
    Space
    --------------------------------------------
    Now this release is an absolute beast! There’s a great review on Head Heritage here: https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/180/. Nothing much for me to add. It’s like the dark twin to Chill Out and incredibly evocative of travelling through deep space - long silences and all! There’s also a very 1970s Kraut/synth prog vibe, particularly on side A, which you don’t really get from Chill Out. When the music finally kicks in around 7 minutes (Mars), it almost sounds like the gates of hell are opening (God of War and all that) – I’m sure a few bad trips have been instigated at this juncture!

    Apparently Jimmy pulled the music together in a week on his Oberheim synth – if so, it’s a great shame he didn’t create any more solo releases (though perhaps we shouldn’t be so greedy…).

    We all know the story about the fall-out and the removal of Alex Paterson’s contributions. The sparseness of the first two tracks (using the approximated track times) bears this out. Further proof has been provided by Dr Alex, who included his Space demo in a mix (which can be found online). Having listened to the Jimmy and Alex version, I can unequivocally say that all of Alex’s contributions are detrimental to the music – mainly goofy samples and whatnot – detracting from the otherwordlyness of the ambience, operatic strains and evocative sparseness. I say this as an Orb fan.

    Incidentally, if the A+J version did end up as the first Orb release, it’d probably have killed their career stone dead! Instead we got the fantastic technicolour Ultraworld and the rest is history!
     
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  16. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    Excellent work, lots of ideas to chew on. Thanks!

    I didn't know that Jimmy had said anything at all about "Love Trance". Interesting. He also kinda-confirmed that the Black Room session tapes are legit. I don't love "Love Trance" and while the Monster Attack remix of WTIL is interesting, it's not earth-shaking (but I guess if Love Trance is legit, then so is that).

    Regarding the A+J Space, I know that Alex has conferred legitimacy on it by posting it. But if that weren't true, I would never believe it was legit. Clearly at that point in his career Alex was an "ideas man" who needed a musically proficient partner to bring his ideas to realisation (hm, which Scottish gentleman does that remind me of?), but the unfinished Space suggests that (a) Jimmy very literally put out whatever was left once Alex's contributions were stripped out, with no real additions or second thoughts, and (b) Alex used none of his Space-era work on Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, throwing it all in the garbage before producing a 150-minute album. Both of these would surprise me.

    I know there are people in the KLFsphere who say the Club Mix of Madrugada Eterna (ETERNA 1) is entirely fan-made. As much as I love that mix (I prefer it to the promo mix), I kinda think I agree with them. I wish it were legit, though. It's gorgeous.
     
  17. -------------------------------------------
    Black Room session tapes
    -------------------------------------------
    Yes, I believe these are real - and really rubbish! They are demos though, so not intended for public consumption.

    Mike Stent has said that one track from the Black Room sessions was completely finished and mixed called "The Black Room and Terminator 10", although he didn't state whether or not he had a tape of it. A bit sceptical myself...

    Getting ahead of ourselves a bit:
    The concept of the Black Room evolved over time:
    Originally it was planned to be hardcore techno (in the style of and featuring the original version of "It's Grim Up North"). Here's a great 1991 Bill quote from Norwegian radio (where else?):

    “Jimmy went to a club, a rave, once, last November, and the PA had broken down. It was like… It wasn’t very good. And all the walls were concrete. And there’s this sound to all the records, a very horrible, hard sound. And we wanted to get some of that. And we… I mean… we had decided we not wanting have snares. All these little things. Just, just. The only drum sound is the bass drum sound. And everything else is almost just noise. That’s what we wanted on the Black Room. […]

    [It’s Grim Up North] was the first track when we first decided to do The Black Room album. It was the first track we did for the album. We hope to redo that track and make it commercially available. And then it’ll be the main track on the The Black Room album."

    Later this tantalising concept moved in a more electro-metal direction (e.g. "America: What Time Is Love?", though not sure whether its intended inclusion on the Black Room was ever articulated) and it finally morphed into a thrash-metal collaboration with Extreme Noise Terror, who of course performed with the KLF at the 1991 Brits and on the 7" thrash metal version of 3AM Eternal recorded for the 1991 Top of The Pops Xmas special. The Black Room sessions are from the latter incarnation, though unfortunately there's nothing as developed as the TOTP recording - which they were not allowed to perform as it deviated too far from the hit version! A limited number of TOTP 7"s were sold via mail order.

    Tis a shame the original "Grim up North" version of the Black Room never came to fruition. The 12" version of Grim (original and hit) is a tour de force, which, in contrast to the others in the "Big 6", hasn't dated at all.

    -------------------------------------------
    Madrugada Eterna Club Mix
    -------------------------------------------
    Happy to be proven wrong here, but I'm pretty sure the Club Mix is genuine, another micro-press, some of which go backwards! The real versions have the KLF ETERNA 1 catalogue number, with the boots having ETERNITY 23. The verified 303 version also seems to use the Club Mix as it's basis (with additional chopped vocals and acid squelch), though I haven't listed closely enough to be definite of this.
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2017
  18. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    Full agreement here. It might have been a thing of wonder. The "America" concept might have been interesting as well, but I'm not too interested in a full album of ENT-music. I could perhaps just listen to Extreme Noise Terror themselves if that were what I was into. They once claimed, jokingly no doubt, that their first album was going to be a track-for-track cover of Deep Purple in Rock, so they always had a heavy metal jones. But I don't, though I enjoy the version of "3 a.m." for what it's worth.

    "Grim", on the other hand, is one of the best things they ever did, and the White Room/Black Room duality would have been cool, electronic "positive vibes" contrasting with electronic "bad trip".

    Oh well.
     
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  19. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    [​IMG]

    3 a.m. ETERNAL (Live at the S.S.L.) (January 1991)

    Adhering strictly to the tried-and-true pop music dictum that "if something works once, do the exact same thing again", Jimmy and Bill followed up their surprise-hit "Stadium House" retooling of an old "Pure Trance" single with... precisely the same concept, this time applied to what had been Pure Trance 2, "3 a.m. Eternal". This time, the in-joke "live" appellation was "Live at the S.S.L.", a reference to the brand of mixing console in Jimmy's house-cum-studio. The core concepts were the same: old song with new breakbeat, new bassline, new rap verses, new wailing diva. But where “What Time is Love” in its original form was a whirling, kinetic minimalistic trance masterpiece, the original “3 a.m. Eternal” was a completely different beast: haunting, hymnal, and with a full verse-and-chorus compositional structure. This makes the end products quite different despite their superficial similarities: while the Stadium House version of “What Time is Love” retains much of its dancefloor flavour, “3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.)” is very much a pop song, first and foremost.

    Which is likely why it, and not its predecessor, hit the Top of the Pops, becoming the KLF’s only number-one single released under their own name. Every bit the novelty that “Doctorin’ the Tardis” was, it had much less of that songs throwaway, instant-gratification feel, which is why its UK success got noticed, and the majors came a-knockin’: Columbia in France, Toshiba in Japan, and Arista in the USA, a recognition that must have been dizzying for these resolutely-independent and devil-may-care pop artists. I am quite sure UK majors came knocking as well, but to their credit, Bill and Jimmy stayed independent, even now that they were getting orders from every music store in the country.

    The discography of the Stadium House “3 a.m.” is much simpler than its predecessor in the UK at least, with no rare tracks or any such thing: a 12”, KLF 005X, has the full-length versions of “Live at the SSL” on the a-side and “Guns of Mu Mu” on the b-side. A 7”, KLF 005X and a cassingle, KLF 005C, contain edited versions of both, while a CD single, KLF 005CD, holds the 7” version of the a-side and the 12” version of the b-side, for some reason, with the Pure Trance b-side “Break for Love” tacked on just for the hell of it. The motherlode, however, is the absolutely wonderful second 12”, entitled “KLF Present the Moody Boys Selection”, with the following three otherwise-unavailable remixes: “Wayward Dub Version”, “Rankin’ Club Version”, and “Klonk Blip Every Trip”, each remixed by Tony Thorpe.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.) (★★★★★): Even more than “What Time is Love”, the Stadium House version of “3 a.m. Eternal” really gives the impression of the KLF as a crew. Ricardo La Force is probably less of an MC than Isaac Bello, less distinctive. However, he served as a good enough frontman for those three minutes he was seen riding around with Jimmy and Bill, calling into a microphone that "KLF is gonna rock you" as if he had always been part of the team. And, of course, with "Down with the crew-crew talking 'bout the mu mu", the KLF reach perhaps the peak level of daftness Bill and Jimmy strove toward. A beeping noise that, in the video, appears to simulate a telephone or walkie-talkie provides the song with an earworm of a hook.

    The main diva vocals here, apart from Maxine Harvey's sublime vocals from the original, is a throaty call of "KLF! Uh-huh, uh-huh" from P.P. Arnold, taken from the then-dormant unreleased track "Church of the KLF". Reconfigured here, it's nothing to do with church and everything to do with braggadocio; the entire lyrics, like so much of the KLF’s output, consist of in-jokes and self-references, the gradual building of a mythology. The thing is, though, that the boastful nature of the track is borne out by the songs sublime confidence; it cruises by seemingly fully aware it’s going to number one.

    The single ends with simulated crowd noise (perhaps taken from an unreleased Haircut 100 live recording, or perhaps that's just a rather decent joke instead), over which Scott Piering calls out, "Ladies and gentlemen, the KLF have now left the building" - a tongue-in-cheek joke based on the famous Elvis Presley announcement. Regardless of their lack of a "masterplan", this finishing touch served the band well when they chose, a year later, to alter the announcement slightly at the Brit Awards while announcing, to this very tune, their retirement from the music business altogether.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Guns of Mu Mu) (★★★★): What I can say about this particular mix is that, given how different the various remixes of "3 a.m." have been from one another, this track serves as a kind of "remix mix", combining elements from both "Pure Trance" and "Live at the S.S.L." with the bassline that we'll see as a common theme on the accompanying Moody Boys 12". And, of course, the titular guns: the title might suggest something Spaghetti-Western-y in feel, but this remix sadly doesn't feature those sort of atmospherics. It does feature, though, a whole bunch of gunshots, likely taken from western films, or else cartoons, since they have that cinematic "zing" quality as opposed to the sound of genuine gunshots.

    It's nice to hear Duy Khiem and Maxine Harvey, elements that made "Pure Trance" so great. In the end, though, this track is brought down by its very purpose: the fact that it combines so adroitly elements of different mixes means that it has very little personality of its own and very little to recommend it. It's wonderful, because the constituent strands of its DNA are wonderful, but that alone doesn't make it a success.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L. - radio) (★★★★★): I considered the 7" and the 12" versions of the Stadium House "What Time is Love" to be pretty much equal. I think, though, in the case of this superb pop construction, the additional tightness that the 7" edit provides probably gives this the edge. This has all of the ingredients of a perfect pop single, including heightened tension throughout and a lack of repetition: the brief running time of three and a half minutes belies the fact that the track features a 15-second intro and a 15-second outro. And they squeeze in a breakdown at the two-thirds point.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Guns of Mu Mu - Edit) (★★★★): Pulling fully two minutes off the running time of the not-excessive 12" b-side, this 7" version contains most of the same elements and is neither better nor worse than the longer version.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Wayward Dub Version) (★★★★★): Where the Moody Boys had shown up on quite a few 12” singles already, offering takes on KLF tunes, this release is something different: three tracks all remixed by the Moody Boys (whether that refers to Jimmy Cauty and Tony Thorpe working as partners or just Thorpe himself using a deceptive alias is never clear) at Mad Professor’s Ariwa Studios, engineered by none other than Mad Professor himself, and just steeped in the reggae/dub vibes that presumably emanate non-stop from Mad Professor’s recording house. It’s a wonderful release, different to anything else the KLF put out.

    Side one consists entirely of this particular remix, the most authentically dub track in the KLF oeuvre. It’s based around the same bassline as the “Guns of Mu Mu Mix”, with bits taken from both the Pure Trance version and the Stadium House version, processed, filtered, reverbed, and dropped in and out of the mix in an authentic dub stylee. The bassline, known widely as the “None Shall Escape the Judgement” Riddim for the Johnny Clarke song where it was likely first heard (and also found, interestingly enough, on white New York singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman’s “Egyptian Reggae”, which is where several online resources label this track’s sample as originating from, though I disagree), is one of those grooves that has simply entered the shared consciousness of Jamaican music. It hits hard on this particular track, contextualising the barrage of vocal samples throughout (“Lord have mercy”, “This jam is serious”), which fit this mix like a glove. The whole thing is a stupendous achievement, deep in the way the best Jamaican dub is, not overly eventful but continually moving and mutating.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Rankin’ Club Version) (★★★★★): A little lesson in alchemy: take the same reggae bassline and the same Funky Drummer-styled breakbeat as the previous mix, alter the levels a bit, and the end result is not a clone of the "Wayward Dub" mix but instead a track with an unexpectedly mellow groove, over which a voice (Black Steel’s?) singing, "we justified ancients of mu mu" meets some piano improvisations and quite an extensive lift from the Pure Trance version of "3 a.m." (Maxine's whole verse and chorus, the "eternal" chants - not a note is taken from "Live at the S.S.L."), and the song somehow seems to anticipate what in a few years time would be termed trip-hop. It's a surprisingly brief but still quite delightful remix.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Klonk Blip Every Trip) (★★★★½): A real conundrum, this one: the main focus of this extremely-deviant remix is a male voice extemporising wordlessly - or, to be less charitable, jabbering. He's fascinatingly weird, but the odd thing is that he comes from an early Orb song: the b-side to the very first Orb release, entitled "The Roof is On Fire". And while the label of that ep credits a "D.J. Mr. X", without any further explanation, the link between that track and this one is even more curious, given that, where the other two remixes on this 12" credit Tony Thorpe as co-writer alongside Drummond and Cauty, the 12" label lists Tony Thorpe as sole composer of this remix - which would be completely baffling until you consider that it shares nothing beyond tempo and the two-chord pattern with the Drummond/Cauty composition - raising the question of whether this is a "remix" of a KLF song at all or an original Moody Boys composition merely influenced by "3 a.m. Eternal".

    In any case, it's a rather surprising minimalist composition, a gruff, thumping four-on-the-floor beat, with no bassline at all to speak of, with a bit of musical decoration here and there to accompany Mr. Jabber. It's quite enjoyable, but it's tough to know what the song is intended for: it's not going to do anything on a dancefloor beyond confuse everyone.

    3 a.m. Eternal (Break for Love) (★★★½): A year and a half is enough to render this really out of date, and out of place: with so many remixes to choose from, why was this stuck on the CD single?

    [​IMG]
     
  20. kyodo_dom

    kyodo_dom Forum Resident

    I'm a bit late to the party, but I really want to congratulate the OP on this wonderful thread. It has brought back some really good memories, even though I haven't played a JAMs/KLF record in ten years or more. I remember buying the original 12" of the JAMs "All You Need is Love" as a teenager at Selectadisc in Nottingham shortly after it came out (I seem to remember it was an NME single of the week, which is where I first read about it). I was just getting into hip-hop and electro, and bought this thinking it would be, well, a bit more "normal" hip-hop. That it wasn't confused me greatly when I first listened to it, and I initially took to it as a kind of novelty record, but I persevered as something eventually emerged from the sonic mess that made me realise it wasn't a novelty thing at all, and I ended up becoming a bit of a JAMs/KLF fanatic - well, as much as my cashflow would allow - pretty much until the end. I think I still have some brief correspondence from King Boy D that I received back in the JAMs days, as well as a copy of a crazed photocopied catalogue they had that advertised things like helicopters.

    So, thanks again OP: I really enjoy your write-ups and reviews. And also kudos to the other members who've been contributing.

    BTW, over on another thread (about Julian Cope) there's some information about Ford Timelord. Have a look at this post. Apparently the car made a cameo in the first Superman film, too (according to this website).
     
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  21. Hermetech Mastering

    Hermetech Mastering Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Milan, Italy
    Thanks for that kyodo_dom. I've replied on that Copey thread, there is some good news for Higgs/Flinton/TCLethbridge fans. ;)
     
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  22. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    I've always wondered: are American cars roadworthy in the UK? Because I'm pretty sure the opposite is not true, that you can't drive an English car in the USA, everything being mirrored and all.
     
  23. Hermetech Mastering

    Hermetech Mastering Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Milan, Italy
    You can definitely drive left-hand-drive cars in the UK (which is right-hand-drive), you see them quite often, especially all the tourists and lorry drivers crossing the channel to/from mainland Europe.
     
  24. -------------------------------------------
    Stadium House trilogy
    -------------------------------------------
    Great write-up as always from the OP. My two cents:

    For casual observers, the Stadium House version of WTIL was their first encounter with the KLF - I doubt many made the link to the Timelords, their only other mainstream success at this point. So to the public the band appeared to emerge fully-formed with a seamlessly integrated high tempo dance/rap style, perfectly summarised as "Stadium House". The mythology too was pretty much fully-developed at this point, adding an cultish air of mystery to proceedings. Where have these guys come from? What on Earth are they going on about? No idea, but it sure sounded exciting and very different to anything else before or since (in the mainstream charts at least).

    And who were the band? Again making some assumptions here, but I'm guessing most thought the various rappers, vocalists and dancers were the KLF (mostly black incidentally), though the eagle-eyed may have spotted the middle-aged chaps in raincoats rocking-out amidst the chaos. From a commercial perspective at least, the move away from Bill's vocals (and subsequent focus) was clearly a wise decision. The videos were also fantastic – particularly the model town in LTTT.

    Echoing Bungojerry’s comments, it’s remarkable how well-integrated all the core elements are, retaining a pop sensibility at all times. This is in no small part due to the efforts of the various collaborators, both behind the scenes and stage front (Tony Thorpe and Nick Coler are amongst the most important - see list here List of The KLF's creative associates - Wikipedia ).

    At this point I’ll also big-up the contributions of rappers MC Bello (WTIL) and Ricardo de Force (3AM, LTTT). Let’s be clear – they are largely purveyors of the dreaded Euro-rap, which is normally my cue to switch the stereo off with immediate effect. But the Euro-rap style works in this context, not least because the rappers threw themselves into the task with such gusto. Whilst many MC's take their image deadly seriously, both Bello/Ricardo warmly embraced B+J's inspired nonsense, credibility be damned! Would a more-skilled/credible US MC have done any better? Kool Keith maybe, but I can’t think of many more who’d have got on board at this stage (maybe later for big bucks) – and produced the goods!

    Back to reality, I believe Bello/Ricard were briefed on various bits of KLF mythology to incorporate into their verses, which they concocted themselves. Hence their well-earned co-authorship. Bello was asked to appear on 3AM, but his manager (unbeknown to Bello) said he was indisposed. That’ll have cost him a pretty penny! Ricardo wasn’t as technically gifted and his raps had to be cut-up and re-arranged in the studio - good practice for Tammy Wynette!

    Bunglejerry’s outlined a definitive list of various versions. Sticking to the main versions, I’ve always been conflicted over whether the full or 7” edits are preferable. Probably 12” for WTIL, with extra verse and uncensored MC5 sample, though ending drags-out slightly. Is there an extra verse on the full 3AM? Can’t remember, but I do recall there’s a clunky edit on their which, as a bedroom producer, always bugs me – it’d have taken 5 minutes to fix! As the most spartan of the 3 (relatively speaking), the full length LTTT doesn’t really add much to the edit, so 7” edit it is. Though will have to re-listen to these before making a definitely judgement. Any which way, that's an incredibly solid 10+ minutes of frenetic Stadium House music - probably all you'll ever need in this micro-genre!
     
  25. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips?

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    When we were posted to Geneva we took our car with us from Canada for the 4 years we were there, I drove back home to Scotland twice in that time.
     
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