The original version of "The White Room" did appear on Spotify, but got taken down about a week later. Which probably says more about Spotify than owt else..
it was interesting, but I'm glad they reworked it. it sounded too much like bad '80's pop music there were a couple tracks that were cool, but the actual release is much more solid. it is pretty neat to hear all those same samples & mixes thrown inside out, and all around, as they refined the tunes
I just realized, doing a marathon of all the JAMs/KLF albums must be the most disjointed thing ever. XD There's pop, there's an instrumental ambient album, there's a heavy metal album....
haha true.....they brought the art of remixing to a new level!! although if I hadn't read all the info in this thread, I would have never known it. initially I only knew of "the white room" and "chill out". plus Dr Who I suppose....but I wasn't aware it was the same team of ppl
First off, absolutely fascinating and well-written review of the bafflingly complex KLF discography. I never thought I’d live to see Disco 2000 analysed in such detail! Bunglejerry’s posts (so far) stand as an essential 3rd pillar alongside Ian Shirley’s recently published ‘Turn Up the Strobe’ and John Higgs’ Chaos, Magic… The latter in particular overlooks the music itself (which was partly the point of the book, to be fair). Shirley’s effort is much better from a musical perspective, but doesn’t get into the forensic detail of the various mixes that Bunglejerry does. So props to the thread starter! My own modest contributions. Starting at the beginning (near enough): ----------------------------------- I’m sure I’m not the only one to have read the KLF’s liner notes obsessively, desperate to hear the various tracks mentioned therein. Having already been blown away by Chill Out and Space, I arrived at the History of the JAMs with high expectations… That were immediately punctured by the first track All You Need Is Love. Frankly, the production is terrible, Drummond’s rapping is equally abysmal and the backing vocals are beyond cheesy. The one thing is does have is plenty of energy and the indelible Discordian weirdness that infects all the duo’s releases. The only track I kind of liked was Porpoise Song, probably because it’s an instrumental version in mid-1980s style electro style. Incidentally, none of this stuff would’ve cut the mustard at a teenager’s house party in the early 1990s (my generation) – you'd have been laughed out the room! So I endured this disappointing (to me) release in isolation. I still had enough faith in the boys to pick-up a bootleg CD of 1987. This time I knew what to expect and was consequently able to enjoy it a lot more. Hey Hey and Rockman Rock in particular are completely insane. Don’t Take 5 is probably the most commercial track here, with perhaps Drummond’s best attempt at conventional rapping. The TOTP section is a waste of space. Me Ru Con is quite nice, but completely out of place. All You Need is Love is still useless my opinion, as is the Queen and I. Though it’s very obvious that most of this stuff is meant to be obnoxiously slap dash – and some is indeed hilarious (“I’m King Boy bad and I’m King Boy hard”, “What? We’re not the Monkees” etc.). The Justified and Ancient (on Hey Hey) and Rockman Rock female chants are endearingly simplistic, like something school kids might make-up, but are undeniably catchy – with J+A laying the foundations for their future megahit! Probably the best track from a musical perspective is Next, with the Stevie Wonder and Wild Man Fischer samples and No More Heroes quoting clarinet riff. Drummond does well here too. So, in summary – 1987 is completely bonkers, full of energy and ideas (and a lot of annoying filler – TOTP, “mind the gap”, some guff about throwing away giros, Me Ru Con (arguably)), sporadically amusing and musically primitive verging on the incompetent. I still listen to it today, though wouldn’t recommend to anyone beyond the committed K-o-phile.
Well gosh, you've made me blush on this bright Monday morning (I know it's Tuesday, but it was a holiday weekend here in Canada). A third pillar? To be honest, I have it in my head that I might keep working on this and put it out in an e-book format, but I'm unaware of Ian Shirley, and if he and I turn out to be covering much of the same terrain, perhaps I won't. I do, as I said earlier, see this as a bit of a complement to Higgs, since he downplays the music in favour of the myth and I do the opposite. I appreciate the ego massage! Love your comments on 1987. Mostly the same as mine but even a bit more critical. The early years were hard to write about. I had to keep reminding myself, "I love this band, don't I?" because listening to nothing but the JAMS-era will convince you you've backed the wrong horse. It takes patience to get to the payoff. What is "No More Heroes"?
One more for today: Going back a little bit… Like 1987, the Man is really for the dedicated fan only. But, for the already converted, it’s worth a listen. The Man is fairly conventional folk with pop, country and spoken-word elements, mainly distinguished by some terrible lead vocals courtesy of Mr Drummond (e.g. Ballad for a S*x God, which still manages to be weirdly entertaining). The most notorious track is Julian Cope Is Dead, an amusing retort to JC’s Bill Drummond Said that thankfully keeps within Bill’s narrow vocal range. He does alright on a couple of other tracks too e.g. the cover of Goin’ Back. The pop tracks are also OK (King of Joy, I Want That Girl), though would benefit from a better vocalist. Instrumental tracks, particularly the opener, are good, though not sure how much input Mr Drummond would have had. Slide guitarist Graham Lee would of course contribute to Bill’s more successful musical ventures e.g. Build a Fire and Madrugada Eterna. Despite these ample misgivings, the album’s an OK listen. Alan MaGhee is reportedly a fan! Though you’ll notice I’ve used the word “OK” a few times – there’s plenty of better music in the world. The mildly curious should check out “Julian Cope Is Dead” on YouTube and take it from there (or not).
THE WHAT TIME IS LOVE STORY (September 1989) As Drummond and Cauty scanned the ashes of their failed multi-million-dollar movie and soundtrack project, they seem to have decided to take a step backward, into what first brought them together: the murky world of Kopyright Liberation. The story in brief on this package - the only “various artists” package on the KLF Communications label - is that, months after the release of the original 'Pure Trance' version of "What Time is Love", the KLF discovered that a slew of imitations, remixes, covers and clones had been released throughout Europe without their knowledge or permission. So they asked Alex Paterson of the Orb to put together an album's worth of the best versions - which results in four European clones tacked together with the KLF original and a KLF live version; originally the album was going to be given the rather wonderful title of Now That's What I Call 'What Time is Love'! before being retitled and given the rather lurid variation of the Pure Trance cover design as its own cover art. There has always been speculation that this is yet another prank and that the songs were all created by Jimmy and Bill themselves. I tended to believe this line myself for the longest time, but you can find the original 12 inches on discogs.com - and besides, one imagines the duo wouldn't have had the patience to make it through the entire project otherwise. I do, however, doubt the claim that eighteen versions were released, especially since the four chosen for this album aren’t particularly different to one another. Like most of the KLF's most interesting moments, the album offers up questions but gives no indication what the answers might be. I presume that it's essentially a bootleg - that the songs were pressed on this disc from the 12 inches themselves without seeking permission from the bands that recorded them. The logic, I guess, is that turnabout is fair play, that the KLF can take from you what you take from them. However, the label crediting all tracks to W. Drummond and J. Cauty is a bit rich: if a JAMS track sampling almost a full minute of ABBA can be credited to Drummond and Cauty then certainly a Belgian house track sampling the KLF can be credited to the DJs who put it together. So it’s tough listening to this album wondering if Jimmy and Bill (and Alex) are intending to hold these songs up for admiration or for mockery. The four takes are (obviously) derivative but also far more dated than the sparkling original, and there are few reasons why a person would want to return to this album, which is more about proving a point than about providing an enjoyable listening experience. What Time is Love (original version): The original, in all its crystalline, sparkling glory. Relax Your Body [Dr. Felix] (★★★★): Credited to Dr. Felix or D.F.X. on the original 12", this is the only of the four "covers and remixes" collated here that very clearly samples from the KLF original as opposed to rerecording the tune. The song is basically an extended sample of the original, spiked up with drum-machine congas and other accents, over which a stentorian male voice intones exhortations to dance - and also bizarre religious references (both Muslim and Christian). It's all pretty campy, but it retains a listenability throughout. In a sense, what Dr. Felix has done is picked up on the “trance”/ecstatic aspects of the KLF original and added a series of Voice-of-God pronouncements that instruct dancers to keep dancing and to keep feeling that transcendent feeling of unity that late-90s dance music often sought. In a sweaty room at 3 a.m., full of ecstasy, I could see how it would be hypnotising. Outside of that, though, it’s best to keep a sense of humour. And of course suspension of disbelief. Dr. Felix / D.F.X. is an Italian DJ with a long career, and of the four ‘versions’ collected on this album, “Rock Your Body” has had by far the longest lifespan, having been re-released with new remixes in 2004, 2007, 2014, and 2016; this last version featuring a rather amazing twenty-minute reconstruction by Ricardo Villalobos. The Villalobos remix has no KLF on it (though a presumably-not-authorised Villalobos remix of “What Time is Love” also exists), but the a-side of the re-release still proudly rides that Drummond/Cauty groove and still credits the song to Felix Imevbore and Claudio Donato. What Time is Love (Italian mix) [K.L.F.S.] (★★★): According to discogs.com, K.L.F.S. was a one-off collaboration between two Italian Italo producers Marcello Catalano and Marco Parmigiani, who each have a lengthy catalogue of releases under different aliases. Given that the group name is a Made-in-China-style rip-off and the song name remains the same, claiming merely to be a remix, you might figure that the sole goal of this release was to convince punters they were buying the KLF original, but it came out on a fairly legitimate Italian label (Out Records), it faithfully credits The KLF as songwriters on the label, as opposed to “K.L.F.S.”, and the b-side does credit Catalano and Parmigiani by name as songwriters. So who can tell. While this is the sole track here that passes itself off as a remix of the KLF original as opposed to an entirely new creation, the fact is that the “Italian Mix” here actually does introduce a few interesting new elements to the song: a contrasting melody that appears here and there, some extra flecks of percussion in various places. Still, ninety percent of it is still a faithful recreation of the KLF’s original, making me wonder why they bothered. Heartbeat [Liaisons D.] (★★★½): A pretty amazing case of plagiarism ad nauseum, “Heartbeat”, by a Belgian collective called Liaisons D., turns out to be not a (direct) rip-off of “What Time is Love” but a rip-off of “Relax Your Body”, the track on side one from which it swipes almost all of its lyrics and general feel - including that repeated “chord” that shows up in the chorus. The Drummond/Cauty groove, however, is not sampled directly from the KLF original but in instead rerecorded, in a higher-pitched and tinnier manner (sounding like the chintzy Casio keyboards that flooded the market at the end of the 80s). Instead of invoking Allah, they start the song by invoking the Marquis de Sade - for some reason - and toss the line “feel the heartbeat” into Dr. Felix’s lyrics every now and then. Interestingly, however, toward the end of the song the voice informs us that the genre of the song is neither “new beat” nor acid-house but “trance dance” (actually it sounds like trans-dance, but he’s not a native speaker, so we’ll assume). The version is significantly less transcendent than either the Dr. Felix version or the KLF original (even including some anti-parent whining), but it’s the thought that counts. No Limit (Dance Mix 4’58”) [Neon] (★★★): No relation to the timeless eurodance anthem by 2 Unlimited, this particular track is pretty much exactly a cover of “What Time is Love”, adding almost nothing beyond a voice intoning the track’s title. Wide-screen LFO sweeps and a metallic sheen to the beats give this cover an additional out-of-body-experience feel, but a cover is all this is, with little originality. Cheeky, then, that the label of the original single (available on 7”, 12” and CD) reads “Composed by Luc Devriese”. Even more confusing: the “No Limit” single came out on a few formats, one of which features what is called the “No Limit (Rock Your Body Remix)” which turns out to be… a rip-off of the track mentioned above as a Dr. Felix creation! It’s enough to give you a migraine, really... What Time is Love (Live Version) (★★★★½): This single track turns out to be the only legitimate release of a live KLF recording ever released ("***k the Millennium" perhaps qualifies as a half-exception). There were, of course, several legitimate releases that claimed incorrectly to be live recordings, and several dodgy live recordings that claimed to be legitimate releases. This recording, from the Land of Oz nightclub on the night when "Kylie Said to Jason" was released, shows Bill and Jimmy taking part in one of the mere handful of live performances they would ever undertake together (their first, apparently). It is, of course, "What Time is Love", but it's one that has evolved quite a bit in the time between first release and this recording. It’s taken a few BPM faster than the original and features a more prominent beat that syncs up with the melody better than any of the four charlatans preceding (you half expect to hear Isaac Bello pipe up and say “The notes’ll flow, yo”). Bill and Jimmy use the original as a template over which to scatter an array of samples and quotations - many of which, including the infamous preacher, would show up in more mellow surroundings on Chill Out. Sounds of cheering crowds might be legit (just how big is this danceclub?), and sounds of a woman in pleasure are the nearest Bill and Jimmy ever got to aural pornography. An array of NASA sounds make this a kind of brother to Jimmy’s solo album Space. It’s a good listen, the highlight of the album. And, of course, for many people, the sole reason for buying the album.
I suppose he means 'No More Heroes' by The Stranglers. I've got to check that, not sure I ever noticed.
Ian Shirley's book - Turn Up The Strobe. Not sure if allowed to post links, but easy to find on Amazon UK. Recommended for any KLF fan. Bunglejerry - the book does have a decent amount of detail on personnel/production/releases etc., but not presented track-by-track, with dissections of the numerous remixes, samples etc. So your analysis is definitely sufficiently different. Would've been a great appendix to Ian Shirley's book - for the hardcore fan, to be sure, but don't suppose many other's would be reading it anyway!
Just dropping in to also say I’ve been really enjoying this thread too, keep up the good work! I’ve seen a couple of the Pure Trance 12”s recently, both “What Time Is Love?” i think, but didn’t bite. Will do if I see them again.
So, before they're tossed into the discussion, these "rare" KLF albums are fake (as in existent, but not made by the KLF): * Chill Out 2 * Chill Out 3 * Made @ 3 A.M. Coming Down Off E * Waiting For The Rites Of Mu * Live On Stage Any others?
Made @ 3 A.M. was put out by B&J associate/friend/roadie Gimpo. If "illegitimate" means "they could not have known in advance about the release and could not have prevented it", then it's tough to truly call it "illegitimate". Nonetheless, I won't be talking about it. Regarding Waiting for the Rites of Mu, that particular release is definitely fake - and Bill and Jimmy were particularly put out by it - but it is based on legitimately-released material. Waiting was given a commercial VHS release by KLF Communications, and they even put the soundtrack out as a promo CD. So I will be talking about Waiting (I'm not especially excited to reveal). I don't know the other three. Obvious ones to add to your list are Helter Skelter, and those mopping-up collections like Ultra Rare Trax and The Lost Sounds of Mu, which are technically pirates, not bootlegs. They're pretty essential one way or another to the fan who wants to hear everything, but again I won't be speaking about them.
I bought the Ultra Rare Trax CD from a market stall in 1995 I think, most of the tracks are not really ultra rare.
So what kind of provenance should I take from those "Recovered and Remastered" collection of six CDs? And the "Minus" follow-ons? Does anyone know what they all contain, really?
Thanks everyone for the likes. A few more comments below, which some may find interesting: -------------------------------------------- JAMs – my opinion (for what it’s worth!) -------------------------------------------- Whilst I stand by my earlier comments, I’ve probably been a bit harsh on the JAMs releases in my original review. They are unique and exhilarating, achieving exactly what Bill and Jimmy set out to do – utilise new technology, quick-and-dirty, build some press and create some controversy/mythology. There’s a contemporaneous interview (apologies – no link) where they talk about throwing samples and beats together in a “will this do?” style, then laughing hysterically at the results (substances may have played a part…). You can definitely imagine this scenario when listening to the first 3 minutes of 1987, for example. They were definitely not trying to create a musical masterpiece here! I won’t review the other JAMs releases – Bunglejerry’s amply covered these – only to mention that today I have a greater appreciation of the skill involved pulling some of these tracks together e.g. the seamless blending of sources (e.g. Whitney) and styles (e.g. the choir on Downtown) and the unique sound they created. Perhaps Drummond’s “unique” vocals prevented mainstream acceptance? Though he does have his moments (struggling to think of any though…). There’s also a couple of tunes on Who Killed the JAMs that have some great sections e.g. all of Porpoise and the Indian sample on Prestwich). But my overall opinion remains is that early JAMs (i.e. not including Grim) is for hardcore fans only. -------------------------------------------- JAMs 1987 boot -------------------------------------------- This was split into 3 tracks - the first two of which are either side of the original 1987 release. A bunch of genuine JAMs tracks are listed as bonuses, but instead a punk/metal live recording appears. In the pre-internet era and knowing the Big In Japan connection, I thought this may be something from the Liverpool days. Or perhaps a practice session for the Black Room? Either way, it sounded awful. 20 years later I found the answer, courtesy of http://klf.de/home/faqs/. It’s actually a random “live performance by firstly, american (?)-metal band Big Black and then another similar band called Rifle Sport do a few tracks. The origin of this session is unknown.” -------------------------------------------- Pure Trance -------------------------------------------- Like most people, my first experience of the Pure Trance versions was as B-Sides on the Stadium House CD singles – and were consequently ignored due to their relatively minimalism and subtlety. They had also dated markedly since first released. Not a problem now, but they didn’t sound cutting edge in 1991. Eventually they got a fair hearing from me once the other tracks had been worn out, revealing the excellence of WTIL in particular. However, 3AM is stymied by not being present in its original and best Pure Trance mix – instead the Break For Love version is used. There’s some debate over which is the original Pure Trance LTTT, but the one presented on the Stadium House disks is much more effective when utilised (most likely in another permutation) on Chill Out. So WTIL Pure Trance is the only outright winner of the commonly available versions. As per Bunglejerry’s review, the WTIL Story is basically rubbish (or available elsewhere) except for the Land of Oz mix – though only the hardcore actually need this in their collections. Kylie Said Trance (give or take the obnoxious “paaaarty!” samples) and the unreleased (but recently re-earthed) Love Trance make worthwhile (though second rate) additions to the Pure Trance story. The dance mixes on Sh@g Times are nowhere near as good – safe to ignore! -------------------------------------------- Kylie Said to Jason single -------------------------------------------- I missed this at the time, only hearing in the internet age. I guess B+J tried to bury it. K+J (along with Burn the Beat) certainly don’t match the 1991 version of the KLF – and I guess there was some embarrassment over its flop status. No need for a critical reappraisal – K+J is a catchy tune with decent but not great production, markedly inferior to contemporaneous Stock Aiken and Waterman and Pet Shop Boys releases. It sticks in your head, but it ain’t a lost classic. I think at least 5 things prevented it from taking off: 1) the rather obvious K+J bandwagon jumping; 2) the lyrics, which are extremely weird, but without being “cool” like the famous KLF tracks e.g. referencing daytime TV /sitcoms rather than mythical lost continents; 3) In the otherwise decent video, Bill gamely acts the frontman, but I doubt he’d appeal to the youth market, being neither young, “cool” or a heartthrob. [Apologies for the use of “cool” above – couldn’t think of anything better]. 4) More prosaically, as a small independent record company, it was obvious a lot harder getting a big hit unless the stars aligned, which occurred with the Timelords but not here. 5) As mentioned, in the late 80s SAW and the PSBs in particular did this stuff better, and with more photogenic singers in SAW’s case! No offence Bill… In the long term it’s clearly better that K+J crashed and burned, spurring the duo to go off on multiple far more successful tangents. I like some of the remixes e.g. Kylie Said Trance, though they’re spoiled slightly by the cheesy “paaaarty!” samples. -------------------------------------------- What’s Madrugada Eterna doing on the Kylie Said to Jason single? -------------------------------------------- Really good question. I was aware it was there, but not the chronology. Based on no evidence whatsoever, perhaps ME was conceived as atmospheric “incidental” music for the White Room, perhaps to accompany Ford Timelord racing through the Sierra Nevada or B+J hitching a lift in the desert (never watched the whole thing...). Then, as Jimi became more immersed in ambient experimentation and the Chill Out release was conceived, perhaps ME was pulled “off-the-shelf” and re-used as one the 3 main original pieces in the mix (ME, 3AM ambient version and Go To Sleep)? No idea if this is true, but fun to speculate!
Well, it was the soundtrack to the one promo they filmed for The White Room, indeed played behind Ford Timelord cruising along the Sierra Nevada, though there it's in a "dance mix" form: Steel guitars suggest desert road trips to me.
You know, being sceptical by nature, I have real doubts about this recently unearthed track. Something just doesn't ring true about it to me, particularly considering the era (immediately after WTIL, before even 3 am., even though it's numbered #3) it would have been released in. I have no doubt that Jimmy and Bill recorded a song called "Love Trance" but I'm not really sure this is it. Most of the KLF's discarded ideas got reprocessed into some other form. I'm curious what others think though.
Problem is, "Made @ 3 A.M." is nothing more than a retread of "Chill Out 2", which was created by a fan named Jez (and had absolutely nothing to do with the KLF - because Jez said so himself). It's an extended mix, of sorts, because it's about twice as long as CO2 but uses the exact same samples.
Strange. Gimpo describes it as an "Unearthed studio session, recorded most likely late 1989." So someone, somewhere is fibbing.
Radio edit for Kylie is about as much as I enjoy for this tune. I've got it on a an old 1990 UK Indie Compilation
