The KLF
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:RedirectTemplate:Redirect5
{{infobox band
| band_name = The KLF
| image = Image:The KLF.jpg
| caption =
| years_active = 1987 – 1992
| origin = London
| country =
| music_genre = Electronica, Techno, Acid House, Ambient
| record_label = KLF Communications
Arista & other international licensees
| current_members = Bill Drummond
Jimmy Cauty
| past_members =
}}
The KLF - also known by various other names including The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, The K Foundation, and 2K - were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Beginning in 1987, Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D, Time Boy) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock, Lord Rock) released hip hop inspired and sample-heavy records as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and, on one occasion (the British number one hit single "Doctorin' the Tardis"), as The Timelords. Drummond and Cauty are regarded as pioneers of the genres "ambient house" and "stadium house" (a form of rave music designed to fill stadiums and large nightclubs). As The KLF the duo released a series of international hits on their own KLF Communications record label. They also recorded trance and heavy metal.
From the outset they adopted the philosophy of a fictional cult from esoteric novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy, gaining notoriety for various anarchic situationist manifestations, including the defacement of billboard adverts and the posting of their own weird adverts in NME magazine and the mainstream press. Their most famous musical performance was a Brit awards protest involving a machine gun, a dead sheep and buckets of blood, although their highly distinctive and unusual performances on Top of the Pops were also renowned. In the art world, they staged an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year, and burnt a million pounds sterling. They published the infamous book The Manual and worked on a road movie called The White Room with director Bill Butt.
In February 1992 - at their incendiary Brits appearance with Extreme Noise Terror - they announced that they had left the music business, and in May that year they deleted their entire back catalogue. Although Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word of May 1992 - the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted - they have released a small number of new tracks since then, as the K Foundation, as 2K, and - on The Help Album (a charity record) - as The One World Orchestra.
Contents |
History
Origins and motivation
Bill Drummond was an established figure within the British music industry, having co-founded Zoo Records, played guitar in the Liverpool band Big in Japan, and worked as manager of Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes. In 1986, Drummond had announced his resignation from his position as an A&R man at record label WEA, citing that he was nearly 33.3 years old (33.3 rpm being significant to Drummond as the speed at which a vinyl LP revolves), and that it was "time for a revolution in my life. There is a mountain to climb the hard way, and I want to see the world from the top...".<ref name="specialk">Special K, GQ magazine (April 1995), quoting "a ringingly quixotic press release" issued by Drummond in 1986 (link).</ref> Thereupon he had released a well-received solo LP, The Man, judged by reviewers as "tastefully understated"<ref name="Trouserpress">Ira Robbins, Trouser Press magazine (link). Retrieved 20 April 2006.</ref>, a "touching if idiosyncratic biographical statement"<ref name="sounds-man">Wilkinson, R., "The Man review", Sounds, 8 November 1986 (link).</ref> encapsulating "his bizarrely sage ruminations"<ref>du Noyer, P. (1986), "The Man" review, Q Magazine, December (?) 1986 (link).</ref>, and "a work of humble genius: the best kind"<ref name="sounds-man"/>.
Artist and musician Jimmy Cauty was, in 1986, the guitarist in the commercially unsuccessful three-piece band Brilliant - an act that Drummond had signed to WEA Records and managed. Cauty and Drummond shared an interest in the esoteric conspiracy novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and, in particular, its theme of Discordianism, a form of post-modern anarchism. As a 1970s art college student in Liverpool, Drummond had been involved with the set design for the first stage production of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a 12-hour performance which opened in Liverpool on the November 23, 1976, featuring Illuminatus! co-author Robert Anton Wilson as a naked extra among the 23-strong cast. When the play moved to London it was seen by a young Jimmy CautyTemplate:Fact.
Image:The JAMS - 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?) .jpg Re-reading Illuminatus! in late 1986, and influenced by hip-hop, Drummond felt inspired to react against what he perceived to be the stagnant soundscape of popular music. Recalling the moment in a radio interviewTemplate:Fact, Drummond said that the plan came to him in an instant. He would form a hip-hop band with former colleague Jimmy Cauty, and they would be called The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. He recounted this in the October 1987 KLF Communications "Info Sheet", the first in a series of despatches from Drummond and Cauty to subscribers and journalists: Template:Cquote
This was an attitude that, despite the international mainstream popularity of their later work, did not soften, manifesting Drummond and Cauty's combined output in a variety of forms throughout their creative partnership.
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
Image:The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu- All You Need Is Love.jpg Early in 1987, Drummond and Cauty's collaborations began. They assumed alter egos - Kingboy D and Rockman Rock respectively - and they adopted the name The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), after the fictional conspiratorial group "The Justified Ancients of Mummu" from The Illuminatus! Trilogy. In those novels, the JAMs are opposed to the Illuminati, a political organisation which seeks to impose order and control upon society. As The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, Drummond and Cauty chose to interpret the principles of the fictional JAMs in the context of music production in the real world. Shrouded in the mystique provided by their disguised identities and the cultish Illuminatus!, they mirrored the fictional JAMs' gleeful political tactics of causing chaos and confusion by bringing a direct, humorous but nevertheless revolutionary approach to making records, often attracting attention yet seldom in conventional ways.
The JAMs' primary instrument was the new Akai digital sampler<ref name="SoS">Mark Stent, in Tingen, P. "The Work of a Top Flight Mixer", Sound on Sound magazine, January 1999 (link). Retrieved March 2006.</ref>, "the first truly affordable digital sampler", with which they would plagiarise the history of popular music, cutting chunks from existing works and pasting them into new contexts, underpinned by rudimentary beatbox rhythms, and overlayed with Drummond's raps, of social commentary, esoteric metaphores and mockery.
The JAMs' debut single "All You Need Is Love" dealt with the media coverage given to AIDS, sampling heavily from The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" and Samantha Fox's "Touch Me". Although it was declined by distributors fearful of prosecution, banned from the airwaves of BBC Radio 1Template:Fact, and threatened with lawsuits, copies of the one-sided white label 12" were sent to the music press, receiving positive reviews and being made "single of the week" in Sounds<ref>"All You Need Is Love" review, Sounds, 14 March 1987.</ref>. The JAMs re-edited and re-released the single, removing or doctoring the most antagonistic samples; lyrics from the song appeared as promotional grafitti, defacing selected billboards. The re-release rewarded The JAMs not just with further praise (including New Musical Express (NME) "single of the week"<ref>Kelly, D., "All You Need Is Love" review, New Musical Express, 23 May 1987.</ref>), but also with the funds necessary to record their debut album. Said Drummond, Template:Cquote The JAMs again ran afoul of copyright laws due in large part to the song "The Queen and I", which sampled large portions of the ABBA single "Dancing Queen"<ref>"The KLF Biography", KLF BIOG 012, KLF Communications, December 1990(link)</ref>. After a legal showdown with ABBA and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, the 1987 album was forcibly withdrawn from sale. Drummond and Cauty travelled to Sweden in hope of meeting ABBA and coming to some agreement, taking an NME journalist and photographer with them<ref name=sweden87>"Thank You For The Music", New Musical Express, 17 October 1987.</ref>, along with all the remaining copies of the LP. They failed to meet ABBA, and disposed of the copies by burning most of them in a field and throwing the rest overboard on the North Sea ferry trip home. Some copies, however, were secretly kept: The JAMs took out a full-page advert in The Face magazine, offering to sell the last five copies for £1000 each. This served Drummond and Cauty's legend-making aspirations well, and added to the notoriety of the album.
Image:The JAMS- Who Killed The JAMS? (rear).jpg Two new singles followed 1987, on The JAMs' renamed "KLF Communications" independent record label. Both reflected a shift towards house rhythms. According to NME, The JAMs' choice of samples for the first of these, "Whitney Joins The JAMs" saw them leaving behind their strategy of "collision course" to "move straight onto the art of super selective theft"<ref>"Whitney Joins The JAMs" review, New Musical Express, August 1987.</ref>. The song opens with the theme to Mission: Impossible and Drummond rapping "Mission impossible we were told, she'll never join the JAMs". Drummond goes on to beg and plead Whitney Houston to "join the JAMs" until, at around 1:30, the first strains of her voice can be heard. Full-on samples from Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" follow, as Bill Drummond ecstatically announces "Whitney Houston joins the JAMs!". Ironically, Drummond has claimed that The KLF were later offered the job of producing a new Whitney Houston album as an inducement from her record label Arista to sign with them<ref name="X">Interview with Bill Drummond by Ernie Longmire, X Magazine, July 1991 (link)</ref>. Drummond turned the job down but nonetheless The KLF signed with Arista as their American distributors. The second single in this sequence - Drummond and Cauty's third and final single of 1987 - was "Down Town", a rather more conventional dance record built around "Downtown" by 60s star Petula Clark<ref>Reviewed by NME writer James Brown in the 28 November 1987 edition.</ref>. These early works were later collected on the compilation album Shag Times.
A second album, Who Killed The JAMs?, was released in early 1988. Who Killed The JAMs? was a rather less haphazard affair than 1987 and earned The JAMs at least one five-star review (from Sounds Magazine, who called it "a masterpiece of pathos"<ref>"Who Killed The JAMs?" review, Sounds, February 1988.</ref>).
The Timelords
In 1988, Drummond and Cauty became "Time Boy" and "Lord Rock", and released a 'novelty' pop single, "Doctorin' the Tardis", as The Timelords. The song is predominantly a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme music and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part Two), with sparse vocals inspired by The Daleks and Harry Enfield's "Loadsamoney" character. "Doctorin' the Tardis" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 12 June, and also charted highly in Australia and New Zealand.
Image:The Timelords- Doctorin' The Tardis (UK CDV).jpg Also credited on the record was "Ford Timelord", Cauty's 1968 Ford Galaxie American police car (claimed to have been used in the film Superman IV filmed in the UK). Drummond and Cauty claimed the car spoke to them, giving its name as Ford Timelord, and advising the duo to become "The Timelords".
Drummond and Cauty often claimed that the song was the result of a deliberate effort to write a number one hit single. However, in interviews with SnubTV and BBC Radio 1<ref name="skinner">Bill Drummond interviewed by Richard Skinner on Saturday Sequence, BBC Radio 1, December 1990 (MP3)</ref>, Drummond said that the truth was that they had intended to make a house record using the Dr Who theme. After Cauty had laid down a basic track, Drummond observed that their house idea wasn't working and what they actually had was a Glitter beat. Sensing the opportunity to make a commercial pop record they abandoned all notions of underground credibility and went instead for the lowest common denominator. According to the British music press, the result was "rancid"<ref name="sounds-timelords">Wilkinson, R., "...Ford Every Scheme", Sounds, 28 May 1988(link).</ref>, "pure, unadulterated agony" and "excruciating"<ref>"Doctorin' the Tardis" review, Melody Maker, 28 May 1988 (link).</ref>, and - in something of a backhanded compliment from the normally supportive Sounds Magazine - "a record so noxious that a TopTen place can be its only destiny".<ref name="sounds-timelords"/> They were right - the record went on to sell over one million copies.<ref name="select92">"Who Killed The KLF?", Select Magazine, July 1992 (link).</ref>
The Timelords released one other product, a 1989 book called The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way), a tongue-in-cheek but nonetheless insightful step-by-step guide to achieving a number one hit single with no money and little talent.
The KLF
By the time the JAMs single "Whitney Joins The J.A.Ms" was released in September 1987, their record label had been renamed "KLF Communications" (from the earlier "The Sound of Mu(sic)"). However, the duo's first release as The KLF was not until March 1988, with the single "Burn The Bastards"/"Burn The Beat" (KLF 002). Although the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu name was not yet retired, most future Drummond and Cauty releases would go under the name "The KLF".
Image:The KLF-The White Room (album cover).jpg The name change accompanied a change in Drummond and Cauty's musical direction. Said Drummond (as 'Kingboy D') in January 1988, "We might put out a couple of 12" records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music, so don't expect to see them reviewed in the music papers".<ref name="info88">Kingboy D, KLF Communications Info Sheet, 22 January 1988 (link).</ref> Kingboy D also claimed that he and Rockman Rock were "pissed off at [them]selves" for letting "people expect us to lead some sort of crusade for sampling"<ref name="info88" />. In 1990 he recalled that "We wanted to make [as The KLF] something that was... pure dance music, without any reference points, without any nod to the history of rock and roll. It was the type of music that by early '87 was really exciting me... [although] we weren't able to get our first KLF records out until late '88"<ref name="skinner"/>.
The 12" records subsequently released in 1988 and 1989 by The KLF were indeed rap free and house-oriented; remixes of some of The JAMs tracks, and new singles, the largely instrumental acid house rave anthems "What Time Is Love?" and "3 a.m. Eternal" - the first incarnations of later international chart successes. The KLF described the sound of these new tracks as "Pure Trance".
In 1989 and 1990 The KLF embarked upon the creation of a road movie and soundtrack album, both titled The White Room, funded by the profits of "Doctorin' The Tardis". Neither the film nor its soundtrack were formally released, although bootleg copies of both exist. The soundtrack album contained pop-house versions of some of the "pure trance" singles, as well as original songs, most of which would appear (albeit in radically reworked form) on the version of the album which was eventually released to mainstream success. A single from the original album was released, however: "Kylie Said to Jason", an electropop record featuring references to Todd Terry, Rolf Harris, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and BBC comedy programme The Good Life amongst others. In reference to that song, Drummond and Cauty noted that they had worn "Pet Shop Boys infatuations brazenly on [their] sleeves".<ref>Sleevenotes, Indie Top 20 Volume 8, published by Beechwood Music, catalogue number TT08, 1990.</ref>
Image:KLF - J&A ice cream ad.jpg The film project was frought with difficulties and setbacks, including dwindling funds. "Kylie Said To Jason", which Drummond and Cauty were hoping could "rescue them from the jaws of bankruptcy", flopped commercially, failing even to make the UK Singles Chart Top 100 and forcing the entire film and soundtrack project to be put on hold<ref name="info8">KLF Communications, "Information Sheet Eight", August 1990 (link)</ref>.
In the meantime, "What Time Is Love?", which had already been deleted, was generating acclaim within the underground clubs of continental Europe; according to KLF Communications, "The KLF were being feted by all the 'right' DJs"<ref name="info8" />. This prompted Drummond and Cauty to pursue the acid house tone of their Pure Trance series. A further Pure Trance release, "Last Train To Trancentral" followed. At this time, Cauty had co-founded The Orb as an ambient side-project with Alex Paterson. Cauty and Paterson DJ-ed at the monthly "Land Of Oz" house night in London, and The KLF's seminal 1990 "ambient house" LP Chill Out was born partly from these sessions. The ambient album Space and The KLF's ambient video Waiting were also released in 1990, as was a heavier, more industrial sounding dance track, "It's Grim Up North", under The JAMs' moniker.
In 1991 The KLF launched a series of singles with an upbeat pop-house sound which they dubbed "Stadium House". Songs from The White Room soundtrack were re-recorded with rap vocals, a sample-heavy pop-rock production and crowd noise samples. The Stadium House singles, including "What Time Is Love?", "3 a.m. Eternal" and "Last Train to Trancentral" were international hits along with the 1991 UK top ten album, The White Room. A new version of "Justified and Ancient" was released featuring vocals from American country star Tammy Wynette.
After successive name changes and a plethora of highly-influential dance records, Drummond and Cauty ultimately became, as The KLF, the biggest selling singles act in the world for 1991, still incorporating the work of other artists in less gratuitous ways and, in the main, without legal problems.
Retirement
On 12th February 1992 The KLF and hardcore thrash metal group Extreme Noise Terror performed a live version of 3 a.m. Eternal at the Brit Awards, the British Phonographic Industry's annual backslapping awards show. Drummond and Cauty had planned to throw buckets of sheep's blood over the audience, but were prevented from doing so due to opposition from the 'hardcore vegetarian' Extreme Noise Terror<ref name="select92"/>. The performance was, instead, garnished by a limping, kilted, cigar-chomping Drummond firing blanks from an automatic weapon over the heads of the crowd. Later in the evening the band dumped a dead sheep with the message "I died for ewe - bon appetit [sic]" tied around its waist at the entrance to one of the post-ceremony parties.
Image:Bill Drummond at the 1992 Brits Awards.jpg Reactions were mixed. Piers Morgan - writing in The Sun, under the headline "KLF's Sick Gun Stunt Fails To Hit The Target" - called The KLF "pop's biggest wallies" <ref>"KLF's Sick Gun Stunt Fails To Hit The Target", The Sun, 13 February, 1992 (link)</ref>. NME, on the other hand, said that The KLF "stormed" the show and that after their performance the Brits show went "downhill all the way" <ref>"Baa-nned!! KLF sheep chopped by BBC", New Musical Express, 22 February, 1992 (link)</ref>. Scott Piering's announcement over the PA as the band left the stage that "The KLF have now left the music business" was largely ignored at the time.
In the weeks following the performance, The KLF continued working with Extreme Noise Terror on the album The Black Room, but it was never to be released. On May 14 1992 the KLF announced their retirement from the music industry and the deletion of their entire back catalogue: Template:Cquote
Template:Sample box start variation 1 Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end Select Magazine, in a comprehensive examination of The KLF's announcement and its context, called it "the last grand gesture, the most heroic act of public self destruction in the history of pop. And it's also Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty's final extravagant howl of self disgust, defiance and contempt for a music world gone foul and corrupt."<ref name="select92"/> Many of The KLF's friends and collaborators gave their reactions in the magazine. Movie director Bill Butt said that "Like everything, they're dealing with it in a very realistic way, a fresh, unbitter way, which is very often not the case. A lot of bands disappear with such a terrible loss of dignity...". Scott Piering said that "They've got a huge buzz off this, that's for sure, because it's something that's finally thrilling. It's scary to have thrown away a fortune which I *know* they have. Just the idea of starting over is exciting. Starting over on what? Well, they have such great ideas, like buying submarines...". Even Kenny Gates, who, as a director of The KLF's distributors APT, stood to lose financially from the move, called it "Conceptually and philosophically... absolutely brilliant". Mark Stent voiced the doubts of many when he said that "I [have] had so many people who I know, heads of record companies, A&R men saying, 'Come on, It's a big scam.' But I firmly believe it's over". "For the very last spectacularly insane time", the magazine concluded, "The KLF have done what was least expected of them".
The final KLF Info sheet (number 23) discussed the retirement in a typically offbeat fashion, and asked "What happens to 'Footnotes in rock legend'? Do they gather dust with Ashton Gardner and Dyke, the Vapours, and the Utah Saints, or does their influence live on in unseen ways, permeating future cultures? A passing general of a private army has the answer. 'No', he whispers 'but the dust they gather is of the rarest quality. Each speck a universe awaiting creation, Big Bang just a dawn away'."<ref>KLF Communications Information Sheet #23, May 1992 (link)</ref>
Post-retirement
The K Foundation was an arts foundation established by Drummond and Cauty in 1993 following their 'retirement' from the music industry. From 1993 to 1995 they engaged in a number of art projects and media campaigns, including the K Foundation art award (for the "worst artist of the year"). Most notoriously, they burnt what was left of their KLF earnings - a million pounds in cash - and filmed the "performance".
Image:2K - Wheelchair.gif In 1995, Drummond and Cauty contributed a song to The Help Album as The One World Orchestra ("featuring The Massed Pipes and Drums of the Childrens Free Revolutionary Volunteer Guards"). "The Magnificent" was a drum'n'bass version of the theme tune from The Magnificent Seven, with vocal samples from DJ Fleka of Serbian radio station B92 ("Humans against killing... that sounds like a junkie against dope").
In November 1995, the BBC aired an edition of the Omnibus documentary series about The K Foundation entitled "A Foundation Course in Art". Jayne Casey (Drummond's former bandmate from Big in Japan) jokingly scolded Drummond on continuing to claim that he and Cauty were retired from the music business, as, she said, he had the DAT (digital audio tape) in his pocket. At another point in the film, Cauty is shown rummaging in a bag for the DAT of "The Magnificent". Drummond is clearly heard to say "Make sure it isn't the DAT with 3 tracks on it". Only one track was ever released.
In 1997, ten years after their debut album 1987, Drummond and Cauty re-emerged briefly as 2K ("for 23 minutes only"<ref name="2K">2K press advert (link, overview)</ref>). They released one single, "Fuck The Millennium" (a remix of "What Time Is Love?" featuring Acid Brass and incorporating elements of the hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save"), and made a one-off performance at London's Barbican Arts Centre with Mark Manning, Acid Brass, the Liverpool Dockers and Gimpo. This was preceded by the usual full page press adverts, this time asking readers "***k The Millennium: Yes/No?" with a telephone number provided for voting.
Bill Drummond continues to work as a writer and conceptual artist. Jimmy Cauty has been involved in several post-KLF projects including the music and conceptual art collective Blacksmoke and the electronic music group The Transit Kings, which saw him reunite with his former partner from The Orb, Alex Paterson.
Themes
Several threads and themes unify the many incarnations of Drummond and Cauty's creative partnership. Mostly these are esoteric or opaque in nature, leading some people to have compared Drummond and Cauty's incarnations to The Residents for their antics, if not their musicTemplate:Fact.
Illuminatus!
Drummond and Cauty made heavy references to Discordianism, a modern chaos-based religion originally described by Malaclypse The Younger in Principia Discordia, but popularised by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson in the Illuminatus! books, published between 1969 and 1971.
While the duo's well-documented attitudinal and tactical endeavours resembled those of the fictional JAMs, their references to themes of Discordianism and Illuminatus! also manifested their musical, visual and written work, meticulously and often covertly.
Image:The KLF - What Time Is Love video (Cornfields Version).jpg
Attitude and tactics
The attitude of Drummond and Cauty's partnership matched that of the fictional cult whose name they had adopted, disregarding authority and subverting established order, in a range of humorous, innovative and unpredictable ways. They wilfully violated copyright law; their publication of The Manual challenged the credibility of the UK Singles Charts, by offering the premise that the top position in the charts was available to anyone, irrespective of talent; and they made several extravagent situationist attempts to subvert the art world.
Throughout the partnership, these tactics were often interpreted by media commentators as "pranks" or "publicity stunts". However, according to Drummond, "That's just the way it was interpreted. We've always loathed the word scam. I know no-ones ever going to believe us, but we never felt we went out and did things to get reactions. Everything we've done has just been on a gut level instinct."<ref>Morton, R., "One Coronation Under A Groove", New Musical Express, 22 January 1991 (link).</ref>
Lyrics and self-reference
The opening line of The JAMs' debut single, "All You Need Is Love" is "Immanentize the Eschaton!", in reference to the opening line of Illuminatus!, "They immanentized the Eschaton", interpreted as "they brought about the end of the world" or "they brought heaven to Earth". The JAMs' "The Porpoise Song", from the album Who Killed The JAMs?, in which Kingboy D and a talking porpoise converse, references the talking porpoise, Howard, in Illuminatus!. The KLF's single version of "Last Train to Trancentral" opens with the demand "Okay, everybody lie down on the floor and keep calm", which is also taken from Illuminatus!.
The refrain "All bound for Mu Mu land", from The KLF's final single, "Justified and Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" is a reference to the Lost Continent of Mu, which Shea and Wilson identify with the fictional land Lemuria in Illuminatus!. Some research suggests that archeological remains located in waters off the coast of Japan may be Mu; at the end of the "Justified and Ancient" music video, The KLF exit in a submarine.
Drummond and Cauty's output is also highly self-referential, in common with Illuminatus!. In particular, the The KLF's hit singles of 1991 and 1992 reference themselves and each other extensively, re-using original vocal samples in a variety of musical contexts.
23
The number 23, significant within numerology, is a theme of Illuminatus!, where instances of the number are both overtly and surrepticiously placed. Similarly, an abundance of such occurrences were deposited throughout Drummond and Cauty's collective output, for example:
- in lyrics to the song "Next" from the album 1987: "23 years is a mighty long time".
- in periods of time: for instance, they reportedly signed a contract preventing either of them from publicly discussing the burning of a million pounds for a period of 23 years<ref>K Foundation, "Cape Wrath" advertisement, in The Guardian (G2), 8 December 1995(link).</ref>; and their 1997 return as 2K was "for 23 minutes only"<ref name="2K" />;
- in numbering schemes: the debut single "All You Need Is Love" took the catalogue number JAMS 23, while the final KLF Communications Information Sheet was numbered 23; and Cauty's Ford Galaxie police car had on its roof the identification mark 23;
- in significant dates during their work: for instance, a rare public appearance by The KLF, at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy, was on 23 June 1991; they announced the winner of the K Foundation award on 23 November 1991<ref>"K-Foundation nailed", New Musical Express, 11 December 1993 (link)</ref>; and they burned one million pounds on 23 August 1994<ref name="specialk" />.
When questioned on the importance that he attaches to this number, Drummond has been evasive, responding enigmatically "I know. But I'm not going to tell, because then other people would have to stop having to wonder and the thing about beauty is for other people to wonder at it. It's not very beautiful once you know".<ref>"Freak Show", i-D magazine, December 1994 (link).</ref> Drummond's penchant for living by numbers has also been observed in his choosing to align creative projects The Man and 45 with the standard revolution speeds of a turntable (33.3 and 45 rpm).
"Pyramid Blaster"
The "Pyramid Blaster"<ref name="info8" /> was an icon frequently and prominently depicted within the duo's collective work: a pyramid, in front of which is suspended a ghetto blaster displaying the word "Justified". This references the All-Seeing Eye icon, often depicted as an eye within a triangle or pyramid, a significant symbol of Illuminatus!. The pyramid was also a theme of the duo's 1997 re-emergence, with the proposed building by K2 Plant Hire of "a massive pyramid containing one brick for every person born in the UK during the 20th century"<ref>Fortean Times, referencing The Big Issue, 15 September 1997 and The Guardian, 5 November 1997 (link).</ref>
'K'
There is no definitive explanation of The KLF's name, nor of the origin of 'K' in the names of the K Foundation and 2K. KLF has been variously reported as being an acronym for "Kopyright Liberation Front", "Kallisti Liberation Front" and "Kings of the Low Frequencies". This mirrors Illuminatus!, where the fictional JAMs are in alliance with The LDD - who regularly change the origins of their name - and The ELF ("Erisian Liberation Front").
Although Drummond accounted for the adoption of The JAMs name in the first KLF Communications Info Sheet, the reasoning behind Drummond and Cauty's decision to reference the Illuminatus! mythology with such consistent intricacy is unknown. Indeed, it has been suggested by journalist Steven Poole that the public's inability to fully understand The KLF results in all their subsequent activities (as a partnership or otherwise) being absorbed into The KLF's mystique. In a review of Drummond's 1999 book, 45, and an appraisal of The KLF's career, Poole stated that "[Bill Drummond] and collaborator Jimmy Cauty are the only true conceptual artists of the [1990s]. And for all the eldritch beauty of their art, their most successful creation is the myth they have built around themselves."<ref>Poole, S., "Hit man, myth maker - 45", The Observer, 26 February 2000 (link)</ref> He concluded, Template:Cquote
Other themes
Other themes in the KLF's work include:
- Trancentral (aka the Benio<ref>Mead, H. (1990), Chill Out review, New Musical Express (link).</ref>): this was the operations centre of The KLF, their home, and their studios. Despite the grandiose lyrics of "Last Train To Trancentral", Trancentral was in fact Cauty's squat in Stockwell, South London.
- Eternity: a recurring theme in song titles ("3 a.m. Eternal", "Madrugada Eterna") and lyrics, and also - Drummond and Cauty asserted<ref name="info8" /> - 'Eternity' was the author of an ambiguous, far-reaching contract offered to The JAMs. See The KLF films: The White Room.
- Sheep: Drummond has claimed the use of sheep on the Chill Out cover were intended to evoke contemporary rural raves<ref name="X" />, and insisted that the dead sheep gesture at the Brit Awards replaced an earlier desire to literally cut off his hand at the ceremony<ref>"Burning Question", The Observer, 13 Feb 2000 (link).</ref>. Any wider thematic relevance of the sheep is unclear. Indeed, the inner sleeve of The White Room CD pictured Drummond & Cauty each holding a sheep, with the caption "Why sheep?".
Legacy
Despite their protestations of 1988<ref name="info88" />, The JAMs continue to be associated with the cultural movement which has come to be termed samplism and which retrospectively bundles together those literary and artistic works which make use of what could be termed 'creative plagiarism'. 1987: What the Fuck Is Going On?, is considered a seminal work in the early history of sampling music in the United Kingdom. (See Bastard pop).
Similarly, Chill Out is cited as "one of the essential ambient albums".<ref>Bush, J., Chill Out review, All Music Guide. Retrieved 6 April 2006.</ref> In 1996, Mixmag named Chill Out the fifth best dance album of all time, describing Cauty's DJ sets with The Orb's Alex Paterson as "seminal".<ref>Philips, D., "50 Greatest Dance Albums: # 5", Mixmag, March 1996 (link).</ref> Elements of The KLF's "Stadium House" concept - sampled crowd noise, and the re-use of vocal samples across singles - were adopted by several less successful rave acts of the early 1990s, including Utah Saints, N-Joi and Messiah.
Sound on Sound magazine credited The KLF with "set[ting] the trend for a new approach to mixing". Engineer Mark "Spike" Stent is quoted as saying:Template:Cquote
At the time of The KLF's retirement announcement, Drummond's old friend and colleague David Balfe said of Drummond's KLF career that "the path he's trod[den] is a more artistic one than mine. I know that deep down I like the idea of building up a very successful career, where Bill is more interested in weird stuff... I think the very avoidance of cliche has become their particular cliche..."<ref name="select92"/>.
The KLF have been imitated to some degree by German techno band Scooter, and were themselves the victims of a "hoax" when an outfit called "1300 Drums featuring the Justified Ancients of M.U." released a novelty single to cash-in on the popularity of footballer Eric Cantona. 1300 Drums even made a KLF-style Top of the Pops appearance, with the "band" wearing Cantona masks.
The Timelords' book, The Manual, was reportedly used by the one-hit-wonders Edelweiss to secure their number one hit "Bring Me Edelweiss".
"Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the Lost Continent)" is used in the finale of the Blue Man Group's theatrical show. Blue Man Group's Complex Rock Tour featured pieces from "The Rock Concert Instruction Manual", a tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of pop music and the rock concert experience. Their album Audio also uses samples from The KLF's The White Room.
In a largely cynical piece, Trouser Press reviewer Ira Robbins referred to The KLF's body of work as "a series of colorful sonic marketing experiments"<ref name="Trouserpress"/>. In 2003, The Observer newspaper named The KLF's departure from the music business (and their Brits performance in which - the newspaper says - "their legend was sealed") the fifth greatest "publicity stunt" in the history of popular music (Elvis joining the army being hailed as the greatest)<ref>Thompson, B. "The 10 greatest publicity stunts", The Observer, 27 September 2003 (link)</ref>. NME listed the Brits appearance at number 4 in their "top 100 rock moments".<ref>"100 Rock Moments", NME.com. Retrieved 21 April 2006.</ref>
Drummond and Cauty have made frequent appearances in the British broadsheets since The KLF's retirement, most often in connection with the K Foundation and their burning of a million quid.
Instrumentation
- Akai S900 sampler
- Apple II computer (later replaced with an Atari) & Greengate DS3 sampler card (later replaced with an Akai)
- Atari computer
- Gibson ES-330 semi-acoustic guitar
- Oberheim OB-8 analogue synthesiser
- Roland TB-303 bassline
- Roland TR-808 drum machine
- Solid State Logic automated mixing desk
Discography
External links
- 'KLF Communications' fan site
- KLF Mailing List
- KLF Online fan site
- Library of Mu press archive
- The KLF and Illuminatus! - including a list of their references to the number 23.
- Video clips of a 1990 KLF interview
Notes and references
<references/>
Template:The KLFde:The KLF fr:The KLF nl:The KLF fi:KLF sv:KLF no:The KLF