The KLF
The KLF ( Kopyright Liberation Front or Kings of Low Frequency ) were an influential British music group in electronic dance music, which was successful in the charts between mid-1988 and spring 1992.
The spectrum of their music ranged from ambient to house , whereby they were best known for the free use of samples from pieces of music by other artists. In the English-speaking world, the term Stadium House was coined for the admixture of audience noises through house productions, which was coined by The KLF .
biography
Emergence
The music group was formed by Bill Drummond (born April 29, 1953 in Butterworth , South Africa as William Ernest Drummond) (aka King Boy D , Time Boy ) and Jimmy Cauty (born 1956 in Devon , England as James Cauty) (aka Rockman Rock , Lord Rock ) was founded. Drummond had previously been manager of the pop bands Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes at the record company WEA , where he had also looked after Cauty's band Brilliant . After Drummond left WEA in 1986, the collaboration with Cauty began.
development
At first they called themselves The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs, dt. The really true ancestors / ancestors of Mu Mu ) after the fictional conspiratorial group "The Justified Ancients of Mummu" from the novel trilogy Illuminatus! and released their first single All You Need Is Love in March 1987 , which consisted mostly of samples from the Beatles ' title of the same name and Samantha Fox 's Touch Me (I Want Your Body) . In the same year they were sued by ABBA because they had sampled large parts of their hits Dancing Queen for their title The Queen and I without permission . The JAMs album 1987 - What the Fuck Is Going on? therefore had to be taken off the market.
For the next two singles, Drummond and Cauty used the theme music for the television series Cobra, Take Over , mixed with Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Down Town by Petula Clark , which appeared in late 1987. This was followed by the album Who Killed the JAMs? .
They had their first number one hit in Great Britain in spring 1988 as The Timelords with Doctorin 'the Tardis , a cover version of the score for Doctor Who , mixed with guitar riffs from Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll (Part Two) and the siren from the intro by The Sweets Blockbuster .
Then they published the book The Manual (How to Have a Number One - The Easy Way) (in German: The KLF - Das Handbuch - The fast way to the number one hit ), in which they described in detail how to get out of a Handful of samples constructed a number one hit. It is now considered a classic in pop literature. With this book they cleverly and sarcastically exposed the mechanics of the music business. The manual is now being distributed online free of charge. The audiobook double CD to the book is by Bela B. spoken.
At the same time they renamed their previously named The Sound of Mu (sic) record company in KLF Communications and called themselves The KLF in the future , although Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or The JAMs continued to be subtitled. Between 1988 and 1989 they released a number of house-oriented maxis, which the band described as "pure trance". Actions such as the Helter Skelter Rave in Oxfordshire in 1989, when The KLF distributed 1000 Scottish pound notes with the inscription "Children we love you" to those present, contributed to the irritation of the audience .
The KLF gained a legendary reputation in the burgeoning English rave scene. This is where the track What Time is Love? Was released in the summer of 1990. enormous popularity, so that the group turned to electronic productions. Another Pure Trance release was in early 1991 of Title 3 AM Eternal , which with machine gun sound Coupled in the beginning jingle by former ANC transmitter Radio Freedom was recorded. Then her film White Room was released , in which Drummond and Cauty are looking for the mystical room of the same name.
Around the same time, Cauty founded the ambient project The Orb with Alex Paterson . The next KLF album Chill Out (1990), which consists of only one long piece of music, although it is officially divided into 14 tracks , was influenced by ambient . Moving trains, chirping crickets and rustling corn stalks can be heard. Chill Out is considered the beginning of the music style of the same name .
Climax
Also in 1990, Drummond and Cauty started re-recording the songs from their film White Room , now with guest musicians and more vocals / rap. The tracks were also highlighted with sampled audience noises, which gave rise to the Stadium House style. In spring 1991 the title What Time is Love? and 3 AM Eternal to international hits, although both tracks used the same sample set pieces in part. That same year she participated with the American country singer Tammy Wynette her title Justified and Ancient new to, the end came out 1,991th The album The White Room , which was part of these remakes , also became the group's most successful album.
In 1990 and 1991 The KLF also appeared as a remixer for Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys .
In 1992 they won a BRIT Award and made their last joint appearance at the award ceremony, which still enjoys cult status today: The KLF teamed up with the grindcore formation Extreme Noise Terror , shot blank cartridges with submachine guns into the audience and left after a two and a half minute Grindcore version of their hit 3 AM Eternal and the final announcement "The KLF has now left the music business" hit the stage. Those in charge of the BBC were just able to prevent the band from pouring blood from buckets onto the audience. In return, the band left a sheep carcass at the aftershow party with a note saying “I died for you. Bon appetit ” ( “ I died for you. Bon appetit . ” ).
The End
After the scandal, the band tried to record together with Extreme Noise Terror for a planned album The Black Room, but then announced on May 14, 1992 the end of all their activities. At the instigation of the band, the sale of KLF sound carriers was also stopped.
After their withdrawal from the music business, Drummond and Cauty founded the K Foundation, which took part in various happenings between 1993 and 1995 . On August 23, 1994, the two recorded the documentary Watch The K Foundation Burn a Million Quid , in which they burned one million British pounds in £ 50 notes.
In 1997, Drummond and Cauty appeared for 23 minutes under the name 2K dressed as seniors and sitting in wheelchairs at a one-time performance in London, where they performed two new versions of What Time is Love? Performed under the new title Fuck the Millennium with a marching band and once K Cera Cera (The War Is Over if You Want It) . The performance was intended as a parody of the classic pop comeback, to point out the artistic pathos of this idea and to reverse it. One recording was released as a single and reached the UK Top 40.
According to The KLF
Drummond and Cauty have mostly gone their separate ways since 1995, but have not withdrawn from the music business. While Drummond is again producing and advising projects from the rock and pop area, Cauty has withdrawn more into the underground. With partners like Youth or Alex Paterson he is now working on various projects in the ambient and dub area.
In 2003 he returned to The Orb and took part in the production of the album Bicycles and Tricycles . In 2005 Cauty, Paterson and Guy Pratt (ex-tour bassist of Pink Floyd ) released the single Token EP under the name Transit Kings . Cauty usually only takes part in projects for a short time until he announces his departure. Together with other musicians, he has founded various projects that after a short time continue to exist without him. He only rejoined the project The Orb several times for a short time.
As early as the early 1990s, Cauty and Drummond announced in interviews that they see their main role within the music scene in conveying their experiences to music projects in order to help them implement new ideas that have the potential to establish new styles of music . Drummond believes that the era of recording music has ended and that new forms must be found. He therefore founded a choir called The17 and tries out completely new forms of music, the aim of which is to create music that does not require any prior knowledge of music and that should not be recorded, but only felt on site. Therefore, he often works with numerous uninitiated people. He also initiated the No Music Day .
As announced in 1994, The KLF returned in 2017 - 23 years after the money-burning drive. On August 23, 2017, they drove through Liverpool in an ice cream van and stamped copies of their book 2023: A Trilogy by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu in a bookshop . On the following days, among others, Jarvis Cocker performed a version of Justified and Ancient (Stand by the Jams) . Before that, hints had surfaced everywhere, including a poster titled 2017: What the F ** k Is Going On? and a YouTube video titled as the first trailer. Actions by both artists are often deliberately temporary.
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1991 | The White Room |
DE14th  (33 weeks)DE |
AT13 (21 weeks) AT |
CH13 (12 weeks)CH |
UK3  (46 weeks)UK |
US39 (50 weeks)US |
First published: March 4, 1991
|
More albums
- 1987: 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) (As The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu)
- 1988: Who Killed the JAMs? (as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu)
- 1990: Chill Out
- 1997: Waiting for the Rights of Mu (as copyright Liberation Front)
Audio books
- 1988: The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) (2 CDs; Intro + Outro: Bill Drummond )
- 2003: Das Handbuch (Der Schnelle Weg zum Nr.1 Hit) (2 CDs; German translation, narrator: Bela B. )
Compilations
- 1988: The History of the Jams aka the Timelords (as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu aka The Timelords)
- 01/1989: Shag Times (The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu / Disco 2000 / The Timelords / The KLF)
- 09/1989: The "What Time Is Love?" Story
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
Dance
|
|||
| 1988 | Doctorin 'the Tardis Shag Times |
DE28 (11 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK1 (9 weeks) UK |
US66 (13 weeks) US |
Dance16 (8 weeks) Dance |
First published: May 23, 1988
as The Timelords |
| 1989 | Uptide |
- | - | - |
UK86 (1 week) UK |
- | - |
First published: March 13, 1989
as Disco 2000 |
| 1990 | What time is love? (Live at Trancentral) The White Room |
DE6 (23 weeks) DE |
AT23 (12 weeks) AT |
CH23 (4 weeks) CH |
UK5 (12 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First release: July 30, 1990
feat. The Children of the Revolution |
| 1991 | 3 AM Eternal The White Room |
DE3 (20 weeks) DE |
AT7 (12 weeks) AT |
CH4 (15 weeks) CH |
UK1  (11 weeks)UK |
US5 (19 weeks)US |
Dance1 (13 weeks) Dance |
First published: January 7, 1991
feat. The Children of the Revolution |
| Last Train to Trancentral The White Room |
DE4 (20 weeks) DE |
AT6 (12 weeks) AT |
CH6 (19 weeks) CH |
UK2 (9 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: April 22, 1991
feat. The Children of the Revolution |
|
| America: What Time Is Love |
DE6 (18 weeks) DE |
AT3 (14 weeks) AT |
CH3 (15 weeks) CH |
UK4 (7 weeks) UK |
US57 (12 weeks) US |
Dance13 (10 weeks) Dance |
First published: October 1, 1991
|
|
| It's Grim Up North |
- | - |
CH26 (1 week) CH |
UK10 (6 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: October 28, 1991
as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (UK) as The Jams (CH) |
|
| Justified and Ancient (Stand by the Jams) The White Room |
DE3 (24 weeks)DE |
AT1 (21 weeks) AT |
CH2 (24 weeks) CH |
UK2 (12 weeks)UK |
US11 (18 weeks) US |
Dance2 (11 weeks) Dance |
First published: November 25, 1991
feat. Tammy Wynette |
|
| 1996 | Ooh! Aah! Cantona |
- | - | - |
UK11 (6 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: May 6, 1996
1300 Drums feat. The Unjustified Ancients of MU |
| 1997 | Fuck the Millennium The White Room ( Reissue 1998 ) |
- | - | - |
UK28 (2 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: October 13, 1997
as 2K |
More singles
|
|
literature
- Bill Drummond, Jimmy Cauty: The KLF. The manual. The fast way to the No. 1 hit . Die Gestalten Verlag , Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-931126-22-6 .
- Stephan Trüby : “Absolute architecture beginners: building pyramids, potlatsch and paranoia pop”, in archplus 171, June 2004, pp. 60–71 (very good article about the end of KLF and the history of the K Foundation).
- Ulrich Gutmair and Micz Flor: “The KLF. James Cauty remembers “In: de: bug 102, 05/2006, pp. 34–37, online version: http://de-bug.de/mag/4334.html
swell
- ↑ Lebona Mosia, Charles Riddle, Jim Zaffiro: From Revolutionary to Regime Radio: Three Decades of Nationalist Broadcasting in Southern Africa . In: Africa Media Review, Vol. 8 (1994), No. 1, p. 8. at www.archive.lib.msu.edu (PDF; 4.1 MB)
- ↑ He gave a detailed account of this discovery process in a 2012 Do Lecture ( Bill Drummond - Has The iPod Changed Our Relationship With Music?, Do Lecture (YouTube), accessed on November 3, 2019).
- ↑ Josh Ray: Welcome To The Dark Ages. The JAMs return , superweirdsubstance.com, accessed on November 3, 2019. There is also a comprehensive (English-language) report on the events of the three-day event.
- ↑ 2023 THE TRIPTYCH TRAILER ONE , YouTube, accessed on November 3, 2019.
- ↑ The Welcome To The Dark Ages page , which was closed on August 11, 2019, documents the 2017 campaign as well as the one on the occasion of the first anniversary. The ultimate goal of the large-scale art campaign is ostensibly the erection of the People's Pyramid in 2023, which is why a pyramid made of shopping carts was symbolically built in the campaign on November 23, 2018 ( Toxteth Day Of The Dead 2018 presented by K2 Plant Hire Ltd. ). An action via YouTube video has also been announced for November 23, 2019, available here: Toxteth Day of the Dead trailer 2019 , Marc 'spudsy' Bower (YouTube), accessed on November 3, 2019.
- ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US1 US2
- ↑ a b gold / platinum databases: DE CH UK US
Web links
- The KLF at Allmusic (English)
- The KLF at Discogs (English)
- The White Room in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Discography at 45cat.com
- Discography at rateyourmusic.com
- Documentary "Watch The K Foundation Burn a Million Quid" on Chaos TV