KLF Communications
Profile: |
Label formed in 1987 by Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty as an outlet for their own work as Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu and later as The KLF. The label (and its owners) scored a surprise #1 hit in 1988 with "Doctorin' The Tardis", a novelty single credited to The Timelords. But all involved survived this blow to their credibility and returned with a string of rave classics including the international hits "What Time Is Love?" and "3 AM Eternal", as well as creating one of the earliest (and finest) ambient house LPs with 1990's "Chill Out". |
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Sublabels: |
The JAMs |
Links: |
klf.de
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Much mythology about these 2 geezers.
Jimmy Cauty came from a background of working with Stock aitken and waterman back in the 1980s (he was a band member of s.a.w one hit wonders Brilliant too) So he already knew how to put tunes together well.
Bill came from a background of management and hype experience.
Combined the 2 made many great records, but equally as many awful cheesy pop misses too.
Early releases were aimed at being Scottish rap, disco or S.A.W type pop. Then they discovered raves and ambient. -
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Kopyright Liberation Front
KLF was marketed much like a product.
Everything that's so right and so completely wrong about commercial music and worse knowingly so.
Sure most of their popular material probably hasn't aged well and is more easily found on the playlists at many sporting arena's and awful bars the world over.
The more obscure material probably should for the most part be left alone to collect dust and value in the corner of your collection if you were fortunate enough to get them when they were available. Most of the material is probably suspect at this point both for listenability and legality.
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Edited 23 years ago'3am Eternal'. 'Last Train To Trancentral'. 'What Time Is Love?'. 'It's Grim Up North'. 'Justified And Ancient'. 'The White Room'. 'Chill Out'. 'Space'.
If those titles mean nothing to you - shame on you. Each a classic in the genre of dance music it represented and well worth a listen.
Although long deleted these titles can be tracked down on import copies or from record fairs/exchange shops. Expect to pay extra to stupid prices for them but it will be worth it - trust me.
Earlier KLF releases are a patchy affair and I would recommend listening to them before parting with your cash. I'm sure that in thier day stuff like '1987 - What The Fuck Is Going On?', 'Kylie Said To Jason' or 'Doctorin' The Tardis' were fun, but let's be realistic here - this is the 21st century and if this stuff came out today by new bands its a fair bet to say they wouldn't even get a release (just my opinion - no hate mail, please!).
To the uninitiated - also be prepared for a barrage of remixes and alternate versions of many of their tracks. With several titles you'd need to have 8 hands just to stand a chance of counting all of the remixes on your fingers.
Recently returned from a self imposed hiatus from the music industry after retiring at their earlier peak in the '90's with a variety of different styles and names on the Kalavala label, which were mostly overlooked. More succesful was the single as 2k (1997 - What The Fuck Is Going On?) which was basically just a rehash of thier past glories updated.
Much has been qritten and debated on the exploits of The KLF and it is well worth sparing a couple of hours to surf the net for a history lesson - you'll laugh and wonder 'What The Fuck Was Going On'!
