There are a lot of artists, bands, collectives, labels and movements that are great and deserve to be absorbed into the public consciousness, but it's usually very difficult to explain why that is within the space of an article or short posting. Sometimes a well-designed website or wikipedia page helps, but sometimes you need a book, if not volumes of books. A movie or documentary can help but they are often rather incomplete and give the wrong ideas or leave important people and their actions out entirely. All in all, it's tough, and it's not something I want to do here, so I won't. That said, I am going to try to lay some groundwork to allow one to start their own research on the following topic at hand, at least musically, because as important as the music is, there was a lot more than just music when it came to the KLF.
The KLF, aka The JAMs, The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, The Timelords, 2K, K Foundation and the One World Orchestra among a seemingly endless list of aliases were comprised of Bill Drummond, aka King Boy D, the co-founder of Zoo Records, a member of Big In Japan and manager of Echo and The Bunnymen, and Jimmy Cauty, aka Rockman Rock, a member of Brilliant and a co-founder of The Orb. Starting in 1987, they made some of the least genre-specific music while simultaneously being an extremely powerful force in the dance and pop communities. Between 1987 and 1991, they independently released five full-length albums and numerous singles as well as limited edition remix singles and companion releases. They sampled The Beatles, Elvis Presley, ABBA, Whitney Houston, Samantha Fox, Dave Brubeck, Jimi Hendrix, Sly & The Family Stone, the MC5 and others all without ever clearing a sample, which led to all sorts of legal issues including the destruction of every remaining copy of their 1987 debut album, 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?). They collaborated with Tammy Wynette, the country star, and Extreme Noise Terror, a vegan metal group which led to an infamous appearance on British television where fake machine guns were fired into the audience. They made videos where practially nothing and everything could happen, including a road movie based on their album The White Room which was never finished and, despite being widely bootlegged, was screened publicly only once and to an audience of sheep. At various points as a sign their careers were over courtesy only of themselves, they left a dead sheep in the streets with an annoucement that they had left the music industry, they burned a million British Pounds and eventually deleted their entire catalogue and have refused to reissue any item from it since. Over all, you could say they built a mystery and have committed themselves to maintaining it.
Because their releases are unavailable via legal channels, bootlegs of varying quality run rampant and it’s rather difficult to obtain a clear view of what the KLF were really all about. Rather than posting everything they’ve ever done, of which I’m positive I don’t have, I’ve compiled a three disc overview of their career, featuring their singles, album cuts, rarities and remixes. To be honest, while I think this collection does a great job of introducing the KLF, you’ll still have to do a lot of research to find out what they were really all about, but this is a good starting point.
Over the next few days there will be four posts of KLF material, starting today with the first disc of this collection I’ve compiled which I’ve named Deep Shit: This Is What The KLF Were About. The first disc will focus on their singles, while the second will feature rarities and album cuts. The third will feature remixes both created by the KLF themselves as well as additional collaborators and the fourth disc will feature their ambient classic, Chill Out. All of these tracks have been compiled either from my own collection or from extremely high quality lossless copies of their various singles and releases, so while you may hear quality differences from track to track, as some tracks are vinyl sources, these are the best copies available.
I really hope you enjoy this collection and, if you need more KLF goodness, I may be so inclined to make another torrent featuring my collection of lossless rips. Please let me know if anyone is interested in such a thing. Also, if you want to know more about the KLF, especially since this post doesn’t even scrape the surface of their legacy, you should visit the Library Of Mu and the KLF Online archive for starters. There are a number of other sites available but these are fabulous starting points.
The KLF - Deep Shit: This Is What The KLF Were About
NOTE: You MUST download both parts to extract all files.
Disc One, Part One
Disc One, Part Two
01 The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - All You Need Is Love (Original Version)
The original version of the debut single from the JAMs which was not reissued due to an unauthorized sample of the Beatles' All You Need Is Love. King Boy D grabs the mic.
02 The KLF - What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral)
The second and more popular version of What Time Is Love? This is part of the Stadium House Trilogy and features Isaac Bello on vocals.
03 The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - Don't Take Five (Take What You Want)
More rhymes from King Boy D while sampling James Brown and Dave Brubeck. Taken from the 1987 album.
04 J.A.M.s - Whitney Joins The J.A.M.s
The story goes that Cauty and Drummond went to the studio to make a new track but, after hearing Whitney Houston's I Want To Dance With Somebody, decided that it was a better song than anything they would come up with that day and they should just make a track from it. Also includes bits of the Mission: Impossible theme.
05 The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - Down Town
King Boy and choir do their thing over the melody from Petula Clark's Downtown. Issued first as a single and then as part of the Shag Times compilation.
06 The KLF - 3 A.M. Eternal (Live At The S.S.L.)
Another part of the Stadium House Trilogy, another revised single and also from The White Room. Ricardo da Force provides the rhymes. In case you were wondering, S.S.L. stands for Solid State Logic, the type of mixing console used for this song.
07 The Timelords - Doctorin' The Tardis
Arguably their biggest hit, this one mashes the Doctor Who theme and Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Part 2. Some say it's the first mash-up, although you could say that about a lot of the KLF's songs. The record art and video featured an old police cruiser renamed Ford Timelord which noted that "it" made the record.
08 The KLF - Kylie Said To Jason
Meant to be the first single off The White Album, this one bombed pretty bad and led to a complete restructuring of the album. The title refers to Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, then stars of the Australian soap-opera Neighbours.
09 The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - Candyman
Taken from their 1988 sophmore album, Who Killed The JAMs? Funny song about who knows what featuring King Boy rapping.
10 The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - It's Grim Up North (Part 1)
Initially meant for the unreleased and unfinished sixth KLF album, The Black Room, this track is supposed to be a form of dark trance. It is indeed dark and rather eerie. For the record, The Black Room would not have sounded anything like this if the stories are true, as it was meant to be a very real metal album. I might eventually have to post the circulating tracks from those sessions.
11 The KLF - Justified & Ancient (Stand By The Jams 12" Version)
The infamous Tammy Wynette single! Technically the third version of this song, this is the definitive version and was a huge hit. This is the slightly longer 12" version.
12 The KLF - Last Train To Trancentral (Live From The Lost Continent)
From the Stadium House Trilogy. This version appears on US versions of The White Room but a different version is on all other editions.
13 The KLF - America: What Time Is Love?
The third version of What Time Is Love? and probably the oddest. It's long, has an orchestra, Isaac Bello takes the mic and it's thorougly unclear what the hell is going on. Lotta fun though.
14 The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - Burn The Bastards
Borrowing the melody from Sly Stone's Dance To The Music, this is taken from Who Killed The JAMs and is a party starter/finisher. King Boy raps
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