The KLF

The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, furthermore known as The JAMs, The Timelords and other names) were a British acid house band of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Beginning in 1987, Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman 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. The KLF released a series of international hits on their own KLF Communications record label, and became the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991. The duo also published a book, The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way), and worked on a road movie called The White Room.

From the outset, they adopted the philosophy espoused by esoteric novel series The Illuminatus! Trilogy, gaining notoriety for various anarchic situationist manifestations, including the defacement of billboard adverts, the posting of prominent cryptic advertisements in NME magazine and the mainstream press, and highly distinctive and unusual performances on Top of the Pops. Their most notorious performance was a collaboration with Extreme Noise Terror at the February 1992 BRIT Awards, where they fired machine gun blanks into the audience and dumped a dead sheep at the aftershow party. This performance announced The KLF's departure from the music business, and in May 1992 the duo deleted their entire back catalogue.

Chill Out

Chill Out is the third studio album by The KLF, and the first album under the name, released in February 1990. An ambient house concept album, it portrays a mythical night-time journey up the US Gulf Coast from Texas into Louisiana. The album is a continuous composition, in which sampled music (including Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Acker Bilk and Tuvan throat singers), vocal samples and sound effects are overlaid with original music.

Context

Composition and recording

Chill Out is a single continuous musical piece having many distinctive sections, each of which either segues into or introduces the next. The album as a whole is a progression, with percussion gradually introduced during the second half. The KLF have stated in interviews that the album was recorded in a 44-minute "live" take in their studio, Trancentral, located in the basement of The KLF member Jimmy Cauty's squat in Stockwell, South London. This was a DAT to DAT "live" edit — essentially Chill Out is a "best of" of many hours of collaborative ambient DJ jam sessions that also involved Alex Paterson of The Orb. These took place at both Trancentral and the monthly 'Land of Oz' at London's Heaven nightclub. Said Cauty, "There's no edits on it. Quite a few times we'd get near the end and make a mistake and so we'd have to go all the way back to the beginning and set it all up again". According to Cauty's co-founder of The KLF, Bill Drummond, the album took two days to put together.Record Collector compared The KLF's production method to that of established electronic musicians: "While electronic dinosaurs like Jean Michel Jarre and Klaus Schulze were walling themselves in with banks and banks of synthesizers, computers and electronic gadgetry the KLF were doing the opposite—making a crafted work like Chill Out with the bare necessities of musical survival."

The White Room

The White Room is the fourth and final studio album by British house music group The KLF, released in March 1991. Originally scheduled for 1989 as the soundtrack to a film of the same name, the album's direction was changed after both the film and the original soundtrack LP were cancelled. Most tracks on the original album version are present in the final release, though in significantly remixed form.

A darker, harder complementary album called The Black Room was supposed to follow The White Room, but that plan was abandoned when KLF disbanded in 1992.

Background

The White Room was conceived as the soundtrack to a road movie, also called The White Room, about the KLF's search for the mystical White Room that would enable them to be released from their contract with Eternity. Parts of the movie were filmed in the Sierra Nevada region of Spain, using the money that the duo, under the alias The Timelords, had made with their 1988 number one hit "Doctorin' the Tardis". The soundtrack album contained pop-house versions of some of the KLF's earlier "Pure Trance" singles, as well as new songs.

White Room

"White Room" is a song by British rock band Cream, written by bassist Jack Bruce and poet Pete Brown.Drummer Ginger Baker claims to have added the distinctive 5/4 opening to what had been a 4/4 composition. It originally appeared on the US release of their double album Wheels of Fire in July 1968 and was released as a single in September 1968. It is one of their most famous songs, along with Sunshine of Your Love.

The single reached the top 30 in seven countries, including Australia, where it topped the Go-Set National Top 40 singles chart. The song was edited for the single release on AM radio stations, although album-oriented FM radio stations would play the full album version.

Background and recording

The recording of "White Room" reportedly began in July 1967 in London at the initial session for Cream’s as-yet-unnamed third album and work continued at Atlantic Studios in New York in December and finished during three separate sessions to complete the studio part of Wheels of Fire; February, April and June 1968, all at Atlantic Studios.

White (disambiguation)

White is a colour.

White(s) or The White may also refer to:

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