Thursday, 8 October 2015

That's Entertainment : the KLF


1991 seemed to be a turning point year in music.  The 1980’s were slowly being forgotten and new found freedoms and global sounds were coming to the fore. 

Michael Jackson was King of Pop yet by the end of the year, his reign was being threatened as Nirvana’s Nevermind knocked off Black and White from the top of the Billboard Charts.  In turn, the hair metal acts were swept away by Metallica and Guns N Roses, who both released hugely anticipated albums that dominated the scene for the next two years, seeing hard rock hit the zeitgeist, whilst U2 had gone away and done their homework (giving them well needed ‘away’ time from the public conscious) and released Achtung Baby, allowing them to become the stratospheric #1 pop rock act of the 1990s.  Industrial and electro pop was gaining strength and Shoegaze and Techno was equally popular in Britain.  Quite literally, there was something for everyone.  Cross pollination was de rigour and rap acts were still allowed to sample as they pleased without seeking permission.  

For me, 1991 was a great year with plenty of aural delights on offer.  Up there with 1985, 1997, 2004, 2007 for purely great pop/rock/dance music.

Yet amongst all this was one band that became the biggest selling singles band of 1991, who just didn’t care less for the cult of personality that came with being a popular music act.

They were The KLF.

Having secured a kitsch hit in 1987 as The Timelords with Doctorin’ The Tardis, they gratuitously mined pop history and incorporated the sounds and vibes to create their own dance hits.  However, sampling was about to get legal and after The KLF released a slew of songs in multiple remixed forms across 1988-1990, they finally learnt to borrow without the legal problems and this culminated in 1991’s The White Room LP.

The hits kept coming and by 1992, feted as music heroes, they self combusted after numerous stunts which included firing blanks from a machine gun over the head of the music business attendees at the BRIT Awards, then dumping a dead sheep that said I Died For Ewe - Bon Appetite.  Their promotor claimed “The KLF have not left the music business” as they left the show [and their BRIT Award statuette was later found buried near Stonehenge.  This up yours to the music biz exemplified their loathing of the business, its performers, participants and its hanger ons and may well have come at the expense of one of The KLF’s key members who now says at the time he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown).  But music is at its best when things go crazy.  Later they set up their own anti-art foundation and burnt one million pounds

That The KLF could release these brilliant pop singles whilst despising the music biz so much is pure irony.  Nothing is crazier than having Tammy Wynette do vocals on a techno song!

For me, these songs represent a time and a place that has fonder memories.  I was 15, and in year 9.  I had not a care in the world.  The KLF were a part of the soundtrack of that year (and a little bit in to 1992).  These tracks are well worth a listen to for the first time or as a bit of retro.





Last Train From Trancentral https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frIUgilfsWA








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