The KLF was an incredible project that has a big place in the electronic music history. They are (along with The Orb, ask Cauty) the fathers of the atmospheric house or something like trance-dub; a kind of music that explore slow beats in combination with more soulful and rhythmic elements, voices and another samples.
Everything start in the end of the nighties, listening to KLF and his first works is listening the exact moment when the 80's music was ending (they release great 80's pop hits!) and finally moves to the sounds of electronic music and spread all over the world in the starting of 90's. Somebody have listened "Kylie Said to Jason", is pure synthpop nostalgia flirting with few acid dust!
"The White Room" is a great album that confirm their goodbye to the 80's and smile to different sounds. They still have that synths, melodic sounds and sweet voices, but also has one feet in the danceable hand. Like the song says "We climbed to touch the stars".
KLF was some of the firsts electronic music artist (continues to the Brian Eno legacy) that was interesting not only in the dance side, but in the calm side."Chill Out" is one of the greatest albums not only in the ambient history, but in the all electronic music history. Is another kind of goodbye to the 80's music (check all the samples), while the group travel along US in an atmospherical higway and say hello to the deeper sound and samples of the next decade.
Also they developed an particular sound that create the basis of the acid house, rave and 90's trance. "What Time Is Love": the real trance sounds that was deep, serious and hypnotic!; before the genre was distort by others and becomes so light and boring.
Review by jsrobinsonSep 09, 2004(edited over 5 years ago)
The KLF are highly influencial on mid-90's Pop, Hip Hop, Trance, Electronica, House, and Dance movements. As other writers will tell you, the KLF made their mark with huge acts of tom-foolery, but the legacy Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond have left us only wanting more. The KLF are associated with lifted samples, but the more curious point is that the KLF themselves were sampled for numerous hits and boundry-breaking music in the dance arena.
The critically acclaimed "The White Room" was more an assemblage of hits after the fact, and included humerous compositions mixed with serious messages. Almost Mozart for techno, the harmonies are original, even if the samples are not.
Cauty and Drummond authored a book called "The Manual (How to have a number one the easy way)", being more of a diary into their lives as the KLF, it uses a non-audio engineer vocabulary, and is a fun read from cover to cover (157 Pages).
I personally have many memories that include the KLF, and I will never tire of the "hits" 3AM Eternal, What Time Is Love, or Last Train to Transcentral. The mystery of who the KLF is was part of the fun when it was all going on. I can only hope for more works of this caliber in the future.
Review by B207Jul 30, 2004(edited over 5 years ago)
the KLF are probably he gratest "band" in history of electronic music, their originality, ideas, coreograpy, good sound and good sense of humor haven't been outshadowed by anyone. They somehow managed to connect several different types of art into a inteligent expression packed with groove and while doing all this had a good time, what else can we tell about the people that made 3 or 4 top 10 hits , always using the same samples, and invented stadium house !
The acronym KLF has been known to stand for a lot of different things, but the most commonly used by KLF themselves is Kopyright Liberation Front.
KLF has a very interesting history. Some teasers: changing billboards with grafitti to show KLF or JAMS, firing a machinegun at a shocked BritAwards audience, spoofing an art award with twice the price money, buying tv-spots and full page advertisements in large magazines for mentioned spoof award, burning one million pound sterling (that's £1.000.000) while filming the event.. and lots more. Go check out a decent biography website on them.
Everything start in the end of the nighties, listening to KLF and his first works is listening the exact moment when the 80's music was ending (they release great 80's pop hits!) and finally moves to the sounds of electronic music and spread all over the world in the starting of 90's. Somebody have listened "Kylie Said to Jason", is pure synthpop nostalgia flirting with few acid dust!
"The White Room" is a great album that confirm their goodbye to the 80's and smile to different sounds. They still have that synths, melodic sounds and sweet voices, but also has one feet in the danceable hand. Like the song says "We climbed to touch the stars".
KLF was some of the firsts electronic music artist (continues to the Brian Eno legacy) that was interesting not only in the dance side, but in the calm side."Chill Out" is one of the greatest albums not only in the ambient history, but in the all electronic music history. Is another kind of goodbye to the 80's music (check all the samples), while the group travel along US in an atmospherical higway and say hello to the deeper sound and samples of the next decade.
Also they developed an particular sound that create the basis of the acid house, rave and 90's trance. "What Time Is Love": the real trance sounds that was deep, serious and hypnotic!; before the genre was distort by others and becomes so light and boring.
Thanks for the all your hard work KLF.