The KLF - The White Room poll

seem like summer was a good time to listen to this record again. hard to top the opening song though.

mods please delete this thread, the tracklisting is incorrect

haha, it is?

maybe the US track listing?

LAST TRAIN TO TRANSCENTRAL

Wait, *Trancentral, my bad

Tammy Wynette version of J&A wasn't written & recorded until after the album, and as you note there are different versions of songs on the US version

Not sure I've even heard this in the 21st century, but I'd be surprised if "Build A Fire" didn't still make vaguely weepy. So...probably that.

yeah "Build a Fire" is definitely the standout for me

I have both the US and UK versions on CD, and neither contain the Tammy Wynette version.

Good timing, I heard 3am Eternal on the radio this morning (and finished reading Bill Drummond's '45' earlier in the week), I'm voting for that.

Good notes on the differences between the UK & US versions on the Discogs page -

The US version of 'The White Room' was strongly edited for its official commercial release. It has a total playing time of 39:39, and it contains 9 tracks. The original UK version presents the first five tracks ('What Time Is Love?' through 'Last Train To Trancentral') as a kind of 'mini-concert' with sampled crowd noise from, among other places, U2's 'Rattle And Hum'. All five tracks are segued and mixed. It has a total playing time printed of 45:05, but in reality it's only 43:54. It lists 9 songs, but only has 8 indexed. The US version eliminates the crowd noise, with some tracks ending very abruptly. This is probably as the crowd noise was sampled from a Doors album and hence the obvious copyright problems. The US edition also has the single mix of 'Last Train To Trancentral' instead of the mellower UK album version, edits 'No More Tears' down from 9:24 to 6:42, and adds a little more wind noise at the end of the closing 'Justified And Ancient'

3 am eternal

will vote to the fact that time is eternal

"3 A.M. Eternal" still sounds amazing.

I can see how it broke top ten in the United States at peak Poppy Bush Interzone: we'd already had pop house crossovers with okay rapping. But "Eternal" is so dense and full of ideas that it's the best kind of kooky novelty.

I hardly remember how this sounds. I wish I could hear it somewhere but getting a copy for a reasonable price is a toughy. I was massively into the singles as a pre-teen and 3am Eternal still holds a special place in my heart as one of the most exciting singles of the early 90s.

From what I recall, I was a bit disappointed by this when I first heard it because the tracks were so heavily remixed from the singles - a similar problem I encountered on receiving Prodigy Experience as a 10 year old. I just couldn't get my head around these alternative versions. It's a shame KLF are so anti-rerelease because a nicely packaged singles compilation would be amazing from them. I wonder what I'd make of this album today?

You could, like, listen to it on Spotify

it not on Spotty is it?

You could, like, google "klf white room spotify" and find out

although it doesn't seem to work for me, I dunno, I don't use Spotify, but it's on there

It's Grim Up North is missing from this album (because it hadn't come out yet) but it's stylistically of a piece with the rest of this work. It's basically a noise track with a hard tech kick drum all the way through it. One of the weirdest top 20 hits of all time

I can't find it? There are playlists but they're empty

https://open.spotify.com/album/0pXHFRsNFwGmFv9zlNOoKC

anyway if it doesn't work (it's not for me) I can YSI it later

re poll I had the same issue as you DL with the different remixes when it came out but I had/have Last Train To Trancentral on 7" and iirc What Time Is Love isn't that different to the single? Probably What Time Is Love I think

It was briefly on Spotify, it was actually the unissued soundtrack version. Bit naughty. Wasn't there long.

As I understand it, it's unavailable everywhere except that they signed a long-term deal with Arista, so they can still have it on catalogue. Doesn't include streaming or online as it predates all that.

what is the actual reason they won't reissue it? Just stubbornness?

You mean now that their self-imposed 23 year moratorium is up?

they deleted their entire catalogue in 1992, a couple of months after the Brits performance concluded with Scott Piering's VO announcing "The KLF Have Now Left The Music Industry."

The 23-year moratorium was from late 1995, during the tour of the film K Foundation Burn A Million Quid, and was on them discussing the film or its subject for 23 years. It had nothing to do with The KLF or music.

(They finished the tour, but asked the audience questions at the remainign stops, instead of vice versa.)

It's Grim Up North is missing from this album (because it hadn't come out yet) but it's stylistically of a piece with the rest of this work.

considering that The Black Room was started with the idea of having an album that It's Grim Up North would fit on, this is exactly wrong.

Ah. Important to get these things correct.

I've got a US CD of the album to listen to here and the stadium house without the crowd noises seems a bit flat, and there are some abrupt fades. Amazing it did so well given this evisceration.

Moratorium stuff is self-aggrandizement. By the 90s it had become an exercise in remixing, re-recording and remarketing these same tracks dozens of different ways. They were too bored and/or intimidated to work on further progression (plus comfortably wealthy & old). The non-music art stuff wasn't taken seriously or openly mocked so they just abandoned the whole thing.

It's Grim Up North is missing from this album (because it hadn't come out yet)

not the reason.
Grim was a JAMMS release, not KLF.

first time I listened to this I thought it was hilarious, it was like a parody of Jock Jams

https://youtu.be/n4onQqSMUag

what are you DOING

DL I PM'd you on FB btw ;)

on the day of my wedding in December 1991 I had to nip into this small market town to get something that was necessary for the day.
woolies (r.i.p) was open.
I wondered in to check the cd/sale section.
and there was the JAMMS/Grim cd single.
I felt guilty getting something so trivial on the biggest day of my life so far, but seriously, the guilt lasted a few hours,
whereas the joy of the extended cd has lasted years.
the main reason is cos my family are from ilkley,
and there are few trance epics that namedrop my old hometown.

The JAMs btw

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/The_JAMs_-_It%27s_Grim_Up_North.jpg

never understood the lack of the extra M to be honest.
"Mu Mu" = MM
but yeah, I messed up.
still, not the KLF.

because, like much of the KLF iconography, it's taken from Illuminatus!, where JAMS was an abbreviation of The Justified Ancients of Mummu.

and also looks way cooler as a band name.

no version of this album is particularly good imo but the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack version truly stinks.

BUT 3am Eternal and Build a Fire are fantastic from this version we're polling that doesn't actually exist.

particularly great, rather. the uk release version is pretty good.

the main reason is cos my family are from ilkley,
and there are few trance epics that namedrop my old hometown.

hahaha, more than once I have listened to Chill Out driving on the route described in the song titles!

(it's more of a poetic route, if you're driving to Louisiana from Brownsville, you wouldn't go through Lake Jackson, you'd get off 77 in Refugio and onto 59 North, then get on I-10 East in Houston but Rock Radio was in fact to the east of New Orleans)

I have a two-cd version on Arista, and another on Coma. So that's the US version, and a Scandinavian that matches the UK.

Love the fact that the crowd samples on here are from U2, The Doors and....Haircut One Hundred.

I believe that is what is known as a "joke" m'lud

I posted that link because people seemed to be having trouble listening to this again.

just saw someone in McDonalds wearing a KLF Communications t-shirt <3

I posted that link because people seemed to be having trouble listening to this again.

but you posted a version that is neither the actual tracklisting of this album, nor the one that you made up

like, what are people supposed to be voting on

you are a grumpy so and so

we all know the album, we all know the best tracks.
which version on which edition is totally immaterial.
its a brilliant album no matter how you listen to it.

I see your issue now. I posted that link without listening to it, so I had no idea which version it was. It just said full album. The track listing for the poll came from Amazon and I didn't double check to see if it was correct or not.

Xxpost

mark e totally otm but no version of the album has Tammy Wynette's version of Justified & Ancient which is a whole other beast than the album version (though it came packaged with the CD single over here so whatever).

Anyway, best track is Last Train From Trancentral imo.

Be kind to Bee OK, that’s my bro.

but Last Train To Trancentral is a completely different song in different versions! do you mean Pure Trance or the LP version or Live From The Lost Continent?

guys

Original link led me down a KLF wormhole and rediscovered this, which was jaw dropping when I first heard it and still thrills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l0Vl0p3ljI

xp I've been listening to the Japanese version so didn't realise LTTT was different. The Live From The Lost Continent version rocks anyway.

like, even the "remix" single ostensibly of Live From The Lost Continent was Moody Boys versions of Go To Sleep, not of any of the songs released as LTTT

Fave version of WTIL is the 9 minute America What Time is Love.

i've never heard this album, are these tracks like "album versions" or something?

Fave version of WTIL is the 9 minute America What Time is Love.

this.
the sheer sonic excess is compelling.

Along with PSB and Madonna, these guys are the main constant in my pop music life. Almost impossible to choose but if you’re forcing me then Last Train to Trancentral, separated by a bawhair from Build a Fire

Xpost,

Yes and yes. The point where the “woo woo” sound kicks in again (Akron, Miami) is hairs on the back of the neck great.

I listened to the above link and was completely blown away all over again. I think I liked this more today then back in the day. Holds up extremely well. Now to decide what to vote for, going with "Make It Rain."

The Steve Hoffman forums has an excellent discography thread: [http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-klf-album-by-single-by-album.692361/]

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

that thread is GREAT, I read the fuck out of it on a train from LA to WA last year, listening along on my iPod, but it's a discography of KLF Communications, not of The KLF

^^^ I made sure that I didn't include "of The KLF" in my message before clicking submit post!

ha, I wasn't meaning to chide you, just giving extra context

Voting "What Time is Love" after all.

which version though

~ chuckle ~

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the uncanny melody of "it's three eh-eh emm, three eh-eh emm" is glorious.

sic, go on and poll KLF Communications releases.

Transcentral by a hair over 3 a.m. beacuse of that arpegio audio logo. One of my favourite moments in music. "This is what KLF is about..."

jed - I did this instead

Great story from Popjustice's Peter Robinson

It’s thirty years since The KLF’s 3am Eternal hit Number One so I suppose it must also be about thirty years since 13-year-old me met The KLF at Top Of The Pops. pic.twitter.com/qoNmBJWBNs

— Peter Robinson (@Popjustice) January 28, 2021

that's so sweet

dude still owes me both of his fanzines >:(