KLF, Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Jamms, The K Foundation.
Call them what you will, but for me The KLF are one of the key musical innovators of the late 20th century. In the mid 1980’s under the name JAMMS, they were at the forefront of sampling technology and the challenge to the whole legal issue of copyright infringement.
They wrote a book on how to get a number 1 hit record in the UK to cynically show how artistic talent had little to do with commercial success – and did it with “Doctoring the Tardis”.
Picking up on the house and rave scene, they then went on to release a number of classic top tunes around 1988 and 1989 including the deep house track “3am eternal”.
But more importantly they pretty much single handedly invented the techno trance style that dominated techno for a decade with the absolutely mind blowing track “What Time is Love”, along with the less well known “Kylie Said to Jason”.
Not satisfied, within a year they had spun off in a completely different direction pioneering New Age ambient house with the seminal “Chill Out” concept album. This is still a treasured possession in the old djwuggs collection, and well worth a careful and considered listen.
And to top it all one of them, Bill Drummond, was from Clydebank! I can’t tell you how inspiring it was to be on the dance floor of Tin Pan Alley and hear a Glasgow accent amidst one of my favourite tunes of the rave age – “Last Train to Transcentral”.
Of course most people will know KLF as chart toppers with Tammy Wynette, etc. For this phase they basically re-recorded each of their underground classics in a commercially appealing manner and became one of the top UK pop acts of the early 1990’s. Although they could be criticised for selling out, they were actually demonstrating how techno, a largely underground musical movement up to that point, could be commercialised and come to dominate pop music and popular culture during the 1990’s and beyond.
The KLF re-emerged in the late 1990’s as artistic pioneers the K Foundation. In an act of artistic catharsis, they destroyed the original tapes of their whole musical back catalogue and set fire to £1m in cash on a remote Western Isle, the profits of their chart success up in smoke.
So hats off to the KLF, musical heroes of the rave age.
djwuggs 