Of all the music industry stories I've read, my favorite ones are always about the KLF. They represent the self-aware, self-critical artist better than just about any other musician. Here are a pair of musicians, in Bill Drummond and James Cauty, who decided to make a hip-hop record, stealing from the whole of pop music, and ended up creating stadium house. The KLF immediately rose to the top of the UK pop charts, all the while finding ways to subvert the machinery of the music industry. By 1991, just five years after beginning, the KLF had become the biggest-selling singles act in the world. And then they blew it all up.
The KLF had been working on their follow-up to 1991's "The White Room" for almost two years when they were invited to open The Brit Awards in February 1992. "The Black Room" was already shaping up to be the diametric opposite to "The White Room". Where the previous record was influenced by and reflected the growing rave culture in the UK, "The Black Room" was planned to be abrasive, embracing musical movements like EBM, grindcore, and crust punk. Ipswitch's Extreme Noise Terror had been collaborating on the album; now they'd join the KLF onstage at the Hammersmith Odeon.
The scene opens with ENT kicking off a thrashy live version of "3 A.M. Eternal". Dean Jones and Phil Vane trade off vocals, while Bill Drummond stood center stage, leaning on a crutch and smoking a cigar. He introduces new lyrics to the former #1 hit, making reference to the destruction of the music industry and award show. At some point, he escapes off-stage, returning with an AR-15 in his hand. As the song comes to a close, Drummond raises the rifle and opens fire. He's shooting blanks, but the symbolism is apparent: the KLF are here to assassinate the music industry. As the bands leave the stage, an announcement is heard: "The KLF have left the music industry."
Of course, I was 14 and lived on a farm in southwestern Virginia when all this took place. I had no sense of the context of the performance, the politics of immolating one's band. All I knew is that there was a fast metal version of the club song I'd gotten into the previous summer, and I had to hear it. One of my skateboarding friends got a video from a tape trader of the performance; we watched the hell out of it all summer long.
While I don't own it anymore, here's the preview version, taken from the Christmas 1991 episode of "Top of the Pops". I must have ended up with one of the Vinyl Japan 12"s; I definitely didn't have any of the KLF Communications 7"s, and I only learned now that Relapse had done an unofficial release for the US. Do yourself a big ol' favor and cue this up as your alarm clock next week. You'll definitely wake up. And if you want to learn more about the KLF, consult your nearest library!
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