[1] What Time Is Love? (LP Mix) - 4:37
[2] Make It Rain - 4:06
[3] 3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.) - 3:14
[4] Church of the KLF - 1:42
[5] Last Train to Trancentral (LP Mix) - 6:04
[6] Build a Fire - 4:39
[7] The White Room - 5:14
[8] No More Tears - 9:24
[9] Justified and Ancient - 4:43
Jimmy Cauty – Producer, Performance & Programming, Arrangement
Bill Drummond – Producer, Performance, Vocals & Programming, Arrangement
Nick Coler – Keyboards, Additional Programming, Backing Vocals on [3]
Maxine Harvey – Vocals, Backing Vocals on [2-8]
Black Steel – Vocals, Scat Singing, Bass Guitar on [8,9], Piano on [8]
Ricardo Lyte – Rap on [3,5]
Isaac Bello – Rap on [1],
Tony Thorpe – Breaks, Samples
Duy Khiem – Tenor Saxophone on [2], Clarinet on [7]
Evil Graham Lee – Pedal Steel on [6]
Manda Beatmaster - Drum Machine, Roland TR-808
King Tubby - Trumpet
Major Malfunktion - Roland MC-303
Rusty Pence - Pedal Steel
Lenny Dee - Beats
Wanda Dee - Vocals
Tammy Wynette - Vocals
Lindz E. Love - Sound Effects, Background Vocals
P. P. Arnold - Background Vocals
Emma Burnham - Background Vocals
Cressida - Background Vocals
Katie Kissoon - Background Vocals
Micky Wilson - Background Vocals
Scott Piering - Narrator
J. Gordon Hastings - Engineer on [2-8], Mix on [2,4-8]
Jeremy Wheatley - Mix on [1,4]
Mark 'Spike' Stent - Mix on [1,3]
Nick Coler - Additional Programming
Ian Richardson - Engineer on [2-8]
Q - Engineer on [1],
Aaron Chakraverty - Mastering
Paul 'Max' Bloom - Assistant Engineer on [2-8]
Norbert Schoerner - Cover Photo, Photography
Phil Ward - Photography
Recorded at Trancentral; The Village, Dagenham; Lillie Yard, London;
Matrix, London. Mixed at Lillie Yard, London; The Townhouse, London;
The Manor, Oxfordshire.
Inlay tracklist quotes nine tracks but these are indexed as eight on the
CD (track 3 is two songs). Track time given for track 3.2 is for track
3.1+3.2. The total playing time that's printed (45:05) is incorrect as
the disc is a bit shorter (43:54).
A crazy experiment in music-industry manipulation, the KLF remain one of
dance's more groundbreaking acts. Having already scored hits as the
Jams and the Timelords, Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty christened the KLF
with Who Killed the Jams? Though they were originally considered part of
England's acid-house scene, the KLF's high-energy mix of disco-diva
vocals, rapping, breaks, and samples was truly club-friendly pop. The
White Room contains three of the group's greatest moments, the top 10
hits "What Time Is Love?," "Last Train to Transcentral," and "3 A.M.
Eternal." Amid their success, Drummond and Cauty retired from the music
industry, deleting their back catalogue in the process. The White Room
is a fitting (if somewhat short) epitaph that stands the test of time.
Its futuristic musical themes are somewhat silly, but genuine
musicianship makes the songs themselves quality fun.
Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond had their first massive smash hit as the
Timelords ("Doctoring the House") and also scored hits as the Jams. So
by the time they came up with tracks like "3AM Eternal" and the
blaring-horn-a-thon that was "What Time Is Love?" (both from The White
Room), they were already well versed in writing pop songs.
This is a dance album of sorts, but it is very tongue-in-cheek and has a
distinctly commercial edge. The pair were notorious jokers - the back
cover shows them clutching sheep to their chests - and after managing to
rule the charts they disbanded and turned their back on the industry
completely. Their disdain for the music business comes through in their
over-the-top futurism and relentless air horn blasting, both of which
are an acquired taste and quite nauseating after a while.
Aside from the singles mentioned above, White Room also contains the
soulful "Make It Rain", the surprisingly subdued "Church of the KLF",
some Scottish poetry on "Build a Fire" and unforgivably crass use of
some King Tubby trumpet on the dire "No More Tears". It's hailed as a
classic, but don't believe the hype.
Paul Sullivan - Amazon.co.uk
Following the global success of "Doctorin' the Tardis" from 1988's Dr.
Who, Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty formed The KLF ("Kopyright Liberation
Front"). After a foray into Chill Out, the duo found crossover success
with 1991's The White Room, an album that helped bring rave culture to
the fore. Call it what you will (acid house, stadium house, rave), the
album was pure dance-pop at its finest. Hits like "What Time Is Love"
and "3 A.M. Eternal" kept the pair riding high on the charts while the
single "Justified and Ancient" turned Tammy Wynette, "The First Lady of
Country," into a post-disco club diva. Filled with the utopian mythology
of "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" and the duo's ice cream van
iconography, the album mixed breaks, samples and drum machines with
dramatic vocals and other organic elements. The eccentric duo (they've
staged pagan rituals, carved crop circles in the European countryside
and burned money publicly) split in 1992, deleting their entire
back-catalog.
After the incredible success of their "Doctorin' the Tardis" single in
1988 (better known as that theme from Dr. Who), Drummond and Cauty had
plenty of money to hire talented musicians (instead of merely sampling
them, as on their early recordings). The White Room is the result, an
album bursting with hit singles that nevertheless flows as well as any
concept album. Often overlooked as a classic from the acid house era
(mostly because of the KLF's retirement one year later), The White Room
represents the commercial and artistic peak of late-'80s acid-house.
John Bush - All Music Guide
A crazy experiment in music-industry manipulation, the KLF remain one of
dance's more groundbreaking acts. Having already scored hits as the
Jams and the Timelords, Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty christened the KLF
with Who Killed the Jams? Though they were originally considered part of
England's acid-house scene, the KLF's high-energy mix of disco-diva
vocals, rapping, breaks, and samples was truly club-friendly pop. The
White Room contains three of the group's greatest moments, the top 10
hits "What Time Is Love?," "Last Train to Transcentral," and "3 A.M.
Eternal." Amid their success, Drummond and Cauty retired from the music
industry, deleting their back catalogue in the process. The White Room
is a fitting (if somewhat short) epitaph that stands the test of time.
Its futuristic musical themes are somewhat silly, but genuine
musicianship makes the songs themselves quality fun.
Liisa Ladouceur - Amazon.com
The White Room is the fourth, and final to be released, studio album by
British house music group The KLF, released in March 1991. Originally
scheduled to be released in 1989 as the soundtrack to a film of the same
name, the album's direction was changed after both the film and the
original soundtrack LP were cancelled at the last moment. Most of the
tracks on the original version of the album are present in the final
release, though in significantly remixed form.
The White Room was supposed to be followed by a darker, harder
complementary album called The Black Room, but the latter was never
released due to the KLF's retirement from the music business in 1992.
The White Room was conceived as the soundtrack to a road movie, also
called The White Room, about the KLF's search for the mystical White
Room that would enable them to be released from their contract with
Eternity. Parts of the movie were filmed in the Sierra Nevada region of
Spain, using the money that the duo, under the alias The Timelords, had
made with their 1988 number one hit "Doctorin' the Tardis". The
soundtrack album contained pop-house versions of some of the KLF's
earlier "Pure Trance" singles, as well as new songs.
The film project was fraught with difficulties and setbacks, including
dwindling funds. Drummond and Cauty had released "Kylie Said to Jason"
(About this sound sample (help·info)), a single from the original
soundtrack, in the hopes that it could "rescue them from the jaws of
bankruptcy"; it flopped commercially, however, failing to make even the
UK top 100. As a consequence, The White Room film project was put on
hold, and the KLF abandoned the musical direction of the soundtrack and
single. Neither the film nor its soundtrack were formally released,
although bootleg copies of both exist.
Meanwhile, the KLF's single "What Time Is Love?", which had originally
been released in 1988 and largely ignored by the public, was generating
acclaim within the underground clubs of continental Europe; according to
KLF Communications, "The KLF were being feted by all the 'right' DJs".
This prompted Drummond and Cauty to pursue the acid house tone of their
Pure Trance series. A further Pure Trance release, "Last Train to
Trancentral", followed.
In October 1990, the KLF launched a series of singles with an upbeat
pop-house sound they dubbed "Stadium House". Songs from The White Room
soundtrack were re-recorded with rap and more vocals (by guests labelled
"Additional Communicators"), a sample-heavy pop-rock production, and
crowd noise samples. The "Stadium House" versions of "What Time Is
Love?" and "3 a.m. Eternal" were immediate hits, with "3 a.m. Eternal"
becoming the KLF's second, and the only one under the name, number-one
release. These "Stadium House" tracks made up a large part of The White
Room when it was eventually released in March 1991, substantially
reworked from the original soundtrack version. Aside from the singles,
"Make It Rain", "Build a Fire", "Church of the KLF" and "The White Room"
appeared in significantly more minimal, ambient and dub-oriented
versions on the final album. "Go To Sleep" was reworked to become "Last
Train To Trancentral".
Of the original mixes recorded for the film soundtrack, only "Kylie Said
to Jason" (which was omitted from the final tracklist) and a version of
"Build a Fire" saw legitimate commercial release.
Allmusic said that The White Room "represents the commercial and
artistic peak of late-'80s acid-house" and Q magazine called it
"strikingly imaginative" and "a more subtle form of subterfuge" than
previous works. A retrospective review by Splendid Magazine thought some
of the tracks to be filler and the album "silly" in places, but were
extremely impressed by the "Stadium House" songs. "As providers of
perverse, throwaway, three-minute pop-song manna," they concluded, "the
KLF were punk rock, the Renaissance, Andy Warhol and Jesus Christ all
rolled into one."
In 1993, NME staff and contributors voted the album the 81st best of all
time. The Guardian listed it at the 89th best British album of all time
and Scotland on Sunday listed the album in their "Essential 100".
Readers of Scotland's Is this music? magazine voted The White Room the
44th best "Scottish" LP of all time. In 2000 Q magazine placed it at
number 89 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. It is
also featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Wikipedia.org
KLF sind ein verrücktes Experiment in der Manipulation der
Musikindustrie, und einer der innovativeren Acts auf dem Markt. Nachdem
sie als die Jams und die Timelords bereits Hits gelandet hatten, hoben
Bill Drummond und Jimi Cauty mit "Who Killed the Jams?" KLF aus der
Taufe. Obwohl sie ursprünglich als Teil von Englands Acid-House Szene
angesehen wurden, war KLFs vor Energie sprühender Mix aus Disco-Diva
Vocals, Rap, Breaks und Samples in Wirklichkeit clubtauglicher Pop. The
White Room enthält drei der größten Hits der Combo: die Top Ten Hits
"What Time Is Love?", "Last Train to Transcentral" und "3 A.M. Eternal".
Auf dem Höhepunkt ihres Erfolges zogen sich Drummond und Cauty aus dem
Musikbusiness zurück, -- und zerstörten ihren Back-Katalog. The White
Room ist ein passendes (wenn auch eher kurzes) Epitaph, das bleibt.
Seine futuristischen musikalischen Themen sind zwar etwas albern, aber
die eingebrachten echten Musikerfähigkeiten sorgen dafür, daß die Songs
selbst wirklich Spaß machen.
Lisa Ladouceur - Amazon.de
Die Wege in die Charts sind oft unergründlich. Wie das KLF-Duo Jimmy
Cauty und Bill Drummond mit seinem billigen Synthie-Pop-Gemisch
(Ausnahme: Build A Fire) von What Time Is Love und 3 A.M. Eternal in die
Top Ten sprintete, bleibt ein Rätsel. Das Fast-Food-Computer-gedudel
wird dadurch nicht verträglicher. Immerhin: Das Duo ist so ehrlich,
zuzugeben, was es von wem gesampelt hat (etwa Kick Out The Jams von MC
5). Sogar Beifall spendeten sie sich selbst - von U2's Rattle & Hum
und Absolutely Live der Doors.
Rechtzeitig zum Frühling, blüht der Britpop sicherlich auf. Aus Elektro-
Wavepop, HipHop- und Ambient-House-Klängen mixen KLF ihre schillernde
Sound- und Songkollektion "The White Room" (Bewertung siehe oben). Zu
Heulbojen-Synthies und sanften Streichern gesellen sich wahnwitzige Sam-
ples und Reggae-/Rap-Einlagen. Mit "What Time Is Love" und "3 A.M.
Eter- nal" warf dieses Konzept schon zwei Hits ab, Höhepunkt aber ist
das neunminütige "No More Tears". Mit Selbstzitaten und Ideenklau - das
Baß- thema von "Build A Fire" borgte man sich bei "Falling" von Julee
Cruise - gibt das Duo seinem stilvollen Entertainment einen subversiven
Anstrich.
