Monday, March 10, 2008

The KLF - Chillout (KLF Communications)

If it's one thing we're sure of by now, it's that The KLF are justified and ancient. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty began to taunt and subvert the music industry back in the early 90s. I will spare you the long and very interesting history of The KLF (Wikipedia is a good start). All you should be aware of for this review, is that in 1988 Cauty and Alex Paterson founded The Orb and that the Chill Out LP was born out of their monthly DJ sessions at the London's Land Of Oz. The album was recorded in a single 44-minute "live" take straight to DAT, and took a whole two days to put together (ha!). The ambient textures and sounds within the album attempt to capture a trip through the American Deep South, derived by pure imagination of Drummond, and sampled from Elektra's Authentic Sound Effects Volume 2. I remember listening to Chill Out for the first time when it came out in 1990. I'd close my eyes in the dark and imagine the sheep, the train, the Tuvan throat singers, and the evangelist's sermon. My friends just thought I was insane. Some of them were right, of course. But, in my sober opinion, even back then I was aware that I was witnessing something transcending, evolutionary and prophetic. Listening 18 years later, I know that I was right. The KLF was clearly ahead of their time with the new textured and organic sound, and Chillout is one of the most essential and influential ambient albums of the era.

myspace.com/justifiedancientsofmumu | klf.de

1 comment:

steve said...

Yeah! I played this, along with Dead Cities constantly in 1996. I'd get home exhausted from student teaching and put this on - next thing you know I'm on the last Train to Trancentral . There's a sadness to this cd that is gorgeous. A friend of mine recently mentioned this to me, and i thought only it was me who thought this. Its amazing stuff, all edited from an eight hour dj set.