This discography lists the key British and notable international releases of The KLF and the other pseudonyms of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. It also details the other releases on their independent record label, KLF Communications, by KLF-spinoff Disco 2000 and Space (Cauty's solo work). In the United Kingdom—their home country—Drummond and Cauty released six albums and a wide array of 12 " singles on KLF Communications. In other territories their material was typically issued under licence by local labels.
Although the duo's early works as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs) aroused media interest, with many singles being awarded "single of the week" by various music publications, [1] Drummond and Cauty neither sought nor found mainstream chart success until the release of The Timelords' million-selling DIY release "Doctorin' the Tardis" in May 1988. [2] The KLF's single "Kylie Said to Jason", from The White Room soundtrack, was designed for chart success, but failed to reach the UK Top 100. [3] However, The KLF achieved international chart success with the string of pop-house singles that began with "What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)", and they became the internationally highest-selling singles band of 1991. [4] [5]
Note that this is a not a complete list; compilation appearances of otherwise available tracks, bootleg recordings, and certain very limited edition remix and promotional singles have been excluded. [n 1]
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certification | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [6] | UK Indie [7] | AUS [8] [9] | AUT [10] | NLD [11] | SWE [12] | SWI [13] | US [14] | |||
1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) |
| — | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Who Killed The JAMs? |
| — | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Chill Out |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Space |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
The White Room |
| 3 | — | 5 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 39 | |
Waiting for the Rights of Mu |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
"—" denotes that the release did not chart |
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
---|---|---|---|
UK Indie [7] | |||
Shag Times |
| 5 | |
The "What Time Is Love?" Story |
| — | |
MU [16] |
| — | |
Solid State Logik 1 |
| — | |
Solid State Logik 2 |
| — | |
"—" denotes that the release did not chart |
Year | Single | Artist | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | Album | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [6] [17] | UK Indie [7] | AUS [8] [9] | AUT [10] | IRE [18] | NLD [19] | NOR [20] | SWE [12] [21] | SWI [13] [22] | US [23] | US Dance [23] | |||||
1987 | "All You Need Is Love"
| The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu | — | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) | |
"Whitney Joins The JAMs"
| — | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Singles only | |||
"1987 (The JAMS 45 Edits)"
| — | 35 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"I Gotta CD"
| Disco 2000 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"Down Town"
| The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu | — | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
1988 | "Burn the Bastards" /"Burn the Beat" [n 2]
| The KLF [n 3] | — | 15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Who Killed The JAMs? | |
"One Love Nation"
| Disco 2000 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Singles only | ||
"Doctorin' the Tardis"
| The Timelords | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | 4 | 25 | 10 | — | — | 66 | 16 | |||
"What Time Is Love? (Pure Trance Original)"
| The KLF | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
1989 | "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"
| Disco 2000 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
"3 a.m. Eternal (Pure Trance Original)"
| The KLF | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"Kylie Said to Jason"
| — | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
1990 | "Last Train to Trancentral (Pure Trance Original)"
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)"
| 5 | — | 73 | 23 | — | 15 | — | 14 | 23 | — | 13 | The White Room | |||
1991 | "3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.)"
| 1 | — | 3 | 7 | — | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |||
"Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the Lost Continent)"
| 2 | — | 5 | 6 | — | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | — | 17 |
| |||
"America: What Time Is Love?"
| 4 | — | 40 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 57 | 10 | Singles only | |||
"It's Grim Up North"
| The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu | 10 | — | 136 | — | — | — | — | — | 26 | — | — | |||
"Justified and Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" [n 5]
| The KLF (featuring Tammy Wynette) | 2 | — | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 2 | |||
1992 | "3 a.m. Eternal" [n 6]
| The KLF with Extreme Noise Terror | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1993 | "K Cera Cera (War Is Over If You Want It)" [n 7] | The K Foundation presents The Red Army Choir | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1997 | "Fuck the Millennium" | 2K (featuring Acid Brass) | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 29 | — | — | — | ||
"—" denotes that the release did not chart |
The following tracks were remixed by The KLF:
Year | Original artist | Song | Remix |
---|---|---|---|
1990 | Depeche Mode | "Policy of Truth" | "Trancentral Mix" |
Pet Shop Boys | "So Hard" | "The KLF vs Pet Shop Boys" | |
"It Must Be Obvious" | "UFO Mix" | ||
1991 | Moody Boys | "What Is Dub?" | "Kings of Low Frequency Dub Version" |
"Dub Is What?" |
In 1989, as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the duo produced the Moody Boys' single "First National Rapper" and its B-side, "Funky Zulu".
The following tracks and remixes were made available only on Various Artists compilation albums. Compilation appearances by tracks which were also released on an album or single are not included. Mixes for DJs and megamixes are also excluded.
Year | Artist | Song | Compilation Album |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | Discotec 2000 | "Feel This" | Eternity Project One |
1990 | The KLF | "Build a Fire (Lenny Dee Remix)" [n 8] | Energy - DJ's In The House |
1991 | The KLF | "What Time Was Love" [n 9] | Give Peace A Dance: A CND Compilation |
1995 | One World Orchestra | "The Magnificent" | The Help Album |
All titles credited to The KLF and released on VHS video.
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1990 | Waiting | KLF VT007. Ambient house film with an original soundtrack. |
1991 | The Stadium House Trilogy | Picture Music International. Video performances of "3 a.m. Eternal", "Last Train to Trancentral", and "What Time Is Love?"; and a new instrumental piece, "This Is Not What The KLF Is About". |
The Rites of Mu | Promotional VHS only; KLF VT014. "Documentary" filmed on the island of Jura. Aired on MTV Europe, 24 June 1992. | |
The following K Foundation films have all had public screenings, but have not been released on any home video format.
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1994 | Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid | 55 minutes of footage showing the K Foundation (Cauty and Drummond) burning one million pounds. Premiered on 23 August 1995 on the island of Jura. |
1995 | Pissing in the Wind | Footage of Drummond, Cauty and Mark Hawker urinating into the wind. Shot on 3 November 1995 and premiered at Glasgow University on the same day. |
1997 | This Brick | 4 minutes of a still picture of a brick made from the ashes of the million pounds incinerated by the K Foundation. Premiered at the Barbican Hall, London on 17 September 1997. |
Year | Authors | Title | Publisher | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | Jimmy Cauty Bill Drummond | The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) | KLF Publications | ISBN 0-86359-616-9 |
2017 | Jimmy Cauty Bill Drummond | 2023: A Trilogy | Faber & Faber | ISBN 9780571342242 |
The following KLF projects were announced but not released. Some of these, but by no means all, circulate as bootleg recordings/videos; some may not have been recorded at all. [n 10]
Year | Format | Project | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1988 | Flexidisc | "Deep Shit (Part 1)" | Given catalogue number DS 1. KLF Communications Information Sheet 8 (1990) claimed that 500 copies had been pressed but had "never been deemed safe to release". [3] |
Graphic novel | "Deep Shit (The Further Adventures Of The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu)" | A comic book or graphic novel drawn by Cauty (with words by Drummond) was mentioned in NME and The Face and various KLF Information Sheets. [30] [31] [32] | |
Single | "Love Trance" ["Pure Trance 3"] | KLF 006. Sleeves and labels printed. | |
Single | "Turn Up the Strobe" ["Pure Trance 4"] | KLF 007. Sleeves printed. | |
Single | "E-Train To Trancentral" ["Pure Trance 5"] | KLF 008. Sleeves and labels printed. | |
Single | "The Lovers' Side" ["Pure Trance 5"] | This song also featured on the unreleased version of the album The White Room (see below). | |
1989 | Single | "Deep Shit (Part 3)" | KLF 010R. Reportedly, 6 copies were pressed. [3] |
Album | The White Room - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | JAMS LP4. Very different from the White Room album eventually released, this widely bootlegged recording was scrapped after the commercial failure of the single "Kylie Said to Jason". [3] | |
Film | The White Room | KLF VT006. The KLF's road movie. A rough version was completed in 1989, before The KLF decided to film an "Outer Film" to augment it. [3] This was never completed. The "Inner Film" has been screened privately, and bootleg copies of it circulate. | |
1991 | single | "America: What Time Is January?" | KLF 92 PROMO 2. Unreleased remix of "America: What Time Is Love?" Small amounts of single sided promos were pressed on black and clear vinyl. [33] [34] |
1992 | Album | The Black Room | The KLF started work on a final album, but it remains unfinished and unissued. [35] |
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he famously burned £1 million in 1994.
James Francis Cauty, also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo the KLF, co-founder of the Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million.
The White Room is the fourth and final studio album by British electronic music group the KLF, released on 3 March 1991. The album features versions of the band's hit singles, including "What Time Is Love?", "3 a.m. Eternal", and "Last Train to Trancentral".
"It's Grim Up North" is a song by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. The song was originally released as a limited edition "Club Mix" in December 1990 with Pete Wylie on vocals. A re-recorded version with Bill Drummond on vocals was released commercially in October 1991. These recordings were the first releases by Drummond and his creative partner Jimmy Cauty under the JAMs moniker since the 1988 compilation album Shag Times, and the last under that name; in the meantime they had operated as the Timelords and the KLF. The 1991 single release reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart and entered the top 10 in Denmark and Finland.
Disco 2000 was a British pop band, a side project of The KLF. Vocals were handled by Cress, then-wife of KLF co-founder Jimmy Cauty, and Mo, June Montana. Between 1987 and 1989, Disco 2000 released three singles on the KLF Communications label, none of which entered the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart.
Who Killed The JAMs? is the second studio album by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, and the final one under the JAMs moniker before renaming themselves The KLF. Similar in style to the preceding 1987 , the album is a fusion of hip hop, drum machines and samples of a diversity of musical works, although in general the samples are more covertly integrated here than they are in 1987.
"Last Train to Trancentral" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by British electronic band The KLF, including "Last Train to Trancentral ". A commercially successful single of April 1991, it reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, number one on the UK Dance Singles Chart and achieved international top ten placings. It is a central song within The KLF's work, and is distinctive for an uplifting string-synthesiser break.
"What Time Is Love?" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by the British electronic music band the KLF. It featured prominently and repeatedly in their output from 1988 to 1992 and, under the moniker of 2K, in 1997. In its original form, the track was an instrumental electronic dance anthem; subsequent reworkings, with vocals and additional instrumentation, yielded the international hit singles "What Time Is Love? " (1990), and "America: What Time Is Love?" (1991), which respectively reached number five and number four on the UK Singles Chart, and introduced the KLF to a mainstream international audience.
"Justified & Ancient" is a song by British band the KLF. It was featured on their 1991 studio album, The White Room, but its origins date back to the duo's debut album, 1987 .
Shag Times is a UK compilation and remix double album released in 1989 by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. The album also introduced Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty's new incarnation – and one which would become considerably more famous – The KLF.
"Doctorin' the Tardis" is a novelty single by the Timelords. The song is predominantly a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme music and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll" with sections from "Block Buster!" by The Sweet. The single was not well received by critics but was a commercial success, hitting number one on the UK and New Zealand singles charts, and reaching the top 10 in Australia, Finland, Ireland and Norway.
"Whitney Joins the JAMs" is a song and 1987 single by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. The song, released on the JAMs' independent label KLF Communications, is built around plagiarised samples of Whitney Houston in which—thanks to studio technology—she "joins the JAMs".
"Down Town" was a 1987 release by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. The song is gospel music driven by house music rhythms, incorporating a sample of Petula Clark's 1964 single "Downtown".
"Kylie Said to Jason" was a 1989 single by The KLF, referring to Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, then stars in the popular Australian TV soap opera Neighbours. Designed for chart success, the single nonetheless failed to enter the UK top 100.
The KLF are a British electronic band who originated in Liverpool and London in the late 1980s. Scottish musician Bill Drummond and English musician Jimmy Cauty began by releasing hip hop-inspired and sample-heavy records as the JAMs. As the Timelords, they recorded the British number-one single "Doctorin' the Tardis", and documented the process of making a hit record in a book The Manual . As the KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered stadium house and, with their 1990 LP Chill Out, the ambient house genre. The KLF released a series of international hits on their own KLF Communications record label and became the biggest selling singles act in the world in 1991.
"Fuck the Millennium", sometimes spelled "***k the Millennium", is a protest song by the band 2K—Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty—better known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or the KLF. The song was inspired musically by Jeremy Deller's "Acid Brass" project, where a traditional brass band plays acid house classics; these include the KLF's "What Time Is Love?". They were also inspired topically by the then-forthcoming end of the second millennium and the plans to celebrate it.
"Burn the Bastards" is a 1988 song by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, from their second, and final before changing names, album Who Killed The JAMs?. The "bastards" of the title are copies of The JAMs first album, 1987 , which Drummond and Cauty burnt on a bonfire in a Swedish field after a copyright dispute with the Swedish pop group ABBA. The song was released as a single, along with a separate single of remixes titled "Burn the Beat". Both singles were credited to The KLF, marking a change of name and with it a change of musical genre, from The JAMs' sample-fuelled political hip-hop to The KLF's upbeat and uptempo house music.
2023: A Trilogy is a book by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond writing as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. The book was published in 2017, 23 years after the duo had burnt one million British pounds they earned in the music industry as The KLF.
Welcome to the Dark Ages was a three-day event organised by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, held in Liverpool in August 2017. The event heralded a revival of the creative partnership between Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, under the name with which they first recorded and released music together in 1987. The duo had last worked together in 1997, when, as 2K, they staged an art performance and released a single, "Fuck the Millennium", and, as K2 Plant Hire Ltd, hatched a plan to build a "People's Pyramid" to celebrate the new millennium.
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