Stuey and Nick's KLF FAQ

1.006: What are the various incarnations of the Drummond/Cauty partnership?

From when they first paired up in 1987, to when the KLF split in 1992, Drummond and Cauty progressed through many varying musical styles in their commercial releases.

There are never ending discussions about how bad a certain phase of their history was. You should be aware that Drummond and Cauty had very short attention spans and changed musical direction more often than other bands changed their underwear. You don't have to like everything they've done, but have an open mind and remember the context of the time they produced those songs.

Here's a short guide to the various incarnations. Or is that regenerations?:

1987-1988 as the JAMs:	punk ethic, political Scottish rap, blatant cut-n-paste sampling, primitive hip-hop, they gradually got better at it. Huge influence on Pop Will Eat Itself.
1988 as the Timelords:	an exercise in nauseating novelty, charting a number one house record "Doctorin' the Tardis" and explaining how they did it in 'The Manual'. Huge influence on Edelweiss.
1988-1990 as the KLF:	twin styles of acid trance house and ambient soundscapes, very difficult to find the records, but check out the Chill Out album, which is still in print. The rave stuff was an influence on Black Box, and other Italians, while the ambient stuff practically started the whole '90's ambient scene.
1990-1991 as the KLF:	their early singles were remixed and re-remixed and re-re-re-remixed into the Stadium house pop permutations you have probably heard on the radio. Influence on Blue Pearl, Utah Saints, Nomad etc.
1992 as the KLF:	they started working on thrash guitar heavy-metal techno dance but scrapped most of the sessions. Could this have been yet another new musical style? Influence on the God Machine and Kerosene?
1993-1995 as the K Foundation:	like all good post-modernists they are branching out into interdisciplinary arts but so far just one single, a limited release in Israel/Palestine to celebrate the peace accord.
1995 as the One World Orchestra:	they sneaked out of retirement to record a hastily constructed orchestral/drum'n'bass track for the much hyped Help!, Artists for War Child LP. See question 1.011 for details.

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