Released 04 March 1991 Genre Electronica Label KLF Communications | Recorded 1989–91 Length 43:43 | |
Studio Trancentral
The Village, Dagenham
Lillie Yard, London
Matrix, London
Mixing:
Lillie Yard, London
The Townhouse, London
The Manor, Oxfordshire | ||
The White Room is the fourth and final studio album by British electronic music group The KLF, released in March 1991. Originally scheduled for 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. Most tracks on the original album version are present in the final release, though in significantly remixed form.
Contents
A darker, harder complementary album called The Black Room was supposed to follow The White Room, but that plan was abandoned when KLF disbanded in 1992.
Background
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" ( sample ), 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 track list) and a version of "Build a Fire" saw legitimate commercial release.
Critical reception
Iestyn George of Q called The White Room "strikingly imaginative" and "a more subtle form of subterfuge" than previous works. In a retrospective review of the album, John Bush of AllMusic said that The White Room "represents the commercial and artistic peak of late-'80s acid-house" 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.
1991 album release
The running times below are for the version of The White Room released on CD in Germany. Most releases of the album outside of North America had the same audio content, but located the track markers differently depending on which label released the CD.
In the North American Arista release, samples of crowd noise from U2's Rattle and Hum album, used to segue between the "Stadium House" tracks, are removed, leading to abrupt and awkward transitions between these tracks; additionally, "No More Tears" is shortened and "Last Train to Trancentral" appears in its significantly different stadium house single version. Samples from Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips Part 2" were also removed from "Make It Rain".
In 1992 Arista released The White Room as a two-disc package with the five-track "Justified & Ancient" single. In 2003 it was re-released as one disc; strangely, "Justified and Ancient"'s album version, which is part of the single release (as The White Room version), was also added, therefore the album version was included twice.
The CD release JAMS CD006 sleeve lists it as a 9-track CD, however the disc only has 8 tracks. Track 4 "Church of the KLF" is on the end of the track 3, moving all other tracks up a number. The sleeve also states the album is 45:05 long but in fact it is only 43:43 long.