The White Room was a 1991 album by British house music group The KLF. 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.
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 had made as The Timelords with the 1988 UK novelty pop No. 1 "Doctorin' the Tardis".[2] 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 (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.[3] 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".[3] 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 only 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.
Of the original mixes recorded for the film soundtrack, only "Kylie Said to Jason" and a version of "Build a Fire" saw legitimate commercial release.
Critical reception
Allmusic said that The White Room "represents the commercial and artistic peak of late-'80s acid-house"[4] and Q magazine called it "strikingly imaginative" and "a more subtle form of subterfuge" than previous works.[5] 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."[6]
In 1993, NME staff and contributors voted the album the 81st best of all time.[7][8] The Guardian listed it at the 89th best British album of all time[9] and Scotland on Sunday listed the album in their "Essential 100".[10] Readers of Scotland's Is this music? magazine voted The White Room the 44th best "Scottish" LP of all time.[11] 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.
Release details
Original unreleased soundtrack
| 1. |
"Kylie Said to Jason" (Edit) |
4:05 |
| 2. |
"3 a.m. Eternal" |
4:24 |
| 3. |
"Go to Sleep" |
3:44 |
| 4. |
"Make It Rain" |
3:43 |
| 5. |
"Church of the KLF" |
3:58 |
| 6. |
"No More Tears" |
3:26 |
| 7. |
"Build a Fire" |
5:02 |
| 8. |
"The Lovers' Side" |
4:24 |
| 9. |
"The White Room" |
4:31 |
| 10. |
"Born Free" |
3:02 |
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, "Last Train to Trancentral" and "No More Tears" are shortened.
Personnel
Additional performers
Notes & references
- ^ Fox, Marisa (August 9, 1991). "The White Room: Music Review:Entertainment Weekly". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,315070,00.html. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
- ^ Mellor, C. "Beam Me Up, Scotty - How to have a number one (The JAMs way)", Offbeat Magazine, February 1989 (link)
- ^ a b KLF Communications, "Information Sheet Eight", August 1990 (link)
- ^ Bush, J., The White Room review, Allmusic (link)
- ^ George, Iestyn, The White Room review, Q magazine, March 1991 (link)
- ^ Harrison, A., The White Room review, Splendid Magazine (link)
- ^ http://microsites.nme.com/top100/site/90.html
- ^ Latest Reviews from NME.com – Music Videos, CDs, Gig Reviews & More
- ^ "The top 100 British albums", The Guardian (Manchester), 2 May 2000, p9.
- ^ "Essential 100 CDs - Part 3", Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh), 29 April 2001, p19.
- ^ "The Razz Rock: Grand prize for Fan Club ; Album named best of all time", Daily Record (Glasgow), 1 April 2005, Features section, p43.
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