Music Arcades: The KLF: Chill Out

This is Tim's favourite album. Well, when the Sheffield Telegraph did a poll of various local characters to ask them to nominate their all-time favourites, this is the one that Tim nominated.

Tim met Bill Drummond a few times when he did a commission for the National Centre for Popular Music. It was one of the best things in there: a square patch of carpet with the words Lie Down, and when you lay on it you could read one of Drummond's essay texts mounted on the ceiling. You can read fuller details about this about half way down this page, and Drummond subsequently wrote an amusing piece about his visits to the NCPM, mainly a hymn of praise to the (now defunct) Nibblers sandwich bar on the corner of Arundel Street and Charles Street — I can't remember where that was published; I don't think it could have been in 45. Somewhere in the attic I have a copy of the Drummond text, and some of the draft versions. As for the Lie Down carpet, it was unceremoniously thrown into some storage space in the NCPM, covered in gum and detritus, until Andy and Jo liberated it when everything at the NCPM disintegrated. I think they may have had it refurbished and returned to its rightful owner in the end.

I digress. For the truth is I find this album simply OK. If I was going to turn off the lights and get out of it, I can think of many soundtracks I'd choose before this one. I find the samples too obvious, and feel the same about the KLF approach to sampling as I do with John Oswald, by comparison with John Wall or Sabres of Paradise).

The Wikipedia entry has masses of interesting details, including the reason the album can claim (as it does on the back) to be "recorded live".

For his 45th birthday, I bought Tim a copy of the Austrian Chill Out electronica non-tribute album, which I came across in Rare & Racy. At first he didn't notice that the cover had wolves instead of sheep, and thought that I'd given him the KLF original. I'm not daft enough to give him something he'd publicly said was a favourite, though I confess it's unlikely that the harsh, glitchy sound of the un-chilled album would appeal to him.