This ad will close in 15 seconds

From : Maximum90s
Added: Mar 25, 2009
"What Time Is Love?" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by acid house pioneers 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 acid house anthem; subsequent reworkings, with vocals and additional instrumentation, yielded the international hit singles "What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)" (1990) and "America: What Time Is Love?" (1991), which respectively reached # 5 and # 4 in the UK Singles Chart and introduced The KLF to a mainstream international audience. The KLF co-founders Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond began releasing music in March 1987, under the pseudonym The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), named after a cultish organisation from The Illuminatus! Trilogy novels. The JAMs' output was created from plagiarised samples of popular music grafted together to form new songs, with beatbox rhythms and Drummond's often political raps. Initially hip hop-oriented, The JAMs' sound soon inclined towards house music. Their second album, Who Killed The JAMs?, was followed by a newsletter which expressed regret that people believed The JAMs were leading "a crusade for sampling", and suggested "We might put out a couple of 12-inch records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music, so don't expect to see them reviewed in the music papers."[1] The first incarnation of "What Time Is Love?" followed. "What Time Is Love?" became one of The KLF's central tracks, dubbed their "three-note warhorse of a signature tune" by Bill Drummond, in reference to the three-note bassline which, together with a high-pitched refrain on two notes (B bending to F#) characterises the song.[2] In common with the singles "3 a.m. Eternal", "Last Train to Trancentral" and "Justified and Ancient", "What Time Is Love?" evolved through substantial reworkings, each new version taking elements of its predecessors and placing them in the context of a different musical genre. There were three main versions, released in 1988, 1990 and 1991, shifting The KLF's sound from acid house through pop-house into heavy rock-oriented electronica. The single release "America: What Time Is Love?" constituted a major reworking of the anthem and was The KLF's final UK commercial musical offering. It was released in February 1992 in the UK, four months after it was first made available in the US.[10] The KLF's notorious BRIT Awards performance, staged in the week prior to "America"'s UK release, concluded with the announcement of their departure from the music industry. This was later confirmed by a full-page press announcement that used images from the set of the "America: What Time Is Love?" music video. "America" has a markedly different tone to previous incarnations of the song: harder, heavier and more guitar-laden (featuring the riff from Motörhead's Ace of Spades). It opens with a protracted narration by The KLF's regular narrator Scott Piering, about The JAMs' odyssey of 992 to discover America[11]. In common with previous single "It's Grim Up North", it features a climactic orchestral section and a spoken list of towns and cities. However, in common with the "Stadium House" tracks, the mood of the song is one of jubilation. Between verses, a male chorus chants the word "America" to the tune of the song "Aquarius" from Hair. Isaac Bello again provided rap, and Glenn Hughes (formerly of Deep Purple) provided vocals - a contribution which Hughes claimed "saved his life" from drug abuse.[12] In contrast, the B-side "America No More" is a sombre anti-war statement focussing on US foreign policy. With ambient overtones, it features forlorn guitars, austere brass and a pipe band, set against the backdrop of artillery noise and the recorded words of US politicians, commentators and evangelists speaking either about or during major 20th century US military conflicts. According to Drummond, it was the final track to be recorded by The KLF.[13] Evangelists feature elsewhere in The KLF's music (Chill Out, "What Time Is Love? (Remodelled & Remixed)" and "Fuck the Millennium"), as does gunfire (in the three "Stadium House" singles). Reviewing "America: What Time Is Love?", Melody Maker found that "the whole bizarre concoction's brilliantly bonkers", but questioned The KLF's strategy of recycling their songs.[14] "America No More" was described by The Wire in 1997 as "a devastating protest-montage of helicopters, bagpipes and carpet-bombs". [info courtesy: wikipedia.org]
Category : Music

Video Categories:

Also Try: