![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
musical reviewish thing
Many, many moons ago, MR. HEINOUS wrote a musical review of something which he intended you to read as you listened to the music. Obviously, to do this exactly right requires me to narrate to you over the sound of the music playing, or at the very least that you read at the same pace as I'm intending you to. I do not have the patience to assemble the necessary bits to do the former, so you're stuck with the latter. For starters, procure yourself a copy of the KLF album, The White Room - American release; the UK release doesn't have the correct version of the track. Failing that, the Stadium House video. Failing both of those, go download the damn file off the intarweb already. You know it's out there. You're looking for the video mix of Last Train To Trancentral. Go get it now. I'll wait.
Got it? Okay. Start playing it.... NOW.
It opens with a searing piece of synth strings, laid over some crowd noises that are either from U2's Rattle and Hum, or a live album from The Doors, and with some unknown rapper whose name I can't recall telling you who the KLF are. Then there's a rising tone in the background, and the track kicks in with the bass and the beats. The "whoo whoos" are from Cressida Cauty, wife of one half of the KLF's official front, and the "Come on boy do you want a ride?" is, I think, another KLF collaborator named P.P. Arnold. Heavily vocoded lyrics announce the track title, followed swiftly with another synth noise that sounds like a drumbreak on the keyboard. Italian house piano carries you into a reprise of Arnold's lyrics, repeated, and more vocoded lyrics that I've never really understood until they get to the bit where they say "The Last Train To Trancentral...The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu", the rapper comes back in, the drumbreak keyboard, and back to Cressida and Arnold again. Listen to the layers here. It's a perfect build of simple components over a more-or-less unchanging single-voice synth and a thumping drumbeat that invariably had people out on the floor giving it everything. I think at this point the KLF were sampling themselves to avoid the lawsuits triggered by their earlier efforts.
Breakdown. House piano almost unaccompanied, except again for that single-voice synth. So much of the sound here is electronic that I really can't compare it to any instruments, but they're certianly keen on reusing the vocoded phrase from the first "verse" (what are they saying?) before cutting back into the rapper's refrain once more. Back with the heavyweights indeed; the drum and bass tracks kick back in when he's done warning you about them.
Then we get a reprise of the first section. The single-voice synth is probably the sound marked "human voice" on my own keyboard, or something like that. It's a sustained ethereal tone with portamento, if you're of a musical bent, and works as a perfect support for Cressida's whoo-whoos and Arnold's come-on lyric.
The electro-strings on their own, in the video, accompany the KLF's police car, Ford Timelord, flying through a landscape with the occasional tip of the hat to their mythical basis, The Illuminatus trilogy, before arriving at the giant concert featured at the end of those books, where the model set of the video suddenly turns into a real set featuring the band. A fast synth line cuts in as the transition occurs, and before you know it you're looking at a pyramidal stage with a band on it instead of a giant model set with miniature cameras and a smoke machine. A whinnying horse and some chimes for good measure, and then a vocoded voice announces the creators of this work: K. L. F. Communications
There's that rising tone again. I love that sound; Apollo 440 used something similar early on, and cheesy and all as it sounds, it does ramp you into the music that follows it, even if it sounds the same as the stuff you were listening to at the start of the track. Last Train To Trancentral... and here comes the italian house piano again, layered over what you were just nodding your head to. I guess an essential part of house music, or dance tracks, is repetition, and yet it doesn't seem boring to me even if I'm not out on a floor caught up in the music. It all just works, and that's the genius of the KLF for me.
Now we're into the outro build. This is the point in any given KLF dance track where they start loading up the song with as much stuff as they have to hand. It's amazing that they can throw so many samples and layers in and still maintain the punch of the song. You've got Cressida, PP, the rapper guy, the menacing synth line from the opening, and suddenly they haul in this "MU MU" lyric on top of everything else and goddammit but it works. And they're not done! She yells "KLF", and next thing you know, Cressida's in with a tribal whoop that carries you towards the end of the song where the rapper gets a last hurrah, and finally, .... it's over and out.
Got it? Okay. Start playing it.... NOW.
It opens with a searing piece of synth strings, laid over some crowd noises that are either from U2's Rattle and Hum, or a live album from The Doors, and with some unknown rapper whose name I can't recall telling you who the KLF are. Then there's a rising tone in the background, and the track kicks in with the bass and the beats. The "whoo whoos" are from Cressida Cauty, wife of one half of the KLF's official front, and the "Come on boy do you want a ride?" is, I think, another KLF collaborator named P.P. Arnold. Heavily vocoded lyrics announce the track title, followed swiftly with another synth noise that sounds like a drumbreak on the keyboard. Italian house piano carries you into a reprise of Arnold's lyrics, repeated, and more vocoded lyrics that I've never really understood until they get to the bit where they say "The Last Train To Trancentral...The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu", the rapper comes back in, the drumbreak keyboard, and back to Cressida and Arnold again. Listen to the layers here. It's a perfect build of simple components over a more-or-less unchanging single-voice synth and a thumping drumbeat that invariably had people out on the floor giving it everything. I think at this point the KLF were sampling themselves to avoid the lawsuits triggered by their earlier efforts.
Breakdown. House piano almost unaccompanied, except again for that single-voice synth. So much of the sound here is electronic that I really can't compare it to any instruments, but they're certianly keen on reusing the vocoded phrase from the first "verse" (what are they saying?) before cutting back into the rapper's refrain once more. Back with the heavyweights indeed; the drum and bass tracks kick back in when he's done warning you about them.
Then we get a reprise of the first section. The single-voice synth is probably the sound marked "human voice" on my own keyboard, or something like that. It's a sustained ethereal tone with portamento, if you're of a musical bent, and works as a perfect support for Cressida's whoo-whoos and Arnold's come-on lyric.
The electro-strings on their own, in the video, accompany the KLF's police car, Ford Timelord, flying through a landscape with the occasional tip of the hat to their mythical basis, The Illuminatus trilogy, before arriving at the giant concert featured at the end of those books, where the model set of the video suddenly turns into a real set featuring the band. A fast synth line cuts in as the transition occurs, and before you know it you're looking at a pyramidal stage with a band on it instead of a giant model set with miniature cameras and a smoke machine. A whinnying horse and some chimes for good measure, and then a vocoded voice announces the creators of this work: K. L. F. Communications
There's that rising tone again. I love that sound; Apollo 440 used something similar early on, and cheesy and all as it sounds, it does ramp you into the music that follows it, even if it sounds the same as the stuff you were listening to at the start of the track. Last Train To Trancentral... and here comes the italian house piano again, layered over what you were just nodding your head to. I guess an essential part of house music, or dance tracks, is repetition, and yet it doesn't seem boring to me even if I'm not out on a floor caught up in the music. It all just works, and that's the genius of the KLF for me.
Now we're into the outro build. This is the point in any given KLF dance track where they start loading up the song with as much stuff as they have to hand. It's amazing that they can throw so many samples and layers in and still maintain the punch of the song. You've got Cressida, PP, the rapper guy, the menacing synth line from the opening, and suddenly they haul in this "MU MU" lyric on top of everything else and goddammit but it works. And they're not done! She yells "KLF", and next thing you know, Cressida's in with a tribal whoop that carries you towards the end of the song where the rapper gets a last hurrah, and finally, .... it's over and out.