Review by DjBatman
4 stars out of 4
The ultimate masterpiece of Ambient House. These are the only words that
came to my mind when I think about "Chill out". Travel along
the Mental States of America with UK's own sonic terrorists Bill Drummond
and Jimmy Cauty. They probably have never seen Texas actually (just like
me), but their musical adventure is apparently set in places like
Brownsville, Beaumont and Lake Jackson. The legend says that this
album was made editing a huge "White Room" session lasting
more than 480 minutes. Well, I don't care about the legend. This is an
exceptional record... absolutely one of the best in my whole collection.
The KLF use sound effects (trains, planes, boats, bird sounds), radio
voices, Jesus Loves You (aka Boy George) samples; New York preachers,
fragments of songs they performed in past and future incarnations ("3AM
Somewhere out of Beaumont" echoes and at the same time anticipates the
hit "3AM Eternal"; the "Justified and ancient" chorus also
appeared in the infamous "1987" album, before becoming the hookline
of another KLF hit with the same title, later featuring the vocal talents
of country queen Tammy Wynette). "Elvis on the radio, steel guitar
in my soul" puts Elvis' own "In the ghetto" in an
echo chamber, together with hawaiian guitar chords (hmmm... all
this sounds a bit like some of Bill Drummond's old solo stuff). This is
music you can dream to, or music you can listen before falling asleep.
Or, even better, the sounds you would hear on the radio, if
you were driving an old police car at 3 a.m. somewhere near the Tex-Mex
border.
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