They're justified and they're ancient, and they drive an ice-cream van

[venta]

On Fridays this year we ask...

What's in the Box?

The Box in question is the glovebox of my car, home to my extremely motley tape collection. By the time I owned a car with a tape player tapes were on the way out and most of my music was in CD format. However, charity shops were practically giving tapes away, which meant that I bought rapaciously and eclectically. A half-remembered 80s band who once released a single I'd liked a little ? A band I'd vaguely heard of ? An unknown group with good cover art ? Bring them on.

Of course, the net result is that I've ended up with a tape collection which any music-lover would be slightly ashamed of. There was a relatively narrow window (late 70s to later 80s) when tapes were big news, and my horde represents that. However, in amongst the terrible pop I've found some gems and I reckon its time to come clean about my guilty musical secrets.

Today in The Box we have:

KLF - The White Room

When our new digital overlords come to power, and audio cassettes are banned, the last tape they pry from my cold, dead fingers will be The White Room. Couldn't I just buy a CD copy, you ask ? Well, yes. In fact, I have. But, in a very literal sense, it's just not the same.

Those of you with long memories may remember Boogying to Last Train to Transcentral some years ago. As was discussed in the comments at the time, the version of the song on the cassette (and LP) is completely different to the one on the CD.

I've never performed extensive listening comparisons, but I think several of the other tracks are also different versions. te tape seems, overall, much more chilled out. Like I said: the CD just isn't the same.

You can purchase tape copies of The White Room from Amazon for a bare 49p; I encourage anyone who still listens to tapes to invest in one post haste.

KLF - Church of the KLF / Last Train to Transcentral (LP Mix) [link expired]

(Beware, large download! Sorry, this is quite a long track - the two songs segue together, and I couldn't manage to separate them.)

[Poll #1288847]

Comments

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

One cannot have too many versions of KLF gubbins.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

The euphoric hit in Last Train is much more dramatic in the LP mix. Kudos.

[alien8.livejournal.com]

I was always sadly disappointed with the CD version.. had heard most of the 12" and similar wonderful mixes whilst doing lights for the DJ mob at Uni at the time.

I'll dig it out when back from WGW though, thanks for the prod.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, the CD version is based on the US release of The White Room, which failed its "ignore copyright" roll, and had to be remixed to remove a bunch of samples (in particular, I think it was stolen crowd noise that triggered a lawsuit. FFS). Confusingly, this means that the shortened version of "Last Train" was sometimes labelled as the LP version, to distinguish it from the single, whereas in fact there are two "LP versions" according to where you bought the LP. Not that you can buy the LP any more anyway.

The UK LP/tape release has since been deleted (on account of "The KLF has left the music industry"), and I don't think it ever made it to a CD release. I could be wrong on that, though, in which case I wants one.

But that's why the CD is different from the tape, anyway.

What the fuck is going on? was deleted for the same reason Last Train was remixed, this time at the instructions of Abba's lawyers. But I've heard rumours that it can be obtained by dodgy internet means rhyming with "Bi-rate pay".

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

According to Musicbrainz there were no fewer than 6 different CD versions of the album, ranging from 8 tracks up to 14. Whether any of them relate to the tape / LP version, who can say. The KLF certainly weren't all about making it easy for the discerning consumer.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

One of those seems to have the Justified and Ancient single tagged on the end. Which is odd, because that single has as one of its many tracks the "White Room version" of Justified and Ancient.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Bargain!