The KLF

Group

The KLF

British electronic band with several aliases

From
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Active
1988–1992
Rating
★ 4.6 (5 votes)
Releases
92
  • electronic
  • acid house
  • ambient
  • ambient house
  • pop
  • alternative dance
  • house

About

The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, furthermore known as the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band who originated in Liverpool and London in the late 1980s. Scottish musician Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and English musician Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing hip hop-inspired and sample-heavy records as the JAMs. As the Timelords, they recorded the UK Singles Chart number-one single "Doctorin' the Tardis", and documented the process of making a hit record in a book The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way). As the KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered stadium house (rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled crowd noise) and, with their 1990 LP Chill Out, the ambient house genre. The KLF released a series of international hits on their own KLF Communications record label and became the biggest selling singles act in the world in 1991.

Read more

The KLF adopted the philosophy espoused by esoteric novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy, making anarchic situationist manifestations, including the defacement of billboard adverts, the posting of cryptic advertisements in New Musical Express (NME) and the mainstream press, as well as unusual performances on Top of the Pops. In collaboration with Extreme Noise Terror at the BRIT Awards in February 1992, they fired machine gun blanks into the audience and dumped a dead sheep at the aftershow party. This performance announced the KLF's departure from the music business and, in May of that year, they deleted their back-catalogue. Drummond and Cauty established the K Foundation and sought to subvert the art world, staging an alternative art award for the Worst Artist of the Year, and burning one million pounds sterling (approximately £2.35m or €2.75m as of 2022).
The duo have released a small number of new tracks since 1992, as the K Foundation, the One World Orchestra, and in 1997, as 2K. Drummond and Cauty reappeared in 2017 as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, releasing the novel 2023, and rebooting an earlier campaign to build a "People's Pyramid". In January 2021, the band began uploading their deleted catalogue onto streaming services, in compilations.

From The KLF on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Members

Discography

Albums 9
EPs 6
Singles 36
Live 2
Compilations 26
Other 13

Links

Artist rename

Also known as

2K · Discotec 2000 · J.A.M s · K Foundation · K.L.F. · KLF · Kings of the Low Frequency · Kopyright Liberation Front · One World Orchestra · The JAMM · The JAMs · The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu · The K.L.F. · The One World Orchestra · The Timelords

Tags

  • british
  • uk

Identifiers

ISNI
0000000115125832
ISNI
0000000494545596

Data from MusicBrainz, saved 8 Nov 2026. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, covers from the Cover Art Archive and Apple Music.