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The White Room is the fourth and final studio album by British electronic music group the KLF, released on 4 March 1991. The album features versions of the band's hit singles, including "What Time Is Love?", "3 a.m. Eternal", "Justified and Ancient" and "Last Train to Trancentral". Originally scheduled for 1989 as the soundtrack to a film of the same name, the album's direction was changed after both the film and the original soundtrack LP were cancelled.
Most tracks on the original album version are present in the final 1991 release, though in significantly remixed form. The White Room was supposed to be followed by a darker, harder complementary album The Black Room, but that plan was abandoned when the KLF retired in 1992. On 23 April 2021, a re-edited version of the album was officially released on streaming platforms, in a series of digital reissues, as The White Room (Director's Cut), featuring new edits of original tracks from 1989 to 1990 sessions. The soundtrack album contained pop-house versions of some of the KLF's earlier "Pure Trance" singles, as well as new songs.
The film project was fraught with difficulties and setbacks, including dwindling funds. Drummond and Cauty had released "Kylie Said to Jason", a single from the original soundtrack, in the hopes that it could "rescue them from the jaws of bankruptcy"; it flopped commercially, however, failing to make even the UK top 100. As a consequence, The White Room film project was put on hold, and the KLF abandoned the musical direction of the soundtrack and single. Neither the film nor the soundtrack album<!--distinguishing, because the literal soundtrack to the film did of course include sounds from the film and not just songs, and there were possibly various mixes of the soundtrack (but not of the soundtrack album which was completed)--> were formally released, although bootleg copies of both exist.
Promotion
Meanwhile, the KLF's single "What Time Is Love?", which had originally been released in 1988 and largely ignored by the public, was generating acclaim within the underground clubs of continental Europe; according to KLF Communications, "The KLF were being feted by all the 'right' DJs". in 1997, a bootleg CD taken from a low-quality cassette rip was released and included some bonus tracks. A higher-quality version, allegedly created by someone who mastered the original album DAT in a professional studio, was hosted on a popular KLF fan site, KLF.de in the early 2000s.<!--Of the original mixes recorded for the film soundtrack, only "Kylie Said to Jason" (which was omitted from the final track list), "3 A.M. Eternal" and a version of "Build a Fire" saw legitimate commercial release.--><!--We probably don't need this as it's hard to reconcile and probably only of interest to hardcore fans who would be better advised to get their info from the KLF discog, klf.de, Record Collector etc. As I understand it though: A "Lenny D remix" of the original "Build a Fire" was released on a V/A compilation album; KSTJ was released as a single; and 3a.m. was an edit of the _previously released_ Pure Trance Original. To the casual reader, of course, the track listings are similar, and of the 3 songs mentioned 2 appeared in different forms on the commercial album and one as a single, which we already cover. The casual reader is more likely to be interested in what happened to "The Lovers' Side" and "Born Free"-->
Director's Cut
On 23 April 2021, The White Room (Director's Cut) was officially released as the fourth part of the series of remastered digital compilations under the collective title Samplecity thru Trancentral. The album's edition includes tracks from the unreleased 1989 album, plus versions of "Madrugada Eterna" and "Last Train to Trancentral".
Critical reception
Writing for Select, Andrew Harrison praised The White Room as "an enthralling album" which "plays a disconcerting game with the listener's expectations of the commercial end of house."
In 1993, NME staff and contributors voted the album the 81st best of all time, and in 2000, Q listed it as the 89th best British album of all time. Scotland on Sunday listed The White Room in their "Essential 100", and readers of Scotland's Is this music? magazine voted the album the 44th best "Scottish" LP of all time. The White Room is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Track listing
Tunes from The White Room
1991 album release
1991 North American release
2021 Director's Cut
Personnel
- Jimmy Cauty – production, performance and programming
- Bill Drummond – production, performance, vocals and programming
Additional performers
- Nick Coler – keyboards, additional programming, backing vocals ("3 a.m. Eternal")
- Maxine Harvey – vocals, backing vocals (except "What Time Is Love?", "Justified and Ancient")
- Black Steel – vocals, scat singing, bass guitar ("No More Tears", "Justified and Ancient"), piano ("No More Tears")
- Ricardo Lyte – rap ("3 a.m. Eternal" and "Last Train to Trancentral")
- Isaac Bello – rap ("What Time Is Love?")
- Tony Thorpe – breaks, samples
- Duy Khiem – tenor saxophone ("Make It Rain"), clarinet ("The White Room")
- Graham Lee – pedal steel ("Build a Fire")
- P. P. Arnold – vocals
- Katie Kissoon – vocals
- Wanda Dee – sampled vocals
Engineering
- Spike Stent – mix
- Julian Gordon-Hastings – mix
- Arun Chakraverty – mastering
Charts
Weekly charts
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! scope="col"| Chart (1991)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
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! scope="col"| Chart (1991)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
| 30
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! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 26
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! scope="row"| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| 43
|}