''Solid State Logik'' is a 2021 two-part digital compilation album by British electronic band

The KLF The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing ...

, released to

streaming services An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of s ...

on KLF Communications, in a series of six official compilations ''Samplecity thru Trancentral''. Part 1 subtitled ''7" Hit Singles 1988–1991'', released on 1 January 2021 – and part 2, subtitled ''12" Master Mixes 1988–2017'', released on 23 March 2021. Its first part marked the first time the KLF's music has been commercially available since the band deleted their entire catalog in 1992.

Background

On 16 January 2013, some albums by the KLF (''Chill Out'', ''Space'', the original 1997 bootleg of the original version of ''The White Room'', and the ''Lost Sounds of Mu'' bootlegs) showed up on streaming platforms, just to turn out unofficial and deleted the next day. In 2018, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' mentioned the KLF amongst artists notably absent from major streaming services. The story surrounding the creation of “Solid State Logik” most likely started around 2017, when two bootleg compilations claiming to be official KLF hit compilations, called “Songs Collection” and “The Works” appeared on streaming services. These were removed in December 2020, several days before the release of ''Solid State Logik 1''. On 31 December 2020, the release of ''Solid State Logik 1'' (with the title referencing

Solid State Logic Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound ...

, a manufacturer of

mixing console A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic inst ...

s) was announced on a

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

and posters featuring the KLF logo, hung under a railway bridge on

Kingsland Road Kingsland Road is the name given to an East London stretch of the A10 road within the London Borough of Hackney in England. The A10 was originally a Roman Road better known as Ermine Street or sometimes the Old North Road. The name ''Kingslan ...

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. The 30-minute collection of eight remastered and slightly re-edited single versions appeared at midnight 1 January 2021, on music streaming platforms, while

high-definition video High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines (No ...

s were published for the first time on the band's newly established official

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channel, marking the first activity of

Jimmy Cauty James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million. He is married to artist and mu ...

and

Bill Drummond William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...

as the KLF since 1992. ''Solid State Logik 1'' includes a previously-unreleased version of "

3 a.m. Eternal "3 a.m. Eternal" is a song by British acid house group the KLF, taken from their fourth and final studio album, ''The White Room'' (1991). Numerous versions of the song were released as singles between 1989 and 1992. In January 1991, an acid hou ...

" with British

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band

Extreme Noise Terror Extreme Noise Terror (often abbreviated to ENT) are a British extreme metal band formed in Ipswich, England in 1985 and one of the earliest and most influential crust bands. Noted for one of the earliest uses of dual vocalists in hardcore,Bonn ...

, from the abandoned KLF album '' The Black Room'' (1990–1992). The song was performed live at the 1992

BRIT Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

, causing controversy by firing blanks from machine guns into the audience.Larkin, Colin (1999). ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock'', p. 155,

Virgin Books Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing arm ...

, .

Further releases

The Kingsland Road posters also announced further “non-consecutive chapters” of reissues, under the overall title ''Samplecity thru Trancentral'', including a second part of ''Solid State Logik'', along with subsequent collections: ''Kick-Out D’Jams'', ''Pure Trance Series'', ''

Come Down Dawn ''Come Down Dawn'' (subtitled ''Brooklyn to Mexico City 1990'') is a 2021 reissue of the 1990 studio album ''Chill Out'' by British electronic music duo The KLF. Released to streaming services on 4 February 2021 under their alias The Justified An ...

'', and ''Moody Boys Selected''. The material is suggested to feature music released originally under the names: the KLF, the JAMs, the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, and the Timelords. The posters mentioned

outtake An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DV ...

s, hinting at the reissues to also feature previously unreleased material.

Track listing

*Track 2 is an uncensored version of the 7” radio edit. *Tracks 4 and 7 are new edits. *Track 6 is the USA 7” mix. *Track 1 is a new edit restoring the third verse into a slightly-edited 7” mix. *Track 5 has a different “Jerusalem on the Moors” outro. *Track 7 is incorrectly labelled as the "Make Mine a 99" deep house remix by Tony Thorpe. The mix is actually the extended 12" "Stand by The JAMs" mix. *Track 11 previously unreleased.

References

{{The KLF 2021 compilation albums The KLF albums KLF Communications compilation albums Electronic albums by British artists