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Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's February. Do you know what time it is? Time for another month devoted to "Dark Valentines!" They may not be "love songs" but maybe you'll love them nonetheless. The first of them is a modern dark ebm take on an 80's hiphop/techno banger that might beg the question "when do I get mine?":
The Ðevil & The Uñiverse – What Time Is Love? (The KLF)
The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front), also known as "The JAMs" (Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu) and "The Timelords," first released What Time Is Love? as an entirely instrumental acid-house trance single in July 1988. As The JAMs, the group had been presumably mischaracterized as spearheading "a crusade for sampling." Their response to that was that they "might put out a couple of 12-inch records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music..."
Clearly they were dissatisfied with the "rap free" part of what they'd done with their initial effort, and so in July 1990 they released What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral), which appeared later on their 1991 album The White Room. "Live" was indicative of them having produced it in their Trancental studios, not that it had been recorded from a live performance in concert, despite the inclusion of crowd and announcer samples. It had evolved not only as a full rap but also included samples they had minimized in the original instrumental. One recognizable sample is "I wanna see you sweat" from Wanda Dee's 1989 underground no-hit single To The Bone. They apparently used the sample without permission, leading to a settlement with Dee that included a co-writing credit on the U.S Release of The White Room, an appearance on a video for Last Train To Trancentral, and production on her own developing solo album (which never happened because the KLF left the music industry entirely.) In the end, they may not have "liberated" as much "copyright" as their namesake boasted.
The KLF reworked the track even further with their 1992 release of America: What Time Is Love? (first released in the UK and then four months later in the U.S.) It disposed of the offending copyright violation sample to replace it with Wanda Dee singing the lyric. The reworked version was a metal/techno hybrid that also featured Glen Hughes (formerly of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath) doing vocals on the titular line. Hughes stated that recording with The KLF motivated him to end his cocaine habit. He said "I suddenly understood that there was more to life than drugs. I mean, the KLF guys were aware of my previous record of drug-induced unreliability but were willing to give me a chance..." He seemed to think the America version would become a huge hit and reinvigorate his career. It did not.
But it did seem to have an anti-establishment sentiment directed specifically at the U.S and its release was timed with The KLF's announcement that they were retiring from music altogether.
Most covers seem to ignore that final iteration, focusing only on the trance instrumental and "live" versions. Covers have been done by Max Tundra, Young Rebels, Kaiser Chiefs and The God Machine.
The Ðevil & The Uñiverse, an ambient ritual/ghostwave industrial project from Vienna, Austria, released their cover of What Time Is Love? as a limited availability EP in late June 2014. It marks the first of their work with with co-founder Ashley Dayour on vocals. After the release Dayour said, "if it fits, we might work with more vocals." Their last two albums indicate they've found ways for it to fit. In another interview discussing the cover, Dayour claimed a certain kinship with The KLF. "We have a lot in common with The KLF. The KLF are not just a 90's dance band, there is far more to it than meets the eye." Dayour also made it clear that part of their intent for the cover was both humor and chaos, inspired in that way also by the KLF since "they loved to cause confusion and so do we." At one performance they had someone dancing on the stage dressed as a pink unicorn and when they played the cover they say that "the reaction of the audience was priceless."
The Ðevil & The Uñiverse seem to have drawn from all versions of the original three: The rock influences of America, vocalizing only the titular and Dee's sampled lyric from Live, and the largely instrumental nature of the Trance by way of being otherwise lyrically sparse. They even sample the exact opening announcement of the Live version with a reverberating connector to their own version. If that all sounds as chaotic as the story that got us here, consider their objective successful.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Though I expect there may be more than one downtempo selection during this month of Dark Valentine covers, our next Second Sunday Slowly feature demonstrates no ordinary spooky trip-hop love for a nineties smooth R&B pop hit. ❣ ‿ ❣
Feel free to leave a comment about that or tell me what you think about today's cover!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jan 27 - The Purge - Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Jan 20 - Pain Station - Safety Dance (Men Without Hats)
Jan 13 - Clayfeet - Creep (Radiohead)
Jan 06 - Manufactura - Sex, Money, Freaks (Cabaret Voltaire)
Dec 30 - Fictional - Happiest Girl (Depeche Mode)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's February. Do you know what time it is? Time for another month devoted to "Dark Valentines!" They may not be "love songs" but maybe you'll love them nonetheless. The first of them is a modern dark ebm take on an 80's hiphop/techno banger that might beg the question "when do I get mine?":
The Ðevil & The Uñiverse – What Time Is Love? (The KLF)
The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front), also known as "The JAMs" (Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu) and "The Timelords," first released What Time Is Love? as an entirely instrumental acid-house trance single in July 1988. As The JAMs, the group had been presumably mischaracterized as spearheading "a crusade for sampling." Their response to that was that they "might put out a couple of 12-inch records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music..."
Clearly they were dissatisfied with the "rap free" part of what they'd done with their initial effort, and so in July 1990 they released What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral), which appeared later on their 1991 album The White Room. "Live" was indicative of them having produced it in their Trancental studios, not that it had been recorded from a live performance in concert, despite the inclusion of crowd and announcer samples. It had evolved not only as a full rap but also included samples they had minimized in the original instrumental. One recognizable sample is "I wanna see you sweat" from Wanda Dee's 1989 underground no-hit single To The Bone. They apparently used the sample without permission, leading to a settlement with Dee that included a co-writing credit on the U.S Release of The White Room, an appearance on a video for Last Train To Trancentral, and production on her own developing solo album (which never happened because the KLF left the music industry entirely.) In the end, they may not have "liberated" as much "copyright" as their namesake boasted.
The KLF reworked the track even further with their 1992 release of America: What Time Is Love? (first released in the UK and then four months later in the U.S.) It disposed of the offending copyright violation sample to replace it with Wanda Dee singing the lyric. The reworked version was a metal/techno hybrid that also featured Glen Hughes (formerly of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath) doing vocals on the titular line. Hughes stated that recording with The KLF motivated him to end his cocaine habit. He said "I suddenly understood that there was more to life than drugs. I mean, the KLF guys were aware of my previous record of drug-induced unreliability but were willing to give me a chance..." He seemed to think the America version would become a huge hit and reinvigorate his career. It did not.
But it did seem to have an anti-establishment sentiment directed specifically at the U.S and its release was timed with The KLF's announcement that they were retiring from music altogether.
Most covers seem to ignore that final iteration, focusing only on the trance instrumental and "live" versions. Covers have been done by Max Tundra, Young Rebels, Kaiser Chiefs and The God Machine.
The Ðevil & The Uñiverse, an ambient ritual/ghostwave industrial project from Vienna, Austria, released their cover of What Time Is Love? as a limited availability EP in late June 2014. It marks the first of their work with with co-founder Ashley Dayour on vocals. After the release Dayour said, "if it fits, we might work with more vocals." Their last two albums indicate they've found ways for it to fit. In another interview discussing the cover, Dayour claimed a certain kinship with The KLF. "We have a lot in common with The KLF. The KLF are not just a 90's dance band, there is far more to it than meets the eye." Dayour also made it clear that part of their intent for the cover was both humor and chaos, inspired in that way also by the KLF since "they loved to cause confusion and so do we." At one performance they had someone dancing on the stage dressed as a pink unicorn and when they played the cover they say that "the reaction of the audience was priceless."
The Ðevil & The Uñiverse seem to have drawn from all versions of the original three: The rock influences of America, vocalizing only the titular and Dee's sampled lyric from Live, and the largely instrumental nature of the Trance by way of being otherwise lyrically sparse. They even sample the exact opening announcement of the Live version with a reverberating connector to their own version. If that all sounds as chaotic as the story that got us here, consider their objective successful.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Though I expect there may be more than one downtempo selection during this month of Dark Valentine covers, our next Second Sunday Slowly feature demonstrates no ordinary spooky trip-hop love for a nineties smooth R&B pop hit. ❣ ‿ ❣
Feel free to leave a comment about that or tell me what you think about today's cover!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jan 27 - The Purge - Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Jan 20 - Pain Station - Safety Dance (Men Without Hats)
Jan 13 - Clayfeet - Creep (Radiohead)
Jan 06 - Manufactura - Sex, Money, Freaks (Cabaret Voltaire)
Dec 30 - Fictional - Happiest Girl (Depeche Mode)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .