23 Seconds To Eternity – The collected films of the KLF gets a release date

23 SECONDS TO ETERNITY takes viewers on a film journey through the collected music videos and short features produced and directed by Bill Butt in collaboration with Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond in their various guises as The JAMs, The KLF and The Timelords, one of the most successful, subversively creative and enigmatic electronic bands of the early 90s. This new release is the first ever compilation of KLF Communication’s films and includes previously unreleased material along with an illustrated booklet for the limited edition Blu-ray/DVD release. 23 SECONDS TO ETERNITY will also be on the big screen when BFI Southbank presents a special release day launch screening followed by a Q&A with producer/director Bill Butt on 6 November. Further UK cinema screenings are to be announced.

The KLF became the biggest selling singles act in the world in 1991 with a series of international smash hits including acid house anthems 3 A.M. Eternal, Last Train To Transcentral, and Justified & Ancient, released on their own KLF Communications record label. 23 SECONDS TO ETERNITY includes the film THE WHITE ROOM (1989), an ‘ambient road movie’ following American police car, Ford Timelord and Jimmy Cauty (Rockman Rock) and Bill Drummond (King Boy D) on a journey cross-country in search of the ‘White Room’. Remastered and regraded from the only existing film print, THE WHITE ROOM features a new soundtrack specially recorded for this Blu-ray/DVD release.

23 SECONDS TO ETERNITY also features a newly restored version of THE RITES OF MU (1991), a 29 minute feature narrated by Martin Sheen, documenting a Summer Solstice event organised by The KLF on the Scottish island of Jura in 1991, plus the previously unreleased short, KRASH (1992), edited in 2022, a record of the final and violent destruction of Ford Timelord. The soundtrack to KRASH is a track from THE BLACK ROOM, the unreleased album by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu.

23 SECONDS TO ETERNITY brings together the music videos for the hit singles Doctorin’ the Tardis (1988) by The Timelords, It’s Grim Up North (1991), by The JAMs and the rarely seen Kylie Said to Jason (1989), as well as the  STADIUM HOUSE TRILOGY featuring the KLF’s international hits during 1990/91, 3 A.M. Eternal, Last Train to Trancentral and What Time is Love?, plus the single, Justified & Ancient (1991), featuring lead vocals by “The First Lady of Country” Miss Tammy Wynette.

Released in the UK in March 1992 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the discovery of America by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu in the year 992, the music video for America: What Time Is Love? is a guitar-heavy techno-metal version of their 1990 anthem. Shot on the James Bond stage at Pinewood the film includes a Viking longship (acquired by Bill Butt) and submarine, with vocals from Glenn Hughes (of Deep Purple). It was the fifth and final Top Five single by the KLF in the UK.

The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, (The JAMs for short) was formed in London in 1987 by Jimmy Cauty (Rockman Rock) and Bill Drummond (King Boy D). Their rap, rhyme and scratch approach to making music was the first to totally make use of the cheap sampling and computer technology newly available in the UK. Beginning in 1988 their ‘pure trance’ singles (as The KLF) and series of remixes went on to become anthems at huge summer raves at which The KLF became a regular ‘live’ attraction blasting their audiences with polystyrene pellets, cornflakes and Scottish pound notes. The duo became known for their creative and liberal use of sampling and pioneered ‘stadium house’; rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled crowd noise. Their 1990 LP, CHILL OUT, defined the ‘ambient house’ genre.

Their performance in collaboration with Extreme Noise Terror at the BRIT Awards in February 1992 ended with the announcement; “Ladies and Gentlemen, The KLF have now left the music business” and, in May of that year, they deleted their entire back-catalogue, including their related video releases.

The release of 23 SECONDS TO ETERNITY has been ‘acknowledged’ by K2 Plant Hire Ltd.

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