KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money

by J.M.R. Higgs

With that narrative in place, Drummond and Cauty were in a unique position where they could follow and enact strong occult currents in full public view without comment. No-one took the role of the little boy in The Emperor's New Clothes who stated clearly how odd things were, not when the entire country was watching and acting like everything was normal.

It goes on to explain how Drummond and Cauty took on that mantle in order to make records without "anyone telling them how it should be done. [...] But within days of their first record being released," it continues, "they began to receive mail and messages from very strange sources. The information they were getting was varied and confusing. They were being warned not to get involved with what they could never understand. They were being threatened. They were being congratulated in taking The War above ground. They were being welcomed on board as 'brothers in arms' in the only war that was ever justified, I quote; 'To finally separate

Time from Space, thus enabling Chaos once again to reign supreme.'"

Drummond and Cauty climbed into the submarine. They were dressed in hooded, deep red robes and each of them had a large fat horn, over a foot long, emerging from their foreheads and pointing upwards at forty five degrees. They looked pretty damn funny, squashed inside the submarine with only their covered heads and emerging horns poking out of the submarine's turret. Behind them was the lost continent of Mu, and on the lost continent of Mu there was a temple. In front of the temple were a troupe of African dancers, another group of six dancers in yellow robes, and a scattering of the KLF’s musical collaborators. Near the top of the temple was a throne. Sat around the foot of this throne, dressed in flowing robes of white, sat the Four Handmaidens of Lucifer. On the throne, wearing a golden crown, sat Tammy Wynette. Tammy Wynette, the Four Handmaidens of Lucifer, the dancers and the musicians all swayed from side to side, waving goodbye to Drummond and Cauty. The pair were journeying onwards in their submarine. They were leaving the lost continent behind them.

At first, Generation X was linked to a sense of relief and a feeling that they had overcome the blind spots of the past and were now facing up to things with a refreshing honesty. But as '91 rolled into '92 and '93, this honesty became less invigorating and increasingly unbearable. It started to become apparent that they were not going to find a focus for their narrative, or a way to repair the damage to their mental landscape. The sense of mounting horror came closer and closer to the surface. The nihilism reached its peak in 1994, the period of Kurt Cobain's suicide, the burning of the million pounds, and the year Bill Hicks died. This was the point when the constant creation of new musical genres, as noted earlier, came to an end. That era was over. By this point there was a desperate need for a way out. Any way out.