Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

johnhiggs.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 127 posts

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#41

Post by msla »

leoedin wrote: post #39
Baeocystin wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the kind words. My anger at their actions comes from how coddled from reality they had to be to make such a choice. The levers of monetary supply and demand, of course, 'make' and 'destroy' much larger sums on a daily basis. But those aren't liquid values under control of a single person, either. Money that is, is much more salient, and more valuable. And they just pissed it away.

Did they piss it away though? That single statement was so powerful it's still causing emotional arguments about it 20 years later. Can you say that about other things people spent £1m on in 1994?

> That single statement was so powerful it's still causing emotional arguments about it 20 years later.

I hate this argument, because it's worse than vacuous: It makes out that art is about as meaningful as a gunshot in a crowded room. Is that art? It'll damn well get a reaction, especially from the person who was just shot. Shouldn't we demand more from art? Like actual meaning and maybe, just maybe, a positive impact on the world?

Or should the next art piece be a car bomb in front of the Louvre?

Yes, burning a million pounds is comparable to a gunshot because a million pounds could save a life, so destroying a million pounds might well have ended one, in terms of opportunity cost. And no, you don't get to handwave that away by pointing to other people doing things, any more than a serial killer gets to exculpate themself by pointing to tobacconists. People do things with consequences, and then have to live with those consequences, and the members of the KLF are getting off easy.

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#42

Post by tweetle_beetle »

Baeocystin wrote: post #12
ilamont wrote: post #6

I used to work for Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond's record label. This book looks interesting ... but I really wish the focus was on the art and the music, and not the "the guys who burnt 1 million quid" incident. One thing that the media have a tough time recognizing is the fact that Bill and Jimmy are legit experimental artists, and still love making art of all kinds. And they also happened to have some amazing musi…

>More often than not, it's the one-off act of Burning a Million Quid in 1994. Their ground-breaking music, the books, the anti-establishment statements and art ... it's almost an afterthought. The pain of not having enough is a fundamental human experience, and to see someone who had more than most will ever see in their lifetime literally burn it away hurts. I thought it was deeply selfish stunt then, and still do n…

The context of this is a biography though. The genre is supposed to do a better job of taking the long view, rather than short term sensationalism of the news cycle.

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#43

Post by timc3 »

ilamont wrote: post #6

I used to work for Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond's record label. This book looks interesting ... but I really wish the focus was on the art and the music, and not the "the guys who burnt 1 million quid" incident. One thing that the media have a tough time recognizing is the fact that Bill and Jimmy are legit experimental artists, and still love making art of all kinds. And they also happened to have some amazing musi…

Sounds like you are judging the book without reading it, it covers most of what you are talking about and more.

In fact I would go so far to say if you had worked with them you are going to find the book really interesting.

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#44

Post by timc3 »

nineteen999 wrote: post #17
Minor49er wrote: post #7

The White Room, Chill Out, and Jimmy Cauty's Space have all been on my recent rotation. They are so good. Long live The KLF!

I never understood the attraction. But then again I didn't understand what all the fuss was about over the Prodigy and "Firestarter" either. Or Underworld after they moved from rock to dance. All seemed vastly overrated to me. There is something I must be missing.

Being there are the time of release and it capturing a certain feeling and mood of that time.

I was, and looking back on it, its very nostalgic but some of the music hasn't aged well such as some KLF tracks. Early Liam Howlett (The Prodigy) tracks I must admit I find interesting just because of all the sources sampled and how it was worked with the hardware available at the time with a raw energy that I remember when I was 17/18

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#45

Post by MrVandemar »

Baeocystin wrote: post #12
ilamont wrote: post #6

I used to work for Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond's record label. This book looks interesting ... but I really wish the focus was on the art and the music, and not the "the guys who burnt 1 million quid" incident. One thing that the media have a tough time recognizing is the fact that Bill and Jimmy are legit experimental artists, and still love making art of all kinds. And they also happened to have some amazing musi…

>More often than not, it's the one-off act of Burning a Million Quid in 1994. Their ground-breaking music, the books, the anti-establishment statements and art ... it's almost an afterthought. The pain of not having enough is a fundamental human experience, and to see someone who had more than most will ever see in their lifetime literally burn it away hurts. I thought it was deeply selfish stunt then, and still do n…

> The pain of not having enough is a fundamental human experience, and to see someone who had more than most will ever see in their lifetime literally burn it away hurts. I thought it was deeply selfish stunt then, and still do now.

If they had spent it on a yacht would that be better? It represents an exchange of money for an object, and I suspect you don't regularly get hurt by the fact that people buy largely pointless status symbols. But in some ways it amounts to the same thing.

(Actually I'd argue that the resources and fossil-fuels involved in manufacturing a largely pointless object such as a yacht is less than the burning of the money. And yet, which hurts more?)

I heard a story that a young Tony Blair and some of his friends burned a 50 pound note in front of a destitute homeless person. Are the KLF worse for burning their larger sum of money as an act of rebellion against a corrupt self-serving industry? Or is it Tony Blair who is worse for sadistically showing a little hope to a desperate person and then snatching it away?

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#46

Post by jimjimjim »

Baeocystin wrote: post #12
ilamont wrote: post #6

I used to work for Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond's record label. This book looks interesting ... but I really wish the focus was on the art and the music, and not the "the guys who burnt 1 million quid" incident. One thing that the media have a tough time recognizing is the fact that Bill and Jimmy are legit experimental artists, and still love making art of all kinds. And they also happened to have some amazing musi…

>More often than not, it's the one-off act of Burning a Million Quid in 1994. Their ground-breaking music, the books, the anti-establishment statements and art ... it's almost an afterthought. The pain of not having enough is a fundamental human experience, and to see someone who had more than most will ever see in their lifetime literally burn it away hurts. I thought it was deeply selfish stunt then, and still do n…

meh, it pales in comparison to everyday acts of some extremely rich people

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#47

Post by jimjimjim »

jerrysievert wrote: post #31
alasdair_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Both seemed vastly overrated to me. There is something I must be missing. Drugs, probably. Firestarter is an amazing track when it comes on at 3am and you've been dancing for hours. In the cold light of day, not so much. EDM of that era was very much designed to be experienced with MDMA and the KLF in particular really needed a stadium full of people in a similar state to fully appreciate them. All the extra Discord…

all hail discordia.

fnord

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#48

Post by detrites »

logifail wrote: post #37
techno_tsar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deeply selfish? There are literally millions and millions of extremely wealthy people who would spend that amount doing nothing, buying a yacht, their 20th property, or do actual terrible things. I don’t resent them for burning their money. They could have bought toys, instead they made a statement. We live in a world where many of us (myself included) have to live with the pain of not having enough. I’m reminded of…

> instead they made a statement What does that mean? I mean really mean? Follow-up question: did they achieve anything .. other than (even more) notoriety?

Making a controversial artistic statement that results in widespread media coverage places whatever issue being highlighted at the forefront of popular discussion and thought, if only for a time.

In this case, the ramifications of the public questioning and examining the fundamentals of ownership, the distribution of wealth and its potential injustices etc - are difficult to quantify, but can be assumed to be valuable.

Anything controversial by nature is also likely an under-examined yet extremely important issue. It's controversial partly because it's not been sufficiently examined or discussed to the point of understanding or resolution.

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#49

Post by stareatgoats »

wpietri wrote: post #33
jamal-kumar wrote: post #3

I always thought it was pretty hilarious how they managed to get Tammy Wynette to sing a song about the Illuminatus! Trilogy

I loved it then; I love it now. And clearly Tammy had a blast: https://ew.com/article/1992/02/07/tammy-wynette-and-klf/

Great story (1992/02/07?!)

Re: The KLF: Chaos, magic and the band who burned £1M

#50

Post by Ccecil »

ilamont wrote: post #6

I used to work for Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond's record label. This book looks interesting ... but I really wish the focus was on the art and the music, and not the "the guys who burnt 1 million quid" incident. One thing that the media have a tough time recognizing is the fact that Bill and Jimmy are legit experimental artists, and still love making art of all kinds. And they also happened to have some amazing musi…

The white room had a big impression on me. I can still remember the video for 3am eternal clearly.

More recently I really started listening to the album more. "Build a fire" has grown on me.

Such a great album. Still sounds good today...was amazing then.

Post reply on HN