The White Room (Director’s Cut) is the fourth entry in the Samplecity Thru Trancentral series, released on all major streaming services on 23 April 2021. It is the first chapter not explicitely announced on the original flyposter.
The Director’s Cut is meant to fill a historic gap between the scrapped movie soundtrack and the later commercial album, presenting an alternate unreleased version of The White Room completed in 1989. Since this version predates the 1991 release it does not include some of the later tracks, most notably of course the later radio versions of What Time Is Love? and 3 a.m. Eternal as they had not been recorded at that point in history. It does, however, feature the original versions of Go To Sleep and The Lover’s Side (or edits thereof) as well as the previously promo-only Madrugada Eterna (Club Mix Edit).
Promotion & Advertising
Once again flyposters had been put up in the usual place, announcing the release date alongside a brief description and tracklist.
THE WHITE ROOM – Director’s Cut by The KLF is a version of The White Room that was completed but not released in 1990.
THE WHITE ROOM – Director’s Cut by The KLF was constructed in various recording studios by The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, between early 1989 and sometime in 1990.THE WHITE ROOM - Director's Cut Flyposter
Tracks & Formats
The White Room (Director’s Cut)
| Digital Album / 23 Apr 2021 | ||
| 1 | Go To Sleep | 3:15 |
| 2 | Make It Rain | 3:49 |
| 3 | Madrugada Eterna (Club Mix Edit) | 3:02 |
| 4 | Church of The KLF | 1:42 |
| 5 | Last Train To Trancentral (da Force, Over & Out) | 5:49 |
| 6 | Build A Fire | 4:41 |
| 7 | The White Room | 3:47 |
| 8 | No More Tears | 9:22 |
| 9 | The Lover’s Side | 3:54 |
| 10 | Justified & Ancient (Black Steel joins The JAMs) | 4:44 |
As with previous releases in the Samplecity Thru Trancentral series, some of the tracks included on the Director’s Cut have been slightly altered or updated.
- The fadeout on Go To Sleep happens earlier than on the soundtrack version, probably to avoid the sample of the Todd Terry Project’s Bango included with the original edit.
- Make It Rain lacks the ‘Pump, pump, a little harder’ sample.
- Church of The KLF starts with the reversed fade in from the original soundtrack version, omitting the ‘Take me, u-hu, take me…’ sample performed by P.P. Arnold. The Director’s Cut version also does not segue into the following track, though keen listeners will be able to hear a brief bit of new drum samples from the original soundtrack version played during the fadeout.
- Last Train To Trancentral starts right after the string section and features a completely new additional verse from Ricardo Lyte after the breakdown.
- The White Room is shorter than the album version.
- The Lover’s Side has some of the “Ho-ho-ho-ho-hold me” bits removed and is slightly shorter than the soundtrack version.
- Justified & Ancient has a slightly longer wind noises during the intro.
Oh goodness. They butchered the segue from Church to LTTT by giving Church a lengthy fade out instead of directly segueing to LTTT. Almost every version (yes, even the US version) of the 1991 album did exactly that, surely they’ve forgotten?
Might be an alternate version – you can hear some of the drums from the original version of ‘Church…’ during the fade-out. Keeping the original transition would have been the best option, though.
So are these the outtakes that were mentioned rather than one of the five chapters?
I’m afraid it doesn’t hold together well as an album, the old demo tracks sat amongst the newer finished product if you like. The sound quality however is impeccable.
According to KLFRS.com: “There are rumours of A Lost Chapter. Maybe even A Hidden chapter”. And this release is A Lost Chapter.
It’s very on-brand for the KLF to subvert the rules. Especially their own rules. Make a list, then deviate.
KLFRS.com stated back in February 2021 that both “A Lost Chapter” and “A Hidden Chapter” were promised as part of the series. According to the site, this serves as “A Lost Chapter” (yes, it’s spelled exactly like that there). They’re not subverting their rules, they were part of it.
How do we know “The Lost Chapter” isn’t The Black Room?
Tracks comparsion: Go To Sleep / The Lover’s Side (1989 vs 2021)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSyyfC2DOVW/
Tracks comparsion: Make It Rain / Church Of The KLF (1991 vs 2021)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS1MBh5D62y/
I swear there is NO DIFFERENCE between Justified & Ancient in The White Room UK (1991) and The White Room – Director’s Cut!
Tracks comparsion: Last Train To Trancentral (1991 vs 2021)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS4PZmMjvOM/
what happened to all the other chapters they were going to release?
Hello “signup”.
Nobody knows if and when more chapters will be released.
Me, for myself, I am a little bit upset to let us wait that long 🙁
Nice , and I’d bet part of the “Banksy collective” I’d go with a group of artists and these two included. Oops , hope I’ve not given anything away.