What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral) is a remixed release of the original Pure Trance version which eventually peaked at #5 in the UK charts.
The KLF’s 1990 version added various new elements over their now classic three-note motif, including a new bassline and a more elaborate house beat. The most obvious difference between the Pure Trance original and its remix certainly is the addition of fresh rap vocals by Azat (Isaac) Bello, though, who at the time had already garnered fame as one half of British hip hop group Outlaw Posse along Karl ‘K-Gee’ Gordon.
The other important change over the original 1988 version saw The KLF sampling crowd noise from The Doors’ Absolutely Live album to give the impression that their new version had not been recorded in the confines of a studio but in front of a live audience instead, thus creating their self-described ‘stadium house’ sound which they continued to employ on their two follow-up singles.
Alternate Mixes
Early white-label promos included the Wandaful Mix – a heavily stripped-down version of the Trancentral Mix with various samples and vocal snippets from the latter built upon its drum section, as well as the lead guitar from Jimi Hendrix’ Voodoo Child sprinkled all over it. Most notably this version samples larger vocal chunks of To The Bone by Wanda Dee than the A-side mix – hence its name.
Wanda Dee retroactively received co-writing credits along Azat Bello on both this release and America: What Time Is Love? for the use of her sampled vocals. As well as making an appearance in the Stadium House Trilogy videos for What Time Is Love? and Last Train To Trancentral she also started touring the USA as The KLF later in 1991, much to the dismay of Bill and Jimmy.
The Wandaful Mix was later replaced with the Techno Gate Mix on the commercial release which dropped all the additional bits from the former. Instead it reintroduced some of the NASA radio samples which had previously been featured on the live version and used even more of Hendrix’ guitar parts throughout most of the mix.
Promotion & Advertising
“What Time is Love?” The Anthem of last Summers raves. Although it never crossed over into the mainstream charts, it spawned numerous cover versions and sound a likes.
Earlier this year The K.L.F. threw a party at their H.Q., Trancentral, where they performed a version of “What Time Is Love?” with M.C. Bello from The Outlaw Posse, Manda from The Beatmasters and various other members of The Children of the Revolution. A recording of this event is to be released. It is as far removed from the original, pure trance classic, as to make any comparison pointless.
This version is everything the original wasn’t.
The original was all this could never be.
Whether it is a chart bound sound or just another document in the unfolding K.L.F. story, is for someone else to decide.KLF Info Sheet #9, 1990
Two different adverts for What Time Is Love? appeared in both Record Mirror and NME.
The first advert simply reads “NOW – KLF – 12INCH” and gives no further information about the single’s name and tracklist.
The second advert is similar to the first but includes the full tracklist of the (CD) single.
The Crop Circles
BD: That was one of the highlights of last year. But it came out looking like a complete joke. It came about initially because of our paranoia about ‘What Time Is Love’ not getting any airplay. We thought the only thing we could do is get on News At Ten. Then someone else did a hoax corn cirle and it was all over the news, and we were cut up. Gutted. But we ended up doing one anyway.
JC: After we’d been up for two nights doing on in Wiltshire we actually started to believe that it had been us doing them all along. It was the same as when we used ‘Dancing Queen’ years ago. We actually felt that we’d written ‘Dancing Queen’.Jimmy Cauty & Bill Drummond (NME, 12 Jan 1991)
Reviews
Tracks & Formats
KLF 004
| 7″ Single / 30 Jul 1990 | ||
| A | What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral-Radio) | 3:53 |
| B | What Time Is Love? (Techno Gate Mix) | 4:44 |
KLF 004C
| Cassette Single / 30 Jul 1990 | ||
| A1 | What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral-Radio) | 3:53 |
| A2 | What Time Is Love? (Techno Gate Mix) | 4:44 |
KLF 004X {A/-C-B1}
| 12″ Single / 30 Jul 1990 | ||
| A | What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral) | 5:30 |
| A2 | What Time Is Love? (Techno Gate Mix) | 4:44 |
KLF 004CD
| CD5 Single / 30 Jul 1990 | ||
| 1 | What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral-Radio) | 3:53 |
| 2 | What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral) | 5:24 |
| 3 | What Time Is Love? (Mix 1) [“The 1988 Pure Trance Classic”] | 7:05 |
KLF 004X {A/B}}
| 12″ Promo Single / 1990 | ||
| A | What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral) | 5:20 |
| A2 | What Time Is Love? (Wandaful Mix) | 6:07 |
This has mistakenly been referred to as KLF 004P in the past.
While not including any exclusive mixes there is another release of What Time Is Love? on the Australian Liberation Records label which is highly sought after for its cover art, usually refered to as the “Wicker Man” sleeve as is features a picture of the wooden statue burned during the Rites Of Mu ceremony.
The Australian ABC’s “Rage” program sometimes plays KLF videos. While they are the original single promos (meaning 3 A.M. is the driving one), I am unsure of the one they air for WTIL?.
The song was issued twice in Australia (one based on the Wax Trax issue and the one with the Wicker Man cover) and it failed to chart both times (the site copyrights all KLF songs except LTTT (copyrighted to Festival) to Mushroom), so is the video they play the Cornfield one?
P.S. They also appear to play the It’s Grim Up North video despite not being issued locally (the site states it was issued independently). Plus, Doctorin’ The Tardis is re-edited so it uses the regular 7″ version (it circulates on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnFR_5-EyiA).
It’s the regular UK “Cottonfield” promo
Makes sense as the Stadium House version wasn’t issued as separate video. It’s probably easier for ABC to just air the Cornfield one rather than creating their own edit out of the other.
For a fact, 3 A.M. Eternal is the so-called “Embankment” version, which at all times should be referred as the original UK music video. The US received the Stadium House video in a case of the exact opposite of what you mentioned.