"Chill Out" - The KLF Album Review

The KLF are notorious for their aggressive performance at the BRITs in 1992, burning a million pounds (while making a movie out of it) and subsequently all but disappearing. But there's a lot more to the duo than "art terrorism" and rave music.

In 1990, the two men (Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond) met at their studio and created one of the best ambient albums of all time in just one night. That album was "Chill Out".
Chill Out sounds as fresh today as when it was released. It's a concept album, depicting a nighttime journey across the US. Each piece segues into the next, and it's sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. This only serves to make the album all the more immersive.

The KLF's penchant for sampling is evident throughout the record. Ambient synths are interwoven with moaning slide guitars. Radio transmissions babble as cars zoom past. Elvis makes an appearance.  Everyone from Fleetwood Mac to 808 State are sampled, creating a fascinating collage of sounds. Who'd have thought Tuvan throat singing and sheep baa-ing would work musically?

I think "Chill Out" is an inaccurate title for this album. There is so much more to it than just calm sounds. "Chill Out" is in fact a very moving work of music.

I believe "Chill Out" is criminally underrated. This is perhaps owing to its availability, as The KLF infamously deleted their entire back catalogue. It's available on YouTube though.  https://youtu.be/5S_lktstwrs

"Chill Out" is an amazing album. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in ambient or experimental music. This of course means that it's not the most accessible, and I think most people wouldn't find it interesting, but if you enjoy ambient music, it's an absolute must.

Banners for my 6mm Goblin Army

My friends and I are big fans of DBA, and recently I've wanted to start playing Hordes of the Things (HOTT). I love greenskins so I ordered a Goblin Army from Baccus 6mm. Some of the figures have banner poles, which I find a lot of fun! Painting flags and banners can add a lot of character to an army, as well as provide an interesting challenge.
The banner poles are very thin, and I'm impressed that Baccus were able to cast them so thin. Some of them were broken when I got them, however. This wasn't really a problem. I replaced any broken spears or banner poles by taking a guitar string (a low E string works best), stripping the outer wrapping and supergluing it into the figure's hand. The result is very durable!
So, here's how I made the banners.

First of all, I decided how big I wanted my banners to be. Then I sketched them onto normal paper using a very sharp pencil, a ruler and a lot of patience. I drew two "halves" to each banner so that they can wrap around the poles. It was a lot of fun thinking up designs for the banners. I decided I wanted lots of pennants (long, triangular flags). The left hand design is inspired by old Games Workshop Orcs and Goblins, with "Bad Moons" and checkered patterns. The middle is the White Hand of Isengard from the Lord of the Rings. The right hand banner is a meteor or fireball shooting forward.

Once I was happy with the designs, I went over them with a black ballpoint pen. I left the ink to dry for a little while, just to be sure (sometimes it can take quite a while to dry fully). Then I coated the banners with acrylic matt varnish. This might seem a little bit odd, but it makes a nicer surface for painting and gives the paper strength.

At this point, it was time to paint the banners. There's not a lot to be said here, as each banner will be painted differently by different people. It took a lot of time and patience to get the banners right. It's very important to try to keep your hands as steady as possible. It can be hard to fix mistakes on images this small. Needless to say, a very small brush will save you a lot of stress!

This banner was especially fun to paint. I used watered down paint to try to transition smoothly between colours (as you can see, I didn't do a great job!). 

To attach the banners, I carefully cut them out with a small nail scissors. Then I folded them in the middle, and superglued them to the flagpole, as you can see in this picture.

Then I used some PVA glue to join the two halves of the banner together. This allows the banner to be shaped slightly, so that it appears to be blowing in the wind. 

And with that, the banners were done!