New documentary ‘Who Killed The KLF?’ is out now

A new documentary exploring the rise and fall of infamous electronic outfit The KLF is out now, against the duo’s wishes.

The 88 minute film, titled Who Killed The KLF?, makes use of previously unheard tapes of members Jimmy Cuaty and Bill Drummond to investigate the work of the inscrutable figures.

In 1991 The KLF became the biggest selling singles act in the world, before quitting the music industry, bowing out with controversial stunts such as burning one million pounds of cash and allegedly deleting their entire back catalogue.

The KLF unsuccessfully tried to block the release of the film last year for alleged copyright infringement, which director Chris Atkins responded to at the time by commenting: ““The irony is they used very big uncleared samples in all their early tracks.”

In 2016 Atikins was given a five-year prison sentence for tax fraud, and he spent time editing the film while incarcerated.

Writing in The Guardian, Atkins said: “Being incarcerated was extremely beneficial for the creative process: free from the distractions of social media, alcohol and idiotic executive producers.”

The film also features interview segments from figures such as Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfold and author Alan Moore.

The release notes describe: “Through a combination of archive and reconstruction, we follow them on wild road trips to Sweden to 'find ABBA'; to Scottish islands with robed journalists; and to Spain to watch the band make a disastrous big budget movie with no plot at all. As well as the crazy side of the band, we also explore the mainstream fame they had, with frequent visits to 'Top of the Pops', huge hits like 'Justified and Ancient', to their sets at warehouse raves with huge anthems like 'What Time is Love?' as their stunts got increasingly hostile and violent.”

It follows a film called Welcome to the Dark Ages about the anarchic electronic duo, which explored the duo’s attempts to build a giant pyramid from the cremated remains of dead people.

Last year The KLF surprised fans by making their back catalogue, which had allegedly been deleted, available to listen to on streaming services.

Who Killed the KLF? is out and available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and other streaming services, with select cinema screening scheduled later this month. Watch the trailer below.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Editor, follow him on Twitter