In 2023 Jimmy Cauty and Jem Finer created a one-off for Heavenly using the moniker Local Psycho. This project has since morphed into The Standing Stones, and seen the launch of the label, L-13 Light Industrial Recordings. The pair producing limited edition releases, often accompanied by bespoke art and packaging. All highly collectible, especially by KLF enthusiasts / cult members. 

In the fall of 2024, Cauty and Finer collaborated with the Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts for an incredible reading of the traditional ballad, Twa Brothers. The single-sided 12 predictably disappeared in a blink, but it’s just been repressed alongside a stunning new sibling, Twa Sisters.* The latter spotlighting the considerable talents of Dublin-based musician Daragh Lynch and Glaswegian singer / harpist Iona Zajac. 

Both tracks, each about 10 minutes in length, are built around heavy TR-808 beats, that hark after, return to the very start of Cauty’s JAMs and KLF Communications, while slowly banging and rattling out ritual Gaelic rhythms. Finer’s hurdy gurdy’s distinctive drones are clipped and gated into siren-like calls.Buzzing rave synths mimic ancient melodies, transporting all within earshot back to Trancentral. 

The productions carry The KLF’s DNA in their juxtaposition of the pagan and modern. Continuing Cauty and Bill Drummond’s mission to tap into rave’s ceremony and energy to harness the magical and mystical. Break rules to open fresh portals. Something that’s reflected in the name, The Standing Stones, and the mythology constructed around all Cauty’s artistic endeavours. 

The trademark sampling and collaging here employs contemporary news reports and police radio transmissions to mirror the tragic tales of violence, youth and innocence lost, told in song. The Brothers’ bitter betrayal detailing a stabbing. The Sisters recounting a drowning. Its haunting, gothic, ghost dance churning darker and darker, scoring the story’s treacherous tides and currents. Its low end oscillations booming, ominous like a waking / rising leviathan. 

The press one-sheet talks of a mix of a dystopian near future and folk horror and the results to me feel like social commentary. Drawing parallels between past and present. Painting pictures of centuries of injustice, murder and unrest. However, leaving this open to the listener’s interpretation.

The Standing Stones’ Twa Brothers & Sisters can be ordered directly from L-13 Light Industrial Recordings.

*Tom Waits’ Two Sisters is an American reading of the same song, and this combined with Sinead’s I Am Stretched On Your Grave and RÓIS’ MO LÉAN seem like good musical points of reference.

A big thank you to Carrie Hindmarsh and Jarvis Cocker for the heads up.