Blacksmoke

Blacksmoke a.k.a. The Blacksmoke Organisation are "an occasional art collective and musical group dedicated to the propagation of audio visual noise". The precise creative membership of Blacksmoke is a closely guarded secret. It is documented that a founding member is The KLF co-founder Jimmy Cauty. Heavy metal musician James Fogarty has also been extensively responsible for their musical output. Keir (the ex Black Dog/808 State Manager) has been described as their "project manager".K Foundation collaborator Gimpo who is organiser of the annual "M25 SPIN" was the inspiration for an early Blacksmoke track "Gimpo Gimpo" but, contrary to reports, has never provided any vocals. Cauty left the organisation in 2005 to work on other projects. Blacksmoke output currently includes music (original, remix/production for artists and TV/Film composition work), artwork (including photography) and video material.

Cauty stated in a music press interview that Blacksmoke is first and foremost an outlet for his anger concerning the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. Among the work so far produced by the Blacksmoke Organisation are limited edition prints of stamps known as The Stamps of Mass Destruction the Post Terrorist Modernist EP, and the Post-Terrorism Xmas Shop. The anger over 9/11 is immediately apparent in the samples and vocals of many of the original tracks as well as the graphics.

Limited edition prints of 1st 2nd & 3rd class stamps featuring the Queen's head with a gas mask on. These were exhibited at the artrepublic gallery in Brighton, until they earned the attention of the Royal Mail. All unsold copies of the stamps of mass destruction prints were sent to Royal Mail for destruction. A second series of the stamps were later released – 4th 5th & 6th class which had the queens head completely engulfed in a chemical warfare protection suit and thus were presumably not subject to the legal action taken by Royal Mail.

The first Blacksmoke releases were MP3s hosted on the Blacksmoke website, the tracks including "Gimpo Gimpo" and a remix of same entitled "Fuck the Fucking Fuckers". On 23 September 2003, BBC Radio 1's Breezeblock with Mary Anne Hobbs show broadcast a 15-minute mix session. The session comprised the MP3s cut together with samples of mobile phones and Big Ben plus other sound effects. The BBC cut the final 3 minutes 30 seconds from the session due to the post Iraq war political climate. The cut material was "Silent Night", one of the previously available download-only tracks. A few months later, the collective added an MP3 of the Breezeblock version of "Silent Night" to their website for download.

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