Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
The Art of Noise's "Close (to the Edit)" remains one of the more memorable, award-winning music videos of the 80s
98 views
Skip to first unread message
Ubiquitous
Jun 3, 2016, 5:37:26 AM6/3/16
to
In Night Flight’s “Take Off to Directors in Music Video” — now
streaming on our Night Flight Plus channel — one of the highlighted
directors is Polish-born filmmaker Zbigniew Rybczynski, whose
incredible award-winning video for The Art of Noise’s “Close (to the
Edit)” was one of the more memorable videos of 1984.
Rybczynski — known to his friends and colleagues as “Zbig” — had
studied cinematography at the world-renowned Lodz Film School, but when
martial law was declared in Poland, he managed to arrange a job
contract that enabled him to leave for Vienna, where he applied for
political asylum.
In 1983, he learned that his short film Tango — which also appears in
this “Take Off to Directors in Music Video” episode — had won the 1982
Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. That same year, Rybczynski
and his family emigrated to the U.S., ending up in the New York City
area.
https://youtu.be/Dj2eVWeJFkI
For “Close (to the Edit),” Rybczynski found the perfect urban wasteland
film location, a section of disused elevated railway that ran through a
meatpacking district, between 450-456 West 14th Street (you can also
briefly see a stretch it during the opening montage sequence of Woody
Allen’s 1979 film Manhattan).
It’s now a 16-block long elevated urban parkway called “The High Line”
(or, “High Line Park”). Some of the video’s success is no doubt because
of the young girl, dressed up like a cute little punkette. She was
possibly the daughter of a friend of the video’s director, named
Sylwia.
“Close (to the Edit)” begins with Trevor Horn, whose influence on pop
music in the 80s was so pervasive that some even called him “The Man
Who Invented the Eighties.”
Horn had originally been in the Buggles, and co-wrote their #1 UK hit,
“Video Killed the Radio Star,” notable as the first music video to be
played on MTV. Horn had also briefly been a member of Yes — for seven
months in late 1980/early ’81 — and appears on one track on their album
Drama.
He left Yes to concentrate on his production work, and then ended up
as an original member of The Art of Noise, in a somewhat roundabout
way, as the group essentially came together as a production team
working with a discarded drum riff sample that Horn had recorded for
Yes.
Two of Horn’s colleagues– sound engineer/producer Gary Langan, and J.J.
Jeczalik, a computer programmer who had assisted electronic music
pioneer Richard James Burgess — sampled the riff on a Fairlight C.M.I.
sampler, using the then-new Page R sequencer, building it into a
repetitive riff. They also began working with keyboardist Anne Dudley,
Horn’s orchestral arranger, who collaborated on melody lines.
It was actually Paul Morley — a fifth member of the group — who came
up their name, The Art of Noises, translating a term used in Italian
Futurist Luigi Russolo’s early 20th century art manifesto (Jeczalik
recommended that they drop the “s” from Noises). Morley was an ex-NME
journalist, and had been working with Langan and Trevor Horn’s wife,
Jill Sinclair, to set up a new label for Horn’s productions.
In his new role, Morley wrote liner notes and worked on artwork (with
photographer Anton Corbijn), but his main role was to act as their
spokesman, as they wanted to remain faceless and work behind the
scenes, but realized they needed someone to be the face of the group
(which caused occasional problems, like when Morley accepted an award
on their behalf as “Best Black Act of 1984?).
Dudley later said she felt the early 80s was dominated by “powerful
haircuts like Culture Club,” and none of them looked the part and so
decided to hide their identity behind masks, and behind Morley.
Horn eventually played a demo for Chris Blackwell, the founder of
Island Records, who then gave some of the tracks to deejays to spin in
New York City clubs, and seeing the response, he signed The Art of
Noise as the first act for his new ZTT imprint that Island.
The Art of Noise’s ZTT/Island EP debut, Beat Box, came out in
September 1983, and immediately climbed the dance charts in the U.S.. A
second EP, called Beat Box (Diversions One and Two), was issued in
March 1984, in the UK, and an edited version of one of the tracks,
“(Diversion Two),” was issued in the U.S. in early June ’84, now called
“Close (to the Edit),” its title inspired by Yes’s epic title track to
their Close to the Edge album.
The track begins with a short spoken word vocal by Gary Langan’s
girlfriend, Karen Clayton, and it contains multiple samples, including
part of the track “Leave It” from Yes’s”comeback” album 90125, which
Horn produced in 1983.
It also sampled Jeczalik’s neighbor’s car, a VW Golf, stalling and
restarting, and featured a sample of the Andrew Sisters’ “Beer Barrel
Polka.” The “Hey!” sample — provided by Camilla Pilkington-Smyth —
would later be sampled by both the Prodigy (“Firestarter”) and
Christina Aguilera (“Back in the Day).
“Close (to the Edit)” proved to be a huge hit for Art of Noise,
reaching #8 in the UK’s Singles Chart. An extended version appeared on
Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?
Incidentally, Art of Noise weren’t too happy Rybczynski’s video, and
Morley, in an interview at the time, said this:
“So one of the reasons we tend to hide behind masks or not appear at
all is because it opens up more possibilities how Art of Noise can be
presented. Sometimes you had video art directors get excited about how
they were going to present Art of Noise, and in that particular case,
he interpreted it as a strange young girl with Huey Lewis & The News.
Half of it was fun and half of it was slightly sad.”
Rybczynski’s video, despite the band’s own opinion of it, was mostly
positive, except in New Zealand, where it was banned because it seemed
to encourage violence towards children. It also won two MTV Video
Music Awards (VMA’s) — Most Experimental Video and Best Editing — in
1985.
--
Katie Couric falsified a moment in her anti-gun documentary and is now
the first recipient of the new Brian Williams Creative Editing Award.
streaming on our Night Flight Plus channel — one of the highlighted
directors is Polish-born filmmaker Zbigniew Rybczynski, whose
incredible award-winning video for The Art of Noise’s “Close (to the
Edit)” was one of the more memorable videos of 1984.
Rybczynski — known to his friends and colleagues as “Zbig” — had
studied cinematography at the world-renowned Lodz Film School, but when
martial law was declared in Poland, he managed to arrange a job
contract that enabled him to leave for Vienna, where he applied for
political asylum.
In 1983, he learned that his short film Tango — which also appears in
this “Take Off to Directors in Music Video” episode — had won the 1982
Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. That same year, Rybczynski
and his family emigrated to the U.S., ending up in the New York City
area.
https://youtu.be/Dj2eVWeJFkI
For “Close (to the Edit),” Rybczynski found the perfect urban wasteland
film location, a section of disused elevated railway that ran through a
meatpacking district, between 450-456 West 14th Street (you can also
briefly see a stretch it during the opening montage sequence of Woody
Allen’s 1979 film Manhattan).
It’s now a 16-block long elevated urban parkway called “The High Line”
(or, “High Line Park”). Some of the video’s success is no doubt because
of the young girl, dressed up like a cute little punkette. She was
possibly the daughter of a friend of the video’s director, named
Sylwia.
“Close (to the Edit)” begins with Trevor Horn, whose influence on pop
music in the 80s was so pervasive that some even called him “The Man
Who Invented the Eighties.”
Horn had originally been in the Buggles, and co-wrote their #1 UK hit,
“Video Killed the Radio Star,” notable as the first music video to be
played on MTV. Horn had also briefly been a member of Yes — for seven
months in late 1980/early ’81 — and appears on one track on their album
Drama.
He left Yes to concentrate on his production work, and then ended up
as an original member of The Art of Noise, in a somewhat roundabout
way, as the group essentially came together as a production team
working with a discarded drum riff sample that Horn had recorded for
Yes.
Two of Horn’s colleagues– sound engineer/producer Gary Langan, and J.J.
Jeczalik, a computer programmer who had assisted electronic music
pioneer Richard James Burgess — sampled the riff on a Fairlight C.M.I.
sampler, using the then-new Page R sequencer, building it into a
repetitive riff. They also began working with keyboardist Anne Dudley,
Horn’s orchestral arranger, who collaborated on melody lines.
It was actually Paul Morley — a fifth member of the group — who came
up their name, The Art of Noises, translating a term used in Italian
Futurist Luigi Russolo’s early 20th century art manifesto (Jeczalik
recommended that they drop the “s” from Noises). Morley was an ex-NME
journalist, and had been working with Langan and Trevor Horn’s wife,
Jill Sinclair, to set up a new label for Horn’s productions.
In his new role, Morley wrote liner notes and worked on artwork (with
photographer Anton Corbijn), but his main role was to act as their
spokesman, as they wanted to remain faceless and work behind the
scenes, but realized they needed someone to be the face of the group
(which caused occasional problems, like when Morley accepted an award
on their behalf as “Best Black Act of 1984?).
Dudley later said she felt the early 80s was dominated by “powerful
haircuts like Culture Club,” and none of them looked the part and so
decided to hide their identity behind masks, and behind Morley.
Horn eventually played a demo for Chris Blackwell, the founder of
Island Records, who then gave some of the tracks to deejays to spin in
New York City clubs, and seeing the response, he signed The Art of
Noise as the first act for his new ZTT imprint that Island.
The Art of Noise’s ZTT/Island EP debut, Beat Box, came out in
September 1983, and immediately climbed the dance charts in the U.S.. A
second EP, called Beat Box (Diversions One and Two), was issued in
March 1984, in the UK, and an edited version of one of the tracks,
“(Diversion Two),” was issued in the U.S. in early June ’84, now called
“Close (to the Edit),” its title inspired by Yes’s epic title track to
their Close to the Edge album.
The track begins with a short spoken word vocal by Gary Langan’s
girlfriend, Karen Clayton, and it contains multiple samples, including
part of the track “Leave It” from Yes’s”comeback” album 90125, which
Horn produced in 1983.
It also sampled Jeczalik’s neighbor’s car, a VW Golf, stalling and
restarting, and featured a sample of the Andrew Sisters’ “Beer Barrel
Polka.” The “Hey!” sample — provided by Camilla Pilkington-Smyth —
would later be sampled by both the Prodigy (“Firestarter”) and
Christina Aguilera (“Back in the Day).
“Close (to the Edit)” proved to be a huge hit for Art of Noise,
reaching #8 in the UK’s Singles Chart. An extended version appeared on
Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?
Incidentally, Art of Noise weren’t too happy Rybczynski’s video, and
Morley, in an interview at the time, said this:
“So one of the reasons we tend to hide behind masks or not appear at
all is because it opens up more possibilities how Art of Noise can be
presented. Sometimes you had video art directors get excited about how
they were going to present Art of Noise, and in that particular case,
he interpreted it as a strange young girl with Huey Lewis & The News.
Half of it was fun and half of it was slightly sad.”
Rybczynski’s video, despite the band’s own opinion of it, was mostly
positive, except in New Zealand, where it was banned because it seemed
to encourage violence towards children. It also won two MTV Video
Music Awards (VMA’s) — Most Experimental Video and Best Editing — in
1985.
--
Katie Couric falsified a moment in her anti-gun documentary and is now
the first recipient of the new Brian Williams Creative Editing Award.
Ed Stasiak
Jun 3, 2016, 1:13:11 PM6/3/16
to
> Ubiquitous
Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9b7LWfnxQ
The Prodigy “Smack My Bitch Up”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DPF_pWIy3w
Gorillaz “Feel Good Inc.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Qp38qT-xI
> Horn had originally been in the Buggles, and co-wrote their #1 UK hit,
> “Video Killed the Radio Star,” notable as the first music video to be
> played on MTV. Horn had also briefly been a member of Yes — for
> seven months in late 1980/early ’81 — and appears on one track on
> their album Drama.
Actually he sang on all six tunes but only played bass on one.
>
> In Night Flight’s “Take Off to Directors in Music Video” — now
> streaming on our Night Flight Plus channel — one of the highlighted
> directors is Polish-born filmmaker Zbigniew Rybczynski, whose
> incredible award-winning video for The Art of Noise’s “Close (to the
> Edit)” was one of the more memorable videos of 1984.
*meh* My favorite videos are;
> In Night Flight’s “Take Off to Directors in Music Video” — now
> streaming on our Night Flight Plus channel — one of the highlighted
> directors is Polish-born filmmaker Zbigniew Rybczynski, whose
> incredible award-winning video for The Art of Noise’s “Close (to the
> Edit)” was one of the more memorable videos of 1984.
Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9b7LWfnxQ
The Prodigy “Smack My Bitch Up”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DPF_pWIy3w
Gorillaz “Feel Good Inc.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Qp38qT-xI
> Horn had originally been in the Buggles, and co-wrote their #1 UK hit,
> “Video Killed the Radio Star,” notable as the first music video to be
> played on MTV. Horn had also briefly been a member of Yes — for
> seven months in late 1980/early ’81 — and appears on one track on
> their album Drama.
Ed Stasiak
Jun 3, 2016, 1:17:14 PM6/3/16
to
> Ed Stasiak
a great tune and a cool video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTH71AAxXmM
>
> Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity”
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9b7LWfnxQ
>
> The Prodigy “Smack My Bitch Up”
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DPF_pWIy3w
>
> Gorillaz “Feel Good Inc.”
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Qp38qT-xI
Also, The White Stripes “Fell In Love With A Girl” is
> Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity”
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9b7LWfnxQ
>
> The Prodigy “Smack My Bitch Up”
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DPF_pWIy3w
>
> Gorillaz “Feel Good Inc.”
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Qp38qT-xI
a great tune and a cool video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTH71AAxXmM
0 new messages