üÎÃÉËÌÏÐÅÄÉÑ The Art of Noise (UK)
Valery Mifodovsky
Art of Noise, The [UK]
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(WhoТs Afraid of?) the Art of Noise! (84), In Visible Silence
(86), Reworks of the Art of Noise (86), In No Sense, Non Sense
(87), The Best of the Art of Noise (??), Below the Waste (89), The
Ambient Collection (90)
When I first heard the Art of Noise (AoN) I thought to myself:
Music Concrete has finally been popularized. It was a video on
MTV: a little girl, dressed in punk garb, shouting at the camera
while three adult men in dark suits demolish various classical
instruments. And, oh yeah... the accompainment could be described
in much the same way. Their name refers the "socio-musical
diatribe published in 1913 by the Italian Futurist Luigi
Russolo... the art of noise... conceived in the spirit of Dada,
their aim... to orchestrate the cacophony of modern life." (as
stated in the liner notes of The Ambient Collection).
The trademark of the AoN is their unique creativity in sampling
natural sounds and using them to create background rhythms and
even melodic themes. Much of their early work is very similar in
technique to those of the French Music Concrete movement. AoNТs
use of advanced synthesizers to perform not only rhythmic
sequences of sampled sounds, but also to vary the pitch of the
sample: to make it "sing." Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik, the
main noisy ingredients, are innovative in the choices of sounds
and the combinations.
(WhoТs Afraid of?) the Art of Noise! is a bit dark thematically
and (well...) noisy, production-wise. They were, of course,
exploring noise as a source for musical creation and in that they
succeed. "A Time for Fear" is a foreboding piece that wraps and
warps its music around radio clips of war-time propaganda.
Unfortunately, the music on this album is almost completely
drowned out by heavy synthetic drums. However, there is some
excellant sampling and keyboard work as well. "Close (to the
Edit)" makes very clever use of sampled car (ignition cranking)
sounds and human voice; as does "Momento" of bell-tower chimes,
thunder, foot steps and organ splices. Several works have a very
metalic sound to them, such as "WhoТs Afraid" and "How to Kill".
And just to show that they have a soft side as well, we have
Moments in Love which is a long, melodic, soothing, and somewhat
noisy love song. The blending of the airy vocals with the often
harsh electronics works quite well.
The second album, In Visible Silence, is my favorite.
Continuing with same
sampling techniques, but with a greatly enhanced production
quality, these
tracks shine with brilliance. "Paranomia" is the closest piece to
the rock
genre on this album. It has a semi-rap quality with electronic
voices,
including a real soliloquy, with a driving back beat. "Eye of a
Needle" uses a
sample of a man saying "Oh" to create the basic harmo-rhythm
track; a
synthesized vibraphone and the sample of a man singing "I" form
the various
melodic lines. Although unclassifable, this piece reminds me of
something one
would hear Tommy Tune and the Magic Tones play to lounge lizards
in a Vegas
bar; especially the use of vibes and brushed snare drum. Like the
first album,
this one has its moments on the hard edge: "Legs", "Slip of the
Tongue", and
"The ChameleonТs Dish" are a bit like electronic HardCore.
"Instruments of
Darkness" is in a similar motif as "A Time for Fear"; including
the use of the
opening measures of HolstТs "MarsЧthe Bringer of War". The main
theme of
this piece is the apartheid movement in South Africa, by
incorportating various
clips of political and moral speechs on both sides of the
struggle. Finally,
the ends of each "side" of this album consists of two related
electronic works
of top quality: entitled "Backbeat" and "Beatback"
Reworks of the Art of Noise is a collection of live and remixed
versions of songs (mainly) from In Visible Silence. Most notably,
it includes a remix of "Paranomia" with commentary by Max
Headroom.
In No Sense, Non Sense is a strange album; even for the AoN! This
album departs from their standard use of sampling, but
incorporates larger sound samples as-is into the music. For
example, the beginning of "One Earth" contains a flow of a series
of various types of vehicles (motorcycle, car, train, helicopter,
etc) moving past the listener. They have also begun exploring
composition with a full orchestra; and they collaborate with
several other artists. The rap group, the Fat Boys, adds vocal
sound-effects to the hillarious "Roller 1".
The Best of the Art of Noise, is a collection album up to this
point. There is one unique song on this album: Tom Jones sings on
a cover of PrinceТs "Kiss"!
Below the Waste continues in very much the same line as In No
Sense, Non Sense. But instead of rappers we find the AoN
collaborating with several African artists, including Mahlathini
and The Mahotella Queens. This is a fun and hoppinТ album. If the
AoN ever composed dance music, this is it! Well, not quite.
The Ambient Collection is a concept in the tradition of "ambient
house" mixers/ composers like Alex of "the orb". Unfortunately,
AoN miss the mark in my opinion. This is basically a rehash of
past songs with some "ambient" filler sound/music in between the
tracks. Moreover, most of the selected songs are far to bouncy
for a true ambient collage; such work is better left to the
masters: the orb and Brian Eno, to name only two. However, this
could be used as a "best of" album that encompasses the whole
gamut of their work.