From Bobby Tribble Sent Tue, Jul 6th 1999, 10:32
From Bobby Tribble Sent Tue, Jul 6th 1999, 10:32
There hasn't been a lot of talk about it, so I thought I'd throw in my two nickels since I love the group. btribble reviews the art of noise the seduction of claude debussy First off, I'm a huge Art of Noise fan, as well as a huge fan of Trevor Horn (the producer of Seal, among other things). The main players of the early AoN were Trevor, Paul Morley, Gary Langan, Anne Dudley, and JJ. Later on Trevor wasn't involved as AoN moved away from ZTT to the China label. On this latest album JJ is gone and Trevor is back and they're back to ZTT. Confused yet? The main thing to keep in mind is that Trevor brings great production skill, and makes albums that fit together as a whole and have great textured sound. Anne Dudley is a master of harmonies and string arrangments, and regularly has a hand in creating songs that are emotionally stirring. She's just as talented at playing the piano. Finally, JJ brings a mastery of sampling just about anything, booming bombastic beats, and an air of playfulness if not outright silliness. JJ is gone from this album and his previous contributions are absent too. This album is Trevor's baby, with a ton of dense, rich production work. You could listen carefully through headphones in a quiet room and hear new things for quite a few listens. In the middle of many songs a barely audible sound is used once to give a lift or pinch to the feel of a track. All the tracks are very trim and have obviously been painstakingly streamlined, second by second. The downside of this attention to detail is that some of the songs are a little too dense! They often hit really strong and quickly end before the full impact hits the listener. It would have been nice to hear some of the songs play out and repeat just a little more. I could easily imagine this album's songs being extended to make a great 2CD album. In fact, a few months ago the EP "Dreaming in Colour" was released with three mixes, totalling fifteen minutes of songs - these songs were compressed into the six minute track on the full album, adding the narration, opera singer, and full chorus with computerized voice-effects. The problem is that this completely edited version of the song doesn't feel fully realized. A remix appears a few tracks later "continued in color" but this different version is even more brief coming in at under two minutes! Ironically, the comparitively simple versions of the song on the vinyl EP are more satisfying. And personally, I think the album probably could have done without the narration (making the connection to Claude Debussy less clear, and actually more interesting) and less of the opera singer. I'm not a big opera fan, okay? The plus side of the extreme denseness of the album is that I've easily come back to it many times. It's worth a purchase for that longetivity as well as the great song "Metaforce" with Rakim (unless you really hate, hate rap) as well as the big bonuses you get if you live in the United States and order online... Bonus Time This album has the most bonus items I've seen in a while. First, you get a bonus CD with four mixes of "Metaforce" (shoulda been all the songs from both UK singles, and maybe Dreaming in Colour, but I'm not complaining). If you order online from Tower you get two more bonuses. First is another copy of the CD sleeve autographed by Paul Morley, Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, and ??? (I guess it's Lol Creme, though I don't see it). The other bonus is a chance to spend more money to buy a special "you choose the tracks" CD from amplified.com featuring B-sides and outtakes (mostly of Beat Box and Close to the Edit) from Into Battle and Who's Afraid of AoN. See www.theartofnoise.com for more information and audio samples of these. You get to choose from three different covers too. The tracks available are as follows: A Time to Hear (Who's Listening) - 3:34 Beat Box (One Made Earlier) - 2:27 Who's Afraid (Of Scale) - 4:38 Resonance - 2:14 Beat Box (Diverted) - 8:12 Memory Loss - 1:27 Structure - 1:14 A Time to Clear (Up) - 4:19 Beat Box (Diversion) - 4:09 The Subject Has Moved Left - 1:46 Closer (To The Edit) - 6:23 Resin - 3:20 These are must-buys for any fans of the songs on Who's Afraid. This CD will cost an extra $15 if you spring for all the tracks. The Bottom Line Does this CD scream out at me "Art of Noise"? No. It does scream out at me "Trevor Horn". As I said, I'm a big Trevor Horn fan. And, surprise, I like the CD a lot! If you're not sure, have a listen to the samples on www.theartofnoise.com. And, don't forget about all those bonuses. 06 July 1999 btribble http://www.jps.net/btribble/