The Art of Noise

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The Art of Noise
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Synthpop Avantgarde Ambient New Wave
Years active	1983–1990 1998-2000
Label(s)	ZTT Records China Records
Former members
Lol Creme (1998-2000) Anne Dudley (1983-1990, 1998-2000) Trevor Horn (1983-1985, 1998-2000) J.J. Jeczalik (1983-1990) Gary Langan (1983-1986) Paul Morley (1983-1985, 1998-2000)

The Art of Noise was an avantgarde synthpop group formed in 1983 by producer Trevor Horn, music journalist Paul Morley, and session musicians/studio hands Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik, and Gary Langan. The group's mostly instrumental compositions were novel and often clever melodic sound collages based on digital sampler technology, which was new at the time. Inspired by turn-of-the-century revolutions in music, the Art of Noise was initially packaged as a faceless anti- or non-group, blurring the distinction between the art and its creators. The band is noted for their innovative use of electronics and computers in pop music and particularly for innovative use of sampling. The name of the group alludes to an essay by noted futurist Luigi Russolo.

Some of the time the band refer to themselves as Art of Noise, but this is sometimes prefixed with a 'The'.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Beginnings 1.2 Art for art's sake 1.3 Changes 1.4 Hits and misses 1.5 Compilations and solo 1.6 Other appearances 1.7 Reformation 2 Selected discography 2.1 Singles 2.2 Albums 2.3 Compilation and remix albums 3 DVD 4 Chart positions 4.1 Singles 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings

In 1983, Trevor Horn, who had achieved a New Wave hit in 1979 with "Video Killed The Radio Star", which he recorded with Geoff Downes under the name Buggles, was working in the studio with Yes on what would become the album 90125, and with Frankie Goes To Hollywood on what would become the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome. In his employ were keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, keyboardist/programmer J.J. Jeczalik, and mixing engineer Gary Langan. Though other possibilities are quite feasible, the most universal element in the group's naming seems to be the ubiquitous, bargain-bin "art of..." classical releases put out by second-rate record companies.

The technological impetus for the Art of Noise was the advent of the Fairlight CMI sampler, an electronic musical instrument that Horn was reportedly among the first to purchase. With the Fairlight, short digital sound recordings called samples could be "played" through a piano-like keyboard. While some musicians were using samples as adornment in their works, Horn and his companions saw the potential to craft entire compositions with the sampler, tossing the traditional rock aesthetic out the window, or at least turning it on its ear.

Samples—some borrowed from other pieces of music, such as the baritone "dum" from "Leave It" by Yes, but most coming from original sources—were bathed in reverb to mask the early sampler's low fidelity. One might imagine the voice of Elvis Presley's first syllable from the chorus of "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" popping up on the first album. In the studio, these sounds were then assembled into various instrumental arrangements and sound collages. This was at first done with very little input from musicians "playing" instruments as they would in a typical band, but later works introduced traditional instruments as well.

In February 1983, with Paul Morley providing much of the band's art direction, Horn, Dudley, Jeczalik, and Langan formed the initial incarnation of The Art of Noise. The group's debut EP, Into Battle With The Art of Noise, appeared in September 1983 on Horn's fledgling ZTT label. It immediately scored a hit in the urban and alternative dance charts in the USA with the highly percussive, cut-up instrumental track "Beat Box", a favorite among breakdancers.

Anne: When the group first started we thought it would be a good idea to have an image that wasn't based around a fashion look. We thought it would encourage people to look at the music instead of the members of the band. It didn't last for long though.

Gary: It really doesn't seem a lot different actually, the responsibility a lot more different, it's probably more fun, more risk to it.

Anne: There's a very big risk in America because they think we're black, we were voted the second best new black act. We are wondering how we can quite cope with this.

Gary: There was at one point there came along an instrument that nobody had really used and we were lucky that we had one we could use. There are certain things you can do with it that you're not able to do with anything else. So it was a question of experimenting with that and things really took off from there.

Anne: This is the famous Fairlight music computer, which you may have heard of.

Gary: Which plays an important part. I really think that the music is more important than the personality. The fashion around a personality seems to change a lot quicker than that around music.

^[1]

[edit] Art for art's sake

Morley managed the packaging of the project as a faceless "non-group", a work of art, itself, that merely existed. Band members never appeared in photos without masks, and sleeve art was filled with manifestos, quotes, photographs, and graphic design elements that stood in stark contrast to the unimaginative photo-of-the-band-and-some-lyrics motifs that were typical at the time. Musically, aside from the cleverness of deftly juxtaposing found sounds, the project was also intended to pay homage to the influence of Claude Debussy, who revolutionized popular music at the beginning of the 20th century, and to the sonic "Art of Noises" experiments of Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo.

The early videos for "Close (to the Edit)" were groundbreaking and unusual, becoming cult favorites on MTV. Critics' reviews of Into Battle and the more fully realized Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise? album (1984) were mixed, with some hailing the group's unique, deconstructive approach to sound and song construction, and others dismissing them as a pretentious novelty band.

[edit] Changes

"Moments In Love"—a ten-minute, downtempo, instrumental ode to sex that appeared on both Into Battle and Who's Afraid—was remixed and released as a single in 1985 (first released in the USA in 1983 where it was a moderate hit on the US R&B Singles chart). It was played at Madonna's wedding, used in a number of advertisements, and remixed, covered, and sampled by other artists for years afterward, and has appeared in numerous chill out compilations.

It was also around 1985 that Dudley, Jeczalik and Langan made an acrimonious split from Morley and Horn, as well as from the ZTT label. The circumstances of the reorganization were never well publicized, but several sources indicate that there were disputes over creative control:

• An October 1984 feature in Smash Hits magazine indicated that Morley and Horn planned for the group to produce a number of projects that were much different from what was produced after the split. Planned was a cover of "Video Killed the Radio Star" originally by The Buggles (Horn and Geoff Downes); Raiding The 20th Century, an album using sounds from throughout the 20th century as source material; the score for The Living End, a film written by Morley and directed by Godley & Creme; and the soundtrack for a ballet.[1]

• On May 25, 1985, the trio reportedly walked out on Morley and Horn just before a ZTT showcase performance, The Value Of Entertainment, that was to run for two weeks at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. The sudden departure left Morley to improvise a performance consisting of him reading an essay over Art of Noise recordings, and three people dancing to "Beat Box" and "Close (to the Edit)".[2] Part of the spoken-word portion of the performance was subsequently released on a ZTT compilation album, Sampled.

• In an interview for Melody Maker in October 1985, Jeczalik indicated that he and Morley didn't get along, and that he felt Morley's writing was pretentious. Jeczalik responded to a question about the level of Morley and Horn's involvement in Who's Afraid by saying, “It’s difficult to tell. We say approximately 1.73 percent, but it could even be as high as two percent. You see, all that has happened is that Gary and I started something, it was taken away, and we have taken steps to get it back.” In the same interview, Dudley indicated she felt parts of Who's Afraid were of dubious quality.[3]

• In a July 2002 article penned for The Guardian, Morley wrote, I loved the name Art of Noise so much that I forced my way into the group. If over the years people asked me what I did in the group I replied that I named them, and it was such a great name, that was enough to justify my role. I was the Ringo Starr of Art of Noise. I made the tea. Oh, and I wrote the lyrics to one of the loveliest pieces of pop music ever–Moments in Love. When Trevor and I left, they became a novelty group who had hits with Tom Jones. His disdain for the artistic direction of the group when he wasn't in control of it was even more evident in other articles he penned, including the liner notes of the 1986 compilation album Daft (under the name Otto Flake), and a September 2002 article for The Observer.[4].

After the split, the remaining members moved to the UK-based China Records label, keeping some of the band's original imagery and ethos alive in their second album, In Visible Silence. This album spawned the Grammy Award-winning cover of the Peter Gunn theme, recorded with twangy guitar legend Duane Eddy reprising the lead rather than just being sampled. From this same album, the "Beat Box"-like single "Legs" was a mild underground hit in dance clubs, and in 1986, "Paranoimia" achieved some success when a remix of it was released as a single with overdubbed vocal samples provided by the supposedly computer-generated character Max Headroom.

Around 1986, Jeczalik and Dudley started appearing in photographs without masks, alienating some fans that had come to appreciate Morley's "art for art's sake" aesthetic. The upcoming soundtrack pieces continued The Art of Noise's evolution into a pop band and away from Morley's faceless "non-group."

By 1987, the band's membership was down to just Jeczalik and Dudley. That year saw the release of their album In No Sense? Nonsense!. The album featured Jeczalik's most advanced rhythmic collages to date, plus lush string arrangements, pieces for boys' choir, and keyboard melodies from Dudley. It didn't score any hits, although their record label tried mightily to push remixes of "Dragnet" into the dance clubs. The album is often regarded by fans to be among their best work, despite the inclusion of arguably novelty tracks composed for the soundtracks of the movies Dragnet and Disorderlies. Less faithful critics, however, criticised the album for being too pretentious, and lacking in the humour and catchiness that characterised previous releases. The album contained amongst its tracks a piece that combined new age piano and the rapping of the Fat Boys ("EFL"). The Art of Noise appeared to have taken inspiration from fellow sonic collage artist Boris Blank (of Yello) with the track "Roller One": though the melodic compositions are significantly different (with Yello appearing to have a melody and the Art on Noise not-so-much), it bears a striking resemblance to the programming used on Yello's "Let Me Cry".

[edit] Hits and misses

In 1988, a one-off collaboration with singer Tom Jones, a cover of Prince's "Kiss" (a staple in Jones' stage shows) renewed the public's interest in the Art of Noise and provided the group's biggest hit in the mainstream. The track appeared on several albums by Jones, and China Records included the song on the greatest hits compilation The Best of the Art of Noise, the first edition of which also contained tracks licensed from ZTT.

The follow up album, Below the Waste, failed to achieve much success upon its release in 1989. While it did spawn the memorable single "Yebo!", featuring the unique vocals of Zulu performers Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, and what appears to be a Mancini tribute in the form of "Catwalk", some critics felt the album was a hollow imitation of its predecessors, lacking the aesthetic and creative fullness of previous releases.

[edit] Compilations and solo

In 1990, Dudley and Jeczalik declared the Art of Noise was done; they had officially disbanded.

The rest of the decade saw China Records releasing various Art of Noise compilations: The Ambient Collection, The FON Mixes, The Drum and Bass Collection, Art Works, and reissues of Best Of without the ZTT-era tracks. Some of these featured new remixes by other artists. The China label eventually folded.

Although Dudley and Jeczalik had already dissolved the group, in 1990 they assisted in the promotion of the lightly remixed compilation The Ambient Collection that the China label released to cash in on the burgeoning ambient house scene, and Jeczalik approved the remixes that appeared on The FON Mixes the following year.

Dudley became well-known for composing numerous film and television scores in the 1990s. The most famous of these is probably The Full Monty, which won an Academy Award for Original Music Score.

In 1995–1997, Jeczalik and In No Sense? Nonsense! co-engineer Bob Kraushaar produced a number of instrumentals oriented toward dance clubs under the name Art of Silence, issuing an album titled artofsilence.co.uk. Jeczalik also embarked on a new career in trading in futures contracts.

[edit] Other appearances

Four-fifths of The Art of Noise worked on the Yes album 90125, with Trevor Horn producing, Gary Langan engineering, and Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik providing arrangements and keyboard programming. Many of the samples used on that album also appear on Into Battle. The same four also appeared on Malcolm McLaren's 1982 album Duck Rock and the 1982 album The Lexicon Of Love by ABC, on which Dudley also wrote a track.

The Art of Noise are also credited for the music to the ITV series, The Krypton Factor.

Anne Dudley and Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman collaborated on the 1990 album Songs from the Victorious City, inspired by a trip the two made to Egypt.

Art of Noise also get a full writing credit for The Prodigy's Firestarter.

Anne Dudley produced two tracks for the 1993 Deborah Harry album "Debravation" - "Strike Me Pink" and "Mood Ring", as well as co-writing and playing keyboard on "Strike Me Pink".

[edit] Reformation

According to an interview with J.J. Jeczalik reported in the ZTT fanzine Outside World, in 1991, Jeczalik, Anne Dudley, and Gary Langan were inspired by the commercial success of The FON Mixes and had discussed reuniting the group as a trio again. In preparation to record a new album, J.J. and Gary traveled to Cuba to gather new source material. However, no new recordings were produced with the new lineup, and the Art of Noise remained defunct.

In 1998, Trevor Horn, Paul Morley, and Anne Dudley began talking about the original intent of the project, its relevance in 20th century music, and the impending turn of a new century. The group temporarily reformed, adding virtuoso guitarist Lol Crème but leaving J.J. Jeczalik conspicuously absent.

A new single, Dreaming In Colour, very much in the "progressive" trance/house vein, was leaked to club DJs later that year. A second single, Metaforce featuring a rap by Rakim preceded the 1999 release of the concept album The Seduction of Claude Debussy on the ZTT label.

The Seduction album marked an evolution, rather than a return to the band's glory days, taking the form of a cohesive concept album depicting the life and works of Claude Debussy. However, while impressive from a technical and critical standpoint, it was disappointing as a pop album, being almost too deliberate and seeming to lack the humor, accidental beauty, and edginess of the early Art of Noise releases.

After performing a handful of live shows in the UK and U.S., the band dissolved.

The ZTT label continues to reissue archive material, such as a remastered Into Battle... on CD (with bonus tracks, but substituting the original version of "Beat Box" with the later "Diversion One"), and a compilation SACD called Reconstructed. In early 2004, the Karvavena label released an Art of Noise tribute album, The Abduction of The Art of Noise. This album contains covers of various tracks, including a new version of "Beat Box" performed by J.J. Jeczalik under his Art of Silence moniker.

August 21, 2006 saw ZTT release a 4-CD Art Of Noise box set, entitled And What Have You Done With My Body, God?, consisting of tracks exclusively from the 1983-85 ZTT era, from the initial tentative demos created by Gary Langan and JJ Jeczalik in the wake of the Yes 90125 sessions to selections from the Ambassadors Theatre performances featuring Horn and Morley, recorded at concerts profiling ZTT acts, prior to which Langan, Jeczalik and Dudley had abandoned the label and, for the time being, the band. The set featured over 40 unreleased remixes, demos and works-in-progress, as well as the complete vinyl version of Into Battle..., sourced from the original masters, for the first time on CD. It also included a 36-page book featuring new interviews with all of the original members.

[edit] Selected discography

[edit] Singles

• "Beat Box" (1983)
• "Moments In Love" (1983) and (1985)
• "Close (to the Edit)" (1984)
• "Legs" (1985)
• "Paranoimia" featuring Max Headroom (1986)
• "Peter Gunn" featuring Duane Eddy (1986) — Grammy Award winner in 1987
• "Legacy" (1986)
• "Dragnet" (1987)
• "Kiss" (1988)
• "Yebo!" featuring Mahlathini and Mahotella Queens (1989)
• "Art of Love"
• "Shades of Paranomia"
• "Dreaming In Colour" (1998)
• "Metaforce" featuring Rakim (1999)

[edit] Albums

• Into Battle With The Art of Noise mini-album (1983)
• Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise? (1984)
• In Visible Silence (1986)
• In No Sense? Nonsense! (1987)
• Below the Waste (1989)
• The Seduction of Claude Debussy (1999)

[edit] Compilation and remix albums

• Daft (1985)
• Re-works of Art of Noise (1987)
• The Best of the Art of Noise (1988)
• The Ambient Collection (1990)
• The FON Mixes (1991)
• The Best of the Art of Noise (1992 reissue with different tracks)
• The Drum and Bass Collection (1996)
• Belief System / Bashful / An Extra Pulse Of Beauty (1999)
• Reduction (2000)
• The Abduction of the Art of Noise (2003)
• Reconstructed (2004)
• And What Have You Done With My Body, God? 4-CD box set (2006)

[edit] DVD

• The Art of Noise: "Into Vision", (2002): four different concerts between 1999 and 2000 in Chicago, (The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival) in California, in Shepherd's Bush, London and in Wembley, London.

[edit] Chart positions

[edit] Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions			Album
		US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	UK
1984	"Beat Box"	-	n/a	#92	Into Battle with the Art of Noise (EP)
1984	"Close (to the Edit)"	-	n/a	#8	Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?
1985	"Moments in Love"	-	n/a	#51	Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?
1986	"Paranoimia" (feat. Max Headroom)	#34	n/a	#12	remixed from In Visible Silence
1986	"Legs"	-	n/a	#69	In Visible Silence
1986	"Peter Gunn" (feat. Duane Eddy)	#50	n/a	#8	In Visible Silence
1987	"Dragnet"	-	n/a	#60	In·No·Sense? Nonsense!
1988	"Kiss" (feat. Tom Jones)	#31	#14	#5	The Best of the Art of Noise
1989	"Yebo!" (feat. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens)	-	-	#63	Below The Waste
1990	"Art of Love"	-	-	#67	The Ambient Collection
1991	"Instruments of Darkness (All Of Us Are One People)"	-	-	#45	The FON Mixes
1991	"Shades of Paranoimia"	-	-	#53	The FON Mixes
1999	"Metaforce" (feat. Rakim)	-	-	#53	The Seduction of Claude Debussy

[edit] See also

• List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

[edit] External links

• Art of Noise entries from Lazlo Nibble's ZTT discography
• ZTT label (Flash required)
• ZTT - Two Decades
• Visibly Silent - Art of Noise Fan-Page
• Zang Tuum Tumb and all that