Escape from Noise

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Escape From Noise
Escape From Noise cover
Studio album by Negativland
Released 1987 (original), 1999 (reissue)
Recorded  ???
Genre Avantgarde/Experimental/Sound Collage
Length 42:12
Label SST (original), Seeland (reissue)
Producer(s) Mark Hosler
Professional reviews
Negativland chronology
Over the Edge Vol. 1
(1985)		 Escape From Noise
(1987)		 Helter Stupid
(1989)


Escape From Noise (1987) marked Negativland's first break on a "name-brand" independent record label, SST Records. On this album, they continued to develop their experimental, surrealist style, this time throwing some pop sensibilities into the mix (with shorter tracks and more conventional melodies). "Christianity Is Stupid", a track featuring samples from the propaganda movie If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?, layered over a buzzing and droning hard rock groove, would prove to be an enduring signature song.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Announcement"
  2. "Quiet Please"
  3. "Michael Jackson"
  4. "Escape from Noise"
  5. "The Playboy Channel"
  6. "Stress in Marriage"
  7. "Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song"
  8. "Over the Hiccups"
  9. "Sycamore"
  10. "Car Bomb"
  11. "Methods of Torture"
  12. "Yellow Black and Rectangular"
  13. "Backstage Pass"
  14. "Christianity Is Stupid"
  15. "Time Zones"
  16. "You Don't Even Live Here"
  17. "The Way of It"
  18. "Endscape"

[edit] Personnel

  • Mark Hosler: Singing, synthesizers, guitars, voice tapes, percussions, rhythm loops, bomb parts, David manipulation, tiny metal banjo, recorder, lots of other noises, mix
  • Don Joyce: Yelling, talking tapes, electric tympani, synthesizer, lyrics, singing, Booper bee, bomb parts and assembly, noises everywhere, mix
  • Chris Grigg: Drums, synthesizer, singing, computer & software, field recordings, mix
  • David Wills: Talking, shortwave, family tape, bomb parts, regular Booper
  • Richard Lyons: Singing, lyrics, voice

With Contributions From:

[edit] Controversy

In February of 1988, a 16-year-old from Rochester, Minnesota named David Brom murdered his entire immediate family (both parents, a brother, and a sister) with an axe. When Negativland was forced to cancel a planned tour in support of their album Escape from Noise for financial reasons, the band issued a press release claiming that they had been "advised by Federal Official Dick Jordan not to leave town pending an investigation into the Brom murders." The press release implied that Brom had listened to Negativland's song "Christianity is Stupid" before the fatal quarrel with his religious parents.[1]

In reality, there was no official named "Dick Jordan", and Brom did not own any of Negativland's music (though it was later revealed that he was on SST's mailing lists). Nevertheless, careless pundits and journalists took the press release at face value, and the hoax received widespread media coverage.[2] Negativland encouraged the spread of the story by steadfastly refusing further comment, supposedly on the advice of their attorney "Hal Stakke", another fictional person invented by the band. Much of this media coverage was negative, and band member Richard Lyon's home in Oakland, California was pelted with rocks by an unknown vandal.[3] Negativland subsequently used samples from the media frenzy in their 1989 album Helter Stupid.[4]

[edit] External links

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