Search - :: Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise

Brilliance and Excellence

04/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was the second Art of Noise cd I bought. Unlike most reviewers so far, I had never even heard of "Moments in Love" prior to purchasing this album. ALL the songs are meaningful, and create a "mood". The first time I listened to the whole album, I was dissapointed by the whole last half. Once I listened to it more, I got the same feeling one gets when they are attempting to interpret a painting, or any work of art for that matter. The more I litstened, the deeper I delved, and the more I realized that The Art of Noise are musical geniuses. Give it a chance, and you will see that this noise is really art."

Industrial Thrash With a Side Order of Quirky Mood Music

a consumer | 12/17/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the '80's all the record producers were playing with their new technology and going for big, big, big drum sounds. The Art of Noise went a step further and created impossibly huge, industrial-grade beats that came like bombs out of the speakers. Kind of like Godzilla at the disco. The tune "A Time for Fear", first song on the first side (and so the listener's introduction to the album) is a real heavy marching-rhythm pounding with lots of scraping and screeching sampled noises. It always seemed funny to me and the Art of Noise seemed to be doing it all with a bit of a wink, so extreme as to be a kind of send-up of the popular taste of the time. All the sampling, loops, etc. were part of a time-honored tradition of "musique concrete" dating from the '50's, which even the Beatles used on "Sgt. Pepper", so Art of Noise wasn't too radical in their use of that: their real innovation was the fusing of musique concrete with extreme industrial beats while still keeping it all user-friendly enough to make it on the radio.



I never could figure out why "Moments in Love" was on this album except to provide some relief from the assault of the first half of the disc. I never could take it seriously since the tone set by the first half of the disc was kind of jokey, and "Moments in Love" has an oh-so-mellow-and-sweet melody punctuated by synthesized orchestral blasts and samples of guys muttering...it seems less than sensuous in my opinion, but then I can't argue with the reviewers here who find it great for an intimate evening. You can't argue with success!



I agree with the reviewers here, though--if you like "Moments In Love" you'll probably not like the rest of the disc--and vice versa. But I think it's a fun album, and a bit of electronica history. The sample of the girl shouting "Hey!" on "Close to the Edit" was in turn sampled by Prodigy on "Fire Starter", so I guess that makes Art of Noise a part of the tradition."