Art Of Noise - The Ambient Collection (1990)

From Allmusic:

Art of Noise began in the mid-'80s and is now a touchstone to which all electronic music should be compared...These Art of Noise catalog remixes by Youth, bassist for Killing Joke, remain a classic of compositional ambient electronica.

And from the back album cover:

This album quickly became one of my favorite AoN releases. Back in the '90s, I purchased two other Art of Noise remix CDs: The FON Mixes (1991) and The Drum And Bass Collection (1996) and, to be honest, they didn't do much for me so those discs were quickly sold.* As the title implies, this album contains wonderfully relaxed versions of previously released AoN cuts. Not to replace any of the earlier releases, this is solid addition to their œuvre. As with most overly-repetitive ambient releases, this collection is especially suited to nighttime/naptime listening.

Press of the time:

• Entertainment Weekly: A-
• Select (★★): "nice, charming and a wee bit silly"
• Trouser Press: "an album of new age wallpaper"

Peak on the US Billboard 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The first 12 tracks segue into each other; it's really just one long track so I don't separate them in my mind. However, if I had to choose my favorite "sections," I'd pick Crusoe, Island, and Robinson Crusoe. The final track, Art Of Love (7" Edition), isn't ambient at all but rather a remix of Moments In Love with a backbeat. I like it, but don't understand it's inclusion. It peaked at #67 on the British charts. 

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Seduction of Claude Debussy (1999)
The Best of The Art of Noise (1988)
In No Sense? Nonsense! (1987)
In Visible Silence (1986)
(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise! (1984)

*for the record (no pun intended), I quit selling my CDs around the turn of the century so, since that time, even if I don't care for the disc, I've kept it.

The Art of Noise - In Visible Silence (1986)

This album isn't quite as good as its predecessor (Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise!, but there's still plenty of good stuff here. Just some geeky studio wizards having fun with their technological toys creating some experimental dance music. They've definitely got a recipe to make music from non-musical sounds: get some samples, add the underlying groove, stir in occasional dashes of other electronic business, then vary the mix each time around. Repeat. This sometimes makes me wish I had the skills to be a geeky studio wizard, but mainly it just gets me to dance. Sadly, the group would never make an album this good again.

Note for AoN fanatics: my copy of this CD is the 1988 China Records release containing the better version of Paranomia without Max Headroom as well as the bonus track of the extended version of Peter Gunn.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #53
• Billboard R&B: #49
• Rolling Stone: #34

Tracks:  I like Opus 4, Legs, Backbeat/Beatback, and Chameleon's Dish. Henry Mancini's Theme To Peter Gunn is always a fun tune and the group was smart enough to bring in Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and twang guitar king Duane Eddy to add a special touch to the proceedings here. That track won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1987. It's the best tune on the disc with the 6 minute extended version preferable to the 4 minute version. I usually skip over Instruments Of Darkness and Camilla.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  None. Listening to this disc usually makes me want to grab The Best of The Art of Noise and listen to that instead because the mixes are better.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Seduction of Claude Debussy (1999)
The Best of The Art of Noise (1988)
In No Sense? Nonsense! (1987)
(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise! (1984)

Art Of Noise - The Seduction of Claude Debussy (1999)

More than ten years after the Art of Noise left Trevor Horn's ZTT label to record on their own, original members Anne Dudley and Paul Morley reunited with Horn plus 10cc's Lol Creme to record another album, organized around the work of French modernist composer Claude Debussy. The group describes the album as “the soundtrack to a film that wasn’t made about the life of Claude Debussy.” While I hear remnants of what the groundbreaking group once was, I just can't get into the drum & bass and electronica sounds they've got working here. I suppose every group needs to grow and their sound must mature, but I was hoping for more of the Trevor Horn Beat Box-esque material that made me a fan back in the '80s. It seems that Anne Dudley (an Oscar winning soundtrack composer for The Full Monty) has more influence over the group's sound now.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The album is obviously meant to be heard as a whole, a sort of electronica tone poem. This makes picking out individual favs difficult, but there are a few that stand out to me: Dreaming In Colour (which is later reprised as Continued In Colour), The Holy Egoism Of Genius, and Out Of The World (Version 138). But the rest isn't for me. As mentioned in the album's review in Entertainment Weekly, this is a "flawed cultural casserole."

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. This is probably only the second time I've listened to the disc in it's entirety. Disappointed. I must not be the only one that's disappointed: this CD is currently available on eBay for 2¢. I'll stick with the group's Best Of CD.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best of The Art of Noise (1988)
In No Sense? Nonsense! (1987)
(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise! (1984)

The Art of Noise - (Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise! (1984)

Adventures in sonic exploration. AoN's debut full-length album, back when the group included the genius of Trevor Horn. This music was at least five years ahead of its time, if not ten. Living up to their name, AoN produces artful noises through drum machines, samples, and dubs of random noises. Fantastic production. Big, big drums. It would seem this could all be done today with just GarageBand software, but that discounts the vision and musicality of the group. At times, the production is stripped away and what's left is (believe it or not) good songwriting. Sure, it sounds dated now, but in '84 when the Fairlight CMI workstation the latest in musical technology, this stuff was pushing the envelope, especially in terms of sampling. Artists like Moby, Massive Attack, and Chemical Brothers owe a great deal to AoN.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★): "skip this"
• Robert Christgau (B): "There's no denying that this concatenation of musical-instrument imitations and collapsing new sound effects generates considerable episodic interest and the occasional groove"
• CashBox: "a number of slick dance-beat pop rhythms."
• Billboard: "Consistently quirky but intelligent and cohesive"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #85
• Billboard R&B: #22
• CashBox: #97

Tracks: Highlights here include Beat Box (Diversion One) and Close (To The Edit) which has one of the most bizarre, disturbing videos of 1984 (below). The cut with staying power has been Moments In Love, which is probably the first song ever recorded in the chill-out/downbeat genre. There are many, many remixes of Moments In Love, but the 10:17 track included here is the definitive version in my book. However, its laid-back, smooth vibe is out of place when listened to with the other more aggressive, playful tracks. Feel free to skip Snapshot, Momento, and How To Kill.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. Just regret that someone didn't introduce me to this at the time of its release.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best of The Art of Noise (1988)
In No Sense? Nonsense! (1987)

The Art of Noise - In No Sense? Nonsense! (1987)

I once dated a girl that had an AoN cassette and I asked her if it was any good. She replied, "You'll like it if you like Art of Noise." That could be said about most AoN releases. However, by 1987, the group was down to only 2 members, so most of the tracks here fall into one of two categories: J. J. Jeczalik's ambient music or Anne Dudley's music that could be considered her first attempts at film soundtrack writing (In 1998, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score for The Full Monty). I prefer the former, but not by much. This group was so much better when Trevor Horn was a member.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #134 (Oct 21, 1987)
• CashBox: #124

Tracks: Fin Du Temps, E.F.L., A Day At The Races, Roller 1, sound like classic Art of Noise cuts. The other 12 tracks are only curiosities that don't beg you to listen to them again.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This contains the group's contribution to the soundtrack of the horrid movie Dragnet, so it reminds me of that nightmare unless I remember to skip the track.

The Art of Noise - The Best of The Art of Noise (1988)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette, later replaced by a CD (Art Works 12" Blue Cover).

I was excited to find a used copy of this out-of-print gem on eBay. I received it in the mail just yesterday. At the time of this release, I had heard of AoN, but hadn't heard any of their music. I picked this up and became an instant fan. While I have versions of the songs on other CDs, I was introduced to the group through these 12" remixes, so it is fun to revisit these versions now. In early 1989, I still considered myself a musician first and foremost and I enjoyed listening to how this group deconstructed and reconstructed pop music while experimenting with the latest editing and sampling techniques. The group's name couldn't be more apt. I wonder if I had heard them in 1984 if I would have become a fan.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #83 (Jan 28, 1989)

Tracks: Favs are Opus 4, Beatbox, Close (To the Edit), Peter Gunn Theme, and the cover of Kiss featuring Tom Jones. I prefer this AoN version to Prince's original. I could do without Paranomia featuring Max Headroom and Dragnet. Neither has aged well. Amazingly, I sometimes hear Moments in Love on smooth jazz radio. That always amuses me.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I remember buying this release on cassette on a cold, rainy day in San Antonio (which are rare). It was probably January 1989 at a store in the Sunset Ridge Shopping Center on N. New Braunfels. At age 22, I was a recent college graduate living in my parent's spare bedroom, so I needed a musical distraction from that situation.