1987 – The Art Of Noise / In No Sense ? Nonsense
!
(China Records
catalog # WOL4)
Side B - track #9 : Ode to Don Jose (Dudley/Jeczalik)
Ode to Don Jose
An English ode is a lyrical stanza in praise of, or dedicated
to someone or something that captures the poet's interest
or serves as an inspiration for the ode. The lyrics can be on
various themes. The earliest odes in the English language,
using the word in its strict form, were the Epithalamium
Whereas Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695), is said to have
been
composing at nine years old, but the earliest work that can
be certainly identified as his is an ode for
the King's birthday,
written in 1670, Gustav Theodore Holst (1874 – 1934) also
of a poem by Whitman, which according to Ralph Vaughan
Williams is considered by many to be Holst's most beautiful
choral work.
The reason behind Dudley/Jeczalik`s decision to
name this
ambient instrumental track “Ode” is uncertain. Whilst I’m
clueless when it comes to which was the inspiring poem, I’m
totally lost when it comes to “Don Jose” (which translated
into english means Mister Joseph) to whom this music is
dedicated. Besides this minor hybrid title reproach, this cut
is a TAON purebred exponent.
The Art Of Noise members
(piano,
orchestral arrangements, vocals, keyboards),
(vocals,
keyboards, 1983-85, 1996-present),
(bass,
vocals, keyboards, 1983-85, 1996-present),
(guitar,
vocals, keyboards, 1996-present),
Gary
Langan
(multi-instrumentalist,
1983-85),
(keyboards,
1983-90)
Trevor Horn biography by Jason Ankeny
joined the venerable prog rock band as full
members.
founded his own label, ZTT, in the years to
come produ-
and produced Band Aid's all-star charity single
"Do They
Know It's Christmas."
Anne Dudley biography by Jason Ankeny
A graduate
of the Royal College of Music, the classically-
trained
Dudley began her professional career as a session
keyboardist;
a protege of producer Trevor Horn. Forming
Art of
Noise in 1983 with Horn, JJ Jeczalik, Gary Langan
and Paul
Morley.The Art of Noise's groundbreaking expe-
riments in
sampling and mixing proved to be enormously
influential
on the emerging techno movement, and during the
1990s the
group's own material was itself sampled endlessly.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/anne-dudley-mn0000580723
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/anne-dudley-mn0000580723
A handy overview of an
amazing yet frustrating band.
Their debut, Who’s
Afraid of the Art of Noise, encap-
sulated everything in its nine tracks. If they’d vanished im-
mediately afterwards, it would’ve been a (The Sex Pistols)
Never Mind the Bollocks-style statement of when hip hop
met Dadaism and rammed the Fairlight centre stage while
japing around with masks and spanners. It spoke of the
beginning of a whole new world during the mid-80s, during
the period between the post new-pop fall-out and seriousface
issues-based stadiumness. It was of its time and yet still
way ahead of it.
Evan Cater album Review
limited. Their artful noise collage lacks the
visceral impact
interesting than beautiful
IN NO SENSE? NONSENSE!
George Starostin album Review - Only
Solitaire
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If Who's Afraid was a gamble that actually paid off,
then Nonsense! is a bluff so obvious that I find myself
reaching for the candlestick. Well, actually,
side 2 is a
bit better. I do like 'Ode To Don Jose' with its
freaky
synth melody and great idea of sampling (Dudley's?)
laughter several times before passing it through a
"vocal grinder" for the last time.
Introduction
The Art Of Noise never were an actual band; they were
an artistic project who liked to make music but hardly
ever felt like playing music, way before creative DJing
became a mass phenomenon. Calling them the Beatles
of electronic dance music would be too high an honour
considering they only really put out one total classic and
the rest of their output has remained of debatable quality
over the years; but certainly the impact of that one album
had been huge, so huge that The Art Of Noise are guaran-
teed a stable spot in the annals of music history regardless
of any opposing opinions that I, or you, or the spirit of
Frank Sinatra might come up with.
Buggle and
Yes member and by the early Eighties - head
of the
experimental ZTT (Zang Tung Tuum) label, which
was,
apparently, one of the main competitors of the famous
4AD studio
when it came to creating radically new types
of music.
However, the differences in approach were obvious:
where 4AD
focused on the "ethereal", making unusual sonic
texture the
cornerstone of their concerns, ZTT preferred to
focus on
the "jerky electronic", making stuff that could be
appreciated
by mainstream listeners yet at the same time
remain
seriously experimental.
(That's
putting it very roughly, of course).
Of course,
there was always the ever-reliable Kraftwerk
to do that
kind of thing, but, first of all, Kraftwerk were
running out
of steam, not having had a new album since
1981, and,
second, Kraftwerk were Germans; the world
needed
something fresh out of a more trustworthy Anglo-
Saxon oven.
The Art Of Noise was just the thing. Under
the
guidance of Trevor Horn, three very revolutionary-
minded
gentlemen and one equally revolutionary-minded
produced an
album which complied to the following
requirements:
a) it was
almost entirely based upon sampling, which gave
it
both an experimental edge and an unusual danceable
drive that would be unattainable through
regular means;
b) it was
perfectly accessible as a basic listening experience,
at
least to everybody who could accept the new approach
with an open mind;
c) it was lightweight and fun.
c) it was lightweight and fun.
Lo and
behold, sampling was introduced into mass culture,
and the
breakdance craze hit the fan. Today, the revolutio-
nary
qualities of AON's 1983-84 output can be easily over-
looked just
because pretty much everybody in possession
of a good
synthesizer, let alone a quality recording studio,
can do
this. But before AON, nobody did it. Yes, there
were the
'elitist' works of Kraftwerk, and stuff by even more
obscure and
artsy electronica wizards, and, of course, New
Wave was in
full swing, but this particular brand of music-
making,
which, fair enough, even now many people refuse
to
acknowledge as 'music' in the first place (although it
certainly
deserves to be called that much more than some-
thing like Metal
Machine Music), just didn't exist.
However,
that's all history talk; history talk, as interesting
as it can
be, can never replace sincere enjoyment of music.
And this is
where I come to the best part of all. Too often,
electronic/sampled
music seems to be done by people from
a different
planet, which makes it almost impossible for a
person with
a primarily "rock" background to enjoy it fully
even if
he's ready to respect the effort (yep, talkin' 'bout
you,
Autechre). But this never applied to Art of Noise.
However
innovative and, at times, openly crazy they could
be with
their means, in the end the music betrays a love for
the basics
of pop music; were it not so, they would not have
even begun
to try and make melodies out of samples of neig-
hing horses
and revved up engines. At times, they could
even be
openly romantic ('Moments In Love', not surprisingly,
their best
known song of all, and the one that will probably
survive
even when 'Close To The Edit' no longer does).
Unfortunately,
they weren't able to sustain the momentum.
Others had
picked up the ball and ran with it. Perhaps one
of their
big mistakes was parting ways with their guru,
Trevor
Horn, and starting to make music without his
creative
protection - although, to be fair, I have no idea
just how
much Trevor actually brought to the recordings.
1986's In
Visible Silence was a decent follow-up to the
breakthrough
of Who's Afraid?, but lacked the hilariousness
and overall
freshness of the former, even if they were still
experimenting
like mad, even bringing in Fifties' guitar
hero Duane
Eddy for inspiration. Then, the following year,
they took
the hugest gamble of their career, with the spraw-
ling
forty-minute collage of In No Sense? Nonsense!...
and crashed
on the ground in a million broken pieces. It
was
pretentious, meandering, and really made no sense, in
the bad
sense of making no sense.
They were
never quite the same afterwards; retreating to
make more
restrained, less defiantly experimental music
didn't help
their reputation much (although I do like Below
The
Waste), and by the
end of the Eighties the "band" – or
"project",
rather - fell apart. After that, nothing was heard
of them for
almost a decade, apart from a huge four-or-five
series of
remixes made by outside artists, which I will not
be
discussing or reviewing here because this has little to do
with The
Art Of Noise per se. And a reunion in the late
Nineties,
when they were unexpectedly joined by former
rebuild
their reputation. On the other hand, I have a hard
time trying
to imagine what kind of album would help
rebuild it.
Maybe they should start thinking about a collec-
tive
project with Linkin Park's frontman.
In any case, what is important to understand is that Who's
Afraid is a total (or near-total) classic and if you
don't
own this and yet consider yourself an electronic/trance/
techno/whatever fan, you're nothing but a helpless phoney,
like that guy next door who proclaims himself a seasoned
heavy metal fan even if he never ever ventured beyond
Metallica's Black Album. That album alone guarantees
them the current overall rating. As for the rest of their cata-
log, proceed with caution. Below The Waste is my second
favourite, but most critics pan it as their weakest effort; on
the other side, I absolutely abhor their comeback album
(brr!), but many fans prefer to see it as a modern art rock
masterpiece, so go figure.
Periods
1. The Early Years: 1962-1965
2. The Psychedelic Years: 1966-1968
3. The
Artsy/Rootsy Years: 1969-1971
4. The
Interim Years: 1972-1975
5. The Punk/New Wave Years: 1976-1979
6. The Divided Eighties: 1980-1989
Art Of Noise (Class D artists)
