Let Battle Commence, by Ian Peel
The following essay was extracted from the 32-page book accompanying the Art of Noise box set And What Have You Don’t With My Body, God?. The box set also features a track-by-track commentary from Dudley, Jeczalik, Langan, Horn and Morley that’s hilarious, detailed, fascinating and tragic in equal measures…
They kick-started a revolution. Five very English, very different characters. A producer, an engineer, a programmer, a pianist, a theorist. Trevor Horn, Gary Langan, JJ Jeczalik, Anne Dudley and Paul Morley.
In 1984 they released an album, Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?, and a brace of singles - Into Battle, Close (to the Edit) and Moments in Love - that sent pop music careering on a completely different course. They took a new invention – a Fairlight CMI, one of the first ever samplers – and used it to collage music out of the rhythms of everyday life. And they took a new approach to how a pop group could appear. No one knew what the musicians in the Art of Noise looked like, but the band had an image that was as striking and radical – and recognisable – as it was unique. Dance music and pop in general owes a huge debt to these original recordings.
1983 to ’85, when these early sessions took place, was an intense period. The finished records have become almost ubiquitous - and are regularly re-sampled and referenced by artists as diverse as Janet Jackson and The Prodigy. But the demos, alternative mixes and studio experiments, the very genesis of the Art of Noise, have never been heard since. Did they even exist? It was thought not, after all Trevor Horn has a reputation of not saving anything if a recording session doesn’t work out - if you change course, erase the tapes and move on. Don’t look back.
But Zang Tumb Tuum went on a search. Into the vaults of London’s recordings studios - Sarm West, Angel Studios, Utopia, Sarm East and Mayfair, all of which hosted these early sessions. Tomb Raiders of the Lost Ark, Zang Tumb Tuum was on a mission… and struck gold. The complete Art of Noise sessions, 1983-1986, as presented here, for the first time, never before heard or released.
Disc One traces the very start of Noise. The early test-tracks, tinkerings and demos from an era when the team used the unique sounds they were creating for the likes of Malcolm McLaren (on Duck Rock and Buffalo Girls) and Yes (Owner of a Lonely Heart and 90125) to their own ends. A mad cross between hip-hop crews and prog production, all fed into the cutting-edge, but crunchy, early Fairlight sampler. On Disc Two they’re at their most playful, recording and sampling everything form tennis matches to actors and actresses, footsteps, old vinyl, engines and animals. The spirit of adventure continues as Beat Box and Close (to the Edit) go head-to-head for a long-overdue throwdown. Two rounds each, take your ringside seat.
By Disc Three - an alternative version of Who’s Afraid - it’s all gelling into finished recordings. But then, the big split. The Ambassadors Reel (tracks created for Art of Noise to headline ZTT’s 1985 showcase) get their first release here, because the concerts didn’t quite go as originally planned. Anne, Gary and JJ walked out, just as rehearsals were about to begin. Cue: Oobly, and Goodbye Art of Noise. As three fifths of the original Art of Noise went off to record with Duane Eddy and Tom Jones, the course of the band, ZTT and avant-garde pop took another unlikely twist.
But the beginning, the end and the story of this first influential Art of Noise incarnation – and the tracks on here – is best told by the people who were there. Five very English, very different characters. A producer, an engineer, a programmer, a pianist, a theorist. Trevor Horn, Gary Langan, JJ Jeczalik, Anne Dudley and Paul Morley…