Sunday, September 24, 2023

The Noise of Art versus The Noise of Art

Now you may recall The Noise of Art - which was Suburban Base graffix wizzrd Dave Nodz having a go at making tunes, assisted by engineer Mike James 



Name homaging The Art of Noise, inaugurators of a lineage of Brit sample wizardry that flowered in jungle (AoN especially relevant to the skratchadelik Sub Base kru insofar as they were the backing band for "Buffalo Gals").  

No doubt the name also acknowledging that he was a visual artist moving into the realm of sound - the graphic face of so many legendary Sub Base covers now infiltrating the vinyl itself, no longer just the gorgeous husks encasing the vinyl.




 














But did you know there was an earlier The Noise of Art? A whole decade earlier -  a real-time homage to the sound-signatures and techniques of  The Art of Noise, very much working within the same    ultra-stabby, 1-second-sampletime aesthetic as Dudley & Cru.  










This The Noise of Art was a side project of Murray Munro, one half of the synthpop outfit Mainframe. 

Released on the Ying Yang Yumm label (teeheehee).  

Based out of Hemel Hempstead, neighbour to my hometown Berkhamsted 






Parody / replication of the Horn Frankie/"Two Tribes" chugger disco-metal sound also audible on the track "Sex:War:Religion"




























Is that meant to be a parody of the Morley sleevenotes?


There was a follow-up
























RRunning joke about Baxters Soup.


The non-parody output sounds quite Buggles / New Musik - even the word "Radio" in the song title, although that may be an attempted ploy to woo deejays. 



Look a bit Bugglesy too






















Probably fan of Thomas Dolby as well

























Their one shot on a major label (Polydor) 


This megamix nearly-15 minute 12-inch version romps through all the remixological conjuring tricks of 1985 and exhibits further evidence of a Trevor Horn fixation - that same "Two Tribes" elastic-bass bassline. Shades of Yello and Trevor Hardcastle's "Nineteen" also.  


Back to Dave Noddings, whose daubs in sound were decent but whose real forte was the wild-style sleeves. 










































































































































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