Art Of Noise
Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?

Namely, "Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?"

It’s a quirky and wonderful album. And it's also the debut of Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik, and Gary Langan, better known as Art of Noise. It took more than a year (from February 28, 1983, to April 1, 1984) to create nine tracks of rare beauty.

It begins with "A Time To Fear", an evocative piece flavored with a captivating rhythm; it continues with "Beatbox", an irresistible track that mixes choirs, guitars, high and low voices in a danceable sonic whirlwind. "Snapshot" is a one-minute melodic interlude, followed by "Close (To The Edit)" (partially sampled by The Prodigy in the song "Firestarter") and the title track. So far, the record maintains a tone as wild as it is sublime, full of interesting sound experiments.

Then, finally, here comes "Moments In Love", which is worth the album on its own. I assure you that listening to it is akin to a journey with no return, where you will discover what it means to be lost: 10 minutes of mystical and relaxing, almost religious music.

"Memento", "How to Kill" and "Realisation", on the other hand, are excellent experimental tracks, capable of unsettling and engaging as the rest of the album does.

Fascinating, complex, remarkable, and overall modern. Absolutely worth retrieving.