Long-form book style box set comprising of four CDs. It boasts 56 tracks, 41 of them unreleased on CD and/or previously unheard plus two hidden tracks, remixes and demos. Involvement and contributions from of all the origi... more »nal Art Of Noise members - Trevor Horn, Ann Dudley, Paul Morley, JJ Jeczalik & Gary Langan. Booklet contains interviews with all members, with track by track commentary. Hugely influential, dance music and pop in general owes a huge debt to these original recordings. The finished records have become almost ubiquitous - and are regularly re-sampled and referenced by artists as diverse as Janet Jackson, the Ying Yang Twins, Jurassic 5 and the Prodigy. A stunning audio presentation that sounds fresh and exciting even decades after it was originally recorded. ZTT. 2006.« less
Long-form book style box set comprising of four CDs. It boasts 56 tracks, 41 of them unreleased on CD and/or previously unheard plus two hidden tracks, remixes and demos. Involvement and contributions from of all the original Art Of Noise members - Trevor Horn, Ann Dudley, Paul Morley, JJ Jeczalik & Gary Langan. Booklet contains interviews with all members, with track by track commentary. Hugely influential, dance music and pop in general owes a huge debt to these original recordings. The finished records have become almost ubiquitous - and are regularly re-sampled and referenced by artists as diverse as Janet Jackson, the Ying Yang Twins, Jurassic 5 and the Prodigy. A stunning audio presentation that sounds fresh and exciting even decades after it was originally recorded. ZTT. 2006.
Outstanding... a collage of collages of collages of...
David McCallum | Eugene, OR USA | 10/20/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I can see why some wouldn't dig this box set but I think it's a great treat. It's an era of a single album, ep and some singles expanded out to four discs - demos, remixes and all kinds of variations. It's the sound of the evolution of a revolution... I keep my AON next to my Meat Beat Manifesto (and Jack Dangers), The KLF, Coldcut, Underworld, The Orb, DJ Shadow and The Avalanches.
The commentary on each track is entertaining. Anne Dudley's comment that she often confuses their two biggest hits of the time is funny - I do the same thing. AON in this phase were a concept band - my only fault with a exhaustive box set like this is it did not include all the artwork of the era... especially Paul Morley's essays."
Good mixture of their ZTT days, but too repetitive and no ne
Bond... James Bond | Denver, CO | 06/05/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I was a huge AON fan in the 80s, and still like both their earlier ZTT recordings and later works like "Below the Waste". For the price of the 4-CD set, it would make an interesting introduction to the band's ZTT days for a first-timer. But, like me, if you already have most of their previous recordings, there is nothing new here and FAR TOO MANY versions of "Moments in Love" included on each of the 4 discs. It becomes tedious to me to listen to all 4 discs in sequence because that darn "Moments in Love" tune keeps showing up all over the place. To me, AON was not a one-hit-wonder band just known for one tune; heck, I liked "Beat Box" better than "Moments in Love" anyway. But if you cannot get enough of the "Moments in Love" tune, or if you buy every single recording that AON has to form a complete collection, you will like the selections on these discs. I would have very gladly traded most of the "Moments in Love" versions on these 4 discs for different versions of their later non-ZTT works or, better yet, previously unreleased completely new tunes (instead of slightly different versions of existing tunes).
"
Good for Completists, and a Snapshot of an Earlier Time
Pyanfar Chanur | USA | 03/22/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This collection of tracks spans the brief early career of the Art of Noise. It takes material from their days with ZTT Records and presents the listener with all the odds and ends that never made it onto the studio albums. The good news is, strong fans of the Art of Noise will enjoy hearing these alternate versions, outtakes, and incomplete bits and pieces. The bad news is, this is a limited set of material: "Into Battle with the Art of Noise" and "(Who's Afraid Of?) the Art of Noise" were good albums for their time, but here we have four discs' worth of the same 10-12 songs. Tracks titled with unusual names like "Klimax", "The Focus of Satisfaction", and "In Case We Sneezed" are not new or unreleased tracks per se: they are alternate versions of songs like "Moments in Love", "Close (to the Edit)", and of course "Beat Box". Each ranges anywhere from half a minute to almost 11 minutes long, with the odd parts ending abruptly because they are unfinished pieces.
Much as I am a long-time fan of the Art of Noise, this much of the same was hard to get through in one sitting. If you're an AoN fan who is mix-minded you should find plenty of raw material to make all new versions of your favorite classics. However, this isn't the kind of boxed set you want to spin at a party: people will start asking you if your player is stuck. Consider this a nice addition to your collection, but don't plan on playing it time and again. And if you are new to The Art of Noise, I recommend trying their studio albums first--the Art of Noise were often ahead of their time, and most of them are excellent in and of themselves. My personal favorites are "Below the Waste" and "In Visible Silence".
"
Great, but not ideal for those new to the band
Zach Robinson | Kirkland, WA USA | 02/16/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Hands-down, the best part of this collection are the liner notes. They provide a rare insight into the band and the personalities.
The music is a fantastic smorgasbord of the early years on ZTT. Those unfamiliar with The Art of Noise will probably be much better suited by acquiring one of the "The Best of the Art of Noise" collections.
Disc 4 (Into Battle, That Was Close, The Tortoise & the Hair, Besides Close) is possibly the highlight of the collection. While completists would have most of these tracks, gems such as Love Beat are a treat. The other discs are still excellent - you can see the seeds for what would become their later released versions - but there is little expansion into new sonic realms here. While this project seems much better polished than "Bashful" (an Internet-only collection of early/unreleased tracks that was put out in 2000 - and where some of these tracks have appeared before), it lacks the variety and newness found in that release.
It is a shame that this is a label-bound project. Art of Noise is a magnificent band, and a collection including such B-sides as Instruments of Lightness, Who's Afraid (of Scale), Hoops and Mallets, In the Mood (a cover of the Andrews Sister cover on the bootleg "On the Road to Tokyo"), Why Me?, and the Dreaming remix series could help make a smashingly great set. There's a wealth of great material available, and this indepth collection sadly barely scratches the surface."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1
