Art Of Noise* – Below The Waste

Neither of the two sides in my vinyl has the POLYDOR logo printed on the label....

Inspired by the posts below, I actually picked up this LP to play in full again today, for the first time in probably 30 years.

In one sense (and no this isn't nonsense) it's a real peculiarity, actually. From "Who's Afraid" through to "In No Sense", Art Of Noise had a clear template they worked from, a harsh, hard and scattergun, sample-heavy sound which was slowly sanded down the more clear water emerged between themselves and ZTT, but was always clearly recognisable as them. You could pluck a random track from any of those LPs and most people with a moderate knowledge of their work would be able to identify it as being AON even if they'd never heard it before.

"Below The Waste", on the other hand, sees them shifting down the tempo, introducing both African influences and giving Anne Dudley more time and space to develop her arrangements for orchestras, as well as plopping in a few jagged croutons of metallic Art of Noise-esque doodles here and there, with a lot of clattering and banging but no innovation. The mix of styles really does not gel and this doesn't feel like a coherent album as a result. You've got driving World Music next to what sound like orchestral soundtrack excerpts next to jagged Jeczalik compositions of a B side standard. It's true to say that AON LPs could be diverse affairs, but the sequencing here makes no sense whatsoever. It's enough to give you indigestion.

But having said all that, there are great moments to be had. "Yebo" has been sidelined over the years but the 7 minute version here is thrilling. "Catwalk" is AON meets Studio 54 and it works extremely well. "Island" is luscious and dreamy. It's the sheer volume of drifting averageness between that material that completely lets the side down - and also the fact that the album sounds like the work of two competing solo LPs mashed into one package rather than a coherent whole.

In short, it's far from being outright awful, but nor is it a place anyone should start. Indisputably the last album in their catalogue people should investigate, in my opinion (and I'd actually put the "Ambient Collection" compilation ahead of this, even though that isn't a proper studio LP).

I'm writing this in rebuttal to the "worst record" claim made previously. Yes, this album is certainly *different* from previous AON records, and if you want that sort of edgy jumpy over-sampled sort of thing, you probably won't like this one. Art of Noise dialed that sort of thing back here, and added the African world-music thing, which I loved (I bought this on CD soon after initial release) and for decades my Windows sounder for "Empty Recycle Bin" is a sample I took from the song Yebo "A-Hohhmm, A-Hohhmm-Bohhmm" But I liked the mellowed edge of this record. Some say it's mostly an Anne Dudley vehicle and maybe that's true. I guess I like her melodic side, with a bit of AON edge tacked on.

Now, I've heard criticism about the "bonus track" James Bond Theme. It wasn't until fairly recently that I learned this was rejected submission for a Bond Film. I never knew that, but I've always rather loved that track. Yeah, AON had previously "weirded up" the Peter Gunn theme, but if they had done that here people would probably be bashing them for "more of the same" and so they split the difference and it works. Good job, actually.

This album is a serious contender for being the worst record created by great artists.