INTO BATTLE WITH THE ART OF NOISE

VANGUARD
THE ART OF NOISE: Into Battle (Zang Tuum Tumb Incidental Series 12") The Trevor Horn putsch on pop enters its final decisive phase. I used to hold Horn responsible for everything that went wrong, only now I realise I was complimenting him all the time. The Art Of Noise wrestles his past successes into a better perspective. Here is an impish architect of sound, a splendid deviationist who achieved the impossible of making pearls from pigs ears – Dollar and ABC – and then took the germ of McLaren’s ideas and blew it up into a grand larceny to match our germinator’s designs.
   Horn’s newest mission, masterminded by a mysterious M, is to absolutely and finally prove that everything is possible, that nothing need fall outside the popular imagination. Where others limit themselves to music’s sliding scale of references, The Art Of Noise drops commandos behind enemy lines in time to raid the 20th century for raw material and rediscover joy in what was too readily conceded to evil – namely, the will of action.
   Words, first over-and now devalued, are no longer enough. When they’re breathing during The Art Of Noise’s 25 minutes it’s only as simple codes – ‘The Army Now’, ‘Moments In Love’, ‘Battle’ – as keys to Pandora’s ‘Beat Box’ of horrors and delights, the likes of which those of you who work solely through dancehall ciphers have yet to discover. Namely there are ways to move outside BPM. The Art Of Noise makes them clear, wherein lies the advantage of a sound architect like Horn, who is capable of organising the most momentous of shapes into massive yet agile percussion figures.
   Don’t take fright, it’s not all the angular clatter of battle; ‘Moments In Love’ is a gorgeously orchestrated latter day ‘Je T’Aime’ whose mechanical sensuality is tempered with the thumping fall of a piledriver rhythm as befits the times.
   The Art Of Noise is to remain unfettered. Only then is it possible to restore Noise to Art.

 
 
Chris Bohan, New Musical Express, 24th September 1983
 
 
 
ART OF NOISE 'Into Battle' (Zang Tumb Tuum) A crashing electro beat number that sounds like cars crashing into each other to the rhythm of a metronome. Lot’s of mixing McLaren style, but with non of his verve and with. Instead, it just reeks of hipper than thou pomposity. The label’s been set.
 
 
 
?, 8th October 1983?
 
 
 
THE HIT
THE ART OF NOISE: ‘Into Battle With The Art Of Noise’ (ZTT)
   Without doubt, in a week when there were hundreds of dreadfully diverse, dull and tedious singles released, this is the only one that I would have bought. The Art Of Noise probably don’t exist as a marketable group, as most would like to imagine, but purely in the minds of ZTT mentors Trevor Horn and ex-NME scribbler Paul Morley, but who cares?
   This colossal 12 inch, which seems to last an eternity, is a magnificent collection of noise, sound, speech, anything you can imagine in fact, which has been pilfered, in part, from cther records. Not ripped off, merely borrowed and reworked into the structure of something new, that should be NEW.
   Horn and Morley have become junk merchants, taking their fave bits and rearranging them over powerful thumping rhythms thus creating a medium that will undoubtedly be bastardised for months, perhaps years to come. They weren’t the first by any means; several lesser known individuals who I could list but you’d never had heard of, have been doing it for years, maybe you’ve even done it yourself. But this exercise in reconstruction has been carried out with the finest of studio effects, probably the finest equipment and a feel for the pieces of this particular puzzle.
   Like a Frankenstein monster the whole pounding cacophony is an endearing fantasy that pulls you in from the word go. At times there seems no logical reason for the next step but it most certainly fits. The art of mixing, scratching etc is all performed before the record even hits your turntable. It’s versatile too as side two amply shows when the mood suddenly relaxes only to be eventually broken free by the most compulsive music that’s been released commercially for many a year.
   With a debut disc like this, ZTT should be eagerly watched and encouraged.
 
 
 
Dave Henderson, Sounds, 8th October 1983
 
 
 
THE ART OF NOISE
Beat Box (ZTT)
   Not so much a band, more a concept, The Art Of Noise are just what their name implies. They experiment with sound, using electronics and insistent rhythms to great effect.
   Not as obscure as it sounds, it’s sort of electroscratch meets New Order, but the result is occasionally more weird than wonderful.
   Intriguing stuff.
 
 
Karen Swayne, No.1, 8th October 1983
 
 
 
THE ART OF NOISE: ‘Into Battle With The Art Of Noise’ (ZTT ZTIS 100, via Island) An extremely odd 12in collection of different electronic rhythms and textures, all very experimental but pretty well essential for any truly serious scratch mixers, the long 108bpm ‘Beat Box’ segment being best as a background while most of side 2 is the really lovely 34¼/68½bpm ‘Movements In Love/Flesh In Armour’ smoother, worth trying in its own right.

 
 
James Hamilton, Record Mirror, 5th November 1983
 
 
 
DANCE TRAX
✩ ✩ ✩
Singles: “(Hey You) The Rocksteady Crew“ has been released here on Atlantic after having hit several European pop charts and enjoyed wide import play in U.S. clubs. It is one of the most commercial rap-fusion records yet produced… Art Of Noise’s “Beat Box,” also a popular import (on ZTT/Island U.K.), achieves an opposite effect: it’s heavy-duty offbeat beat material with strange synthesizer and voice coloration in three distinct, heavily-edited segments. The flip, “Moments In Love,” surprisingly, is a long ballad-like piece which segues into a violent industrial-scratch passage late in the cut. No U.S. release was scheduled at this writing.
 
 
Brian Chin, Billboard, 3rd December 1983
 
 
 
ART OF NOISE  —   Island/Atco 0-96974  —   Producers: Art Of Noise —   List: 6.98
   The 12-incher “Beat Box” is already on its way to becoming a minor dance-floor classic; here then, now, are more tracks via this 45 rpm EP. Multi-mood synth instrumentals with varying beats and synth vocals with varying lyrical intent abound here. Dancing comes easy enough but dissection of mood and message demand one stop and listen much closer. Art Of Noise is as scary as a walk in space or as spirituaily uplifting as the Renaissance painting on the cover. Very challenging material very well produced which demands and deserves to be very well received.

 
 
Cash Box, 25th February 1984
 
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