THE ART OF NOISE ONLINE www.theartofnoiseonline.com

LIVE AT THE END OF A CENTURY

Almost fifteen years after the last Art of Noise single Metaforce, ZTT/Salvo release the long awaited follow up, Live At The End Of A Century. It is being issued as a limited edition 12” picture disc that will be made available as part of Record Store Day 2014 in the UK via specialist independent shops.

Art of Noise were always different as well as being creatively ahead of anyone else making music during the eighties and again in the late nineties during their “image of a group” period. This record showcases that they could exist outside of a studio environment and play live to audiences with ease like any stadium filling rock band. All three live recordings from the 1999 Coachilla Festival are taken directly from the soundboard with no remixing or additional overdubs, however the mix is awful, Trevor Horn's bass playing is missing and it sounds as if someone is playing the tracks via a surround system with only the two rear speakers working as so much information is missing. If you can ignore the poor mixing for the entire fifteen minutes, forty-six seconds duration of the record, wordsmith Paul Morley presents the audience with a surreal narrative of his guide to the world of Claude Debussy and his abstract ideas with fellow band members Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn & Lol Creme providing the music.

The journey starts with a one minute version of Out Of This World, a haunting, hypnotic low key soundscape or subtle musical canvas that escorts the opening monologue towards the uplifting Born On A Sunday. With operatic vocals by Amanda Boyd, to the attacking drum & bass rhythms via the bassline of the group’s E.F.L., Born On Sunday stand out as tour de force of musical ideas and juxtapositions that in theory shouldn’t work. But this is of course Art of Noise, doing what they do best, defying traditional conventions. Through the fast pounding beats the track races furiously to the middle eight section and beyond to a newly arranged version of an old favourite, Moments In Love, one of the group’s most intriguing tracks. The arrangement included here not only draws a closure to this special release, but adds an unexpected twist towards the end of the track.

Overall the record could have been an excellent, long overdue addition to Art of Noise’s impressive discography spanning almost thirty-one years. The music on this record may not be as influential as their work during the eighties, but it is still superior to that which was being created by other artists in the late nineties, a real shame that the audio quality, or lack of lets it down. This record is catalogued as SALVOSV006 and is number 34 in Zang Tuum Tumn’s ever expanding Element series before it becomes the missing piece.

- KM Whitehouse, April 2014