[Hey! Yeh Dum! Dum! Tra La La!] -- The 1980s saw synthpop and electronic music rapidly benefitting from advances in audio technology. Interestingly, the new devices that became available to record production engineers often afforded those same engineers the opportunity to transition from supporting the artists to becoming artists themselves. Yes, many studio wizards started out as session musicians, but the fact remains that it is only a small pool of studio regulars who have had chart success with their own bands.
Take, for example, the Fairlight CMI, a workstation that hit the market in 1979, and its various versions were workhorses up into the 1990s.
Trevor Horn (The Buggles, Yes) was among the first to purchase the Fairlight sampler, and his production team started using it in 1983 to sample drum riffs as well as other parts of previously recorded songs (or bits that had been discarded when recording other songs) and even non-musical sounds. Upon hearing the resultant track, Horn got his arranger involved and a long-term side project was born: The Art of Noise. Now, The Art of Noise did not pioneer the use of samples in rock music. But up to this point, the most anyone had done was use samples as a gimmick or to adorn a song. No one had yet crafted an entire song – let alone an album – from samples.
That remained the case until 1984.
On June 19, 1984, forty years ago this week, The Art of Noise released their debut album, Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise? It had a top ten hit in the UK with "Close (To the Edit)." The other two singles – "Moments in Love" and "Beat Box" – also charted in the UK, but not nearly as well as "Close (To the Edit)." The title for "Close (To the Edit)" was lifted from the title track of Close to the Edge, a 1972 album by Yes. "Close (To the Edit)" even samples "Leave It" from the 1983 Yes album, 90125. Also featured in the song are samples from a car, a spoken-word vocal performance, and Camilla Pilkington-Smyth shouting, "Hey!" The staccato beats, strange vocals, and quick cuts of the song were mirrored in the shooting style of the original music video. This video features a little girl, dressed in punk rock attire, leading three men around a junk yard as they destroy several musical instruments. I must admit that while I love this song, I initially found the video somewhat disturbing back in 1984. I wonder if I'm the only one who had that reaction.
Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise? peaked at #27 on the UK Albums chart, and it reached #85 and #22 on the US Billboard 200 and US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts respectively. I guess record buyers weren't too afraid of The Art of Noise.
Flashback: Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise? (June 19, 1984)
And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
I'll see you in seven!
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