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The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste (1989) {Polydor Japan 1st Press POOP 20285}

Posted By: ruskaval
The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste (1989) {Polydor Japan 1st Press POOP 20285}

The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste (1989) {Polydor Japan 1st Press POOP 20285}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 307 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 126 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 51 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1989 Polydor K.K. / China Records | Japan 1st Press | POOP 20285
Electronic / Synth-Pop / Alternative / Experimental / Dance-Rock / World Music

Art of the Noise are one of the most groundbreaking, but least understood, bands from the 80's. Their work with ZZT is (rightfully) hailed as groundbreaking, brilliant and highly influential. However, its later albums, without Trevor Horn, are usually either ignored or condemned as hackwork. I can't share this opinion: though later albums became more focused and song-oriented ("In Visible Silence"), the songs were high quality and engaging. And the wild third album "In No Sense? Nonsense!" is on par with "Who's Afraid of the Art Of Noise?" for pure wildness and experimental cutting-edgedness, though a little less focused. It's "suite like" construction makes every listen unpredictable, if uncohesive.

And then there's this album: is this the ultimate Art of Noise "sell out" album or what? It's just too bad it didn't have their ultimate sell out single "Kiss" or it would have been a top 10 album, instead of a forgotten relic of the weird (and better than most people want to admit) 80's music scene.

The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste (1989) {Polydor Japan 1st Press POOP 20285}


The reason this album is forgotten is simple and easy to understand: it hardly feels like the Art of Noise. Where are all the "Hey!" samples? Where's the hilarious "bash" drum sound? What about the wild cut up editing and rapidly changing song structures? They've mostly evaporated and are replaced by a more mellow, almost new wave (and definitely "world beat") sound that often focuses on one melodic idea for the entire song length or on simple orchestral colors or chanting voices.

Anne Dudley solo album? Probably. But, that doesn't make it a bad album. In fact, it's actually one of the most listenable and consistently enjoyable Art of Noise albums you'll ever hear. I could probably play it for my current girlfriend without her wincing (and all my past girlfriends have HATED the Art of Noise), which is a good thing as we fight for music time as it is.

The one thing that I find somewhat uninteresting on this album is "The James Bond Theme" simply because it is played way too straight laced. Past Art of Noise covers (such as Peter Gunn, Dragnet and yes, even Kiss) tweaked the song wildly until it became an Art of Noise song. Yes, there are a few moments of tweaking done here, but the subtle (no)sense of the band slightly mocking the song (while secretly adoring it) is nearly completely absent. And that's sad, because that was a big part of what made their covers so enjoyable.

But, that's indicative of the approach of the album in general and of the band's new shift from "wild experimentalism" to a more "composition-oriented" style of writing. This differs from the song-oriented "In Visible Silence" in the ambition: the songs on "In Visible Silence" have pop song structures, for the most part, and pop-oriented melodies. The tracks on "Below the Waste" are based more on "classical-oriented" composition, which makes them harder for the average listener to enjoy. This is especially true of "Yebo!" which is seven plus minutes of a beat and chanting.

However, the band does great things with the great, layering synths, changing melodies and arrangements and subtly changing the groove across its length so it rarely gets truly boring. This is what I mean by "composition-oriented." It doesn't have the obvious and easy to understand pop structure, but it has its own unique dynamics and structure that capture the ear.

I'm not necessarily approving one approach over the other, mind you. I am, in general, a sucker for the pop song format and will defend it to the death. Instead, I'm trying to defend the style and approach of this album as valid and appropriate for the Art of Noise format. Especially when one considers "In No Sense? Nonsense!" That album had a similar lack of pop song structure and was almost defiantly composition oriented. In the case of that album, however, the composition was the entire album instead of individual tracks.

I can see why the band broke up after the disappointing commercial performance of this album. They were clearly spent and had probably changed irrevocably into a completely new kind of band. What would be the point of repeating the formula of this album into the 90's and 00's? There would be none and the band new it. And it was way, way too late to go back to the wild early days of "HEY!" and "Can I say something?" or "Beat Box (Diversion 1)." In fact, when the band tried to come back with "The Seduction of Claude Debussy" the magic had gone entirely, leaving highly questionable music and much too ambition.

So, this is a fitting, if mellow, swan song for a band that, in many ways, created the 80's and never left the 80's. How could they? Can you imagine "dum dum dum dum" in the grunge 90's or "HEY!" in rap metal 00's? Well, beyond the Prodigy sample, of course not.
The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste (1989) {Polydor Japan 1st Press POOP 20285}


The musicians were:
Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik, Luis Jardim, Simon Morton,
Frank Ricotti, Keith Beauvais, Simon Mahlathini Nkabinde,
Hilda Buthelesi, Mildred Nyembe, Nobesothu Mbadu,
West Nkosi and Ted Hayton


Mahlathini & The Mahotella Queens - vocals on "Yebo!"

The orchestra was led by John Bradbury

Produced by Anne Dudley, Ted Hayton & J.J. Jeczalik


tracklist:
01. Dan Dare (Dudley/Jeczalik)
02. Yebo! (Dudley/Jeczalik/Nkosi)
03. Catwalk (Dudley/Jeczalik/Hayton)
04. Promenade 1 (Dudley)
05. Dilemma (Jeczalik/Hayton)
06. Island (Dudley/Jeczalik)
07. Chain Gang (Jeczalik/Nkosi)
08. Promenade 2 (Dudley)
09. Back To Back (Jeczalik)
10. Flashback (Dudley)
11. Spit (Dudley/Jeczalik)
12. Robinson Crusoe (Reverberi/Mellin/Parys)
13. Bond (James Bond Theme) (Norman)
14. Finale (Dudley)

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 4. April 2015, 10:08

The Art Of Noise / Below The Waste

Used drive : ASUS DRW-20B1LT Adapter: 1 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %source%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:01.62 | 0 | 27136
2 | 6:01.62 | 7:11.43 | 27137 | 59504
3 | 13:13.30 | 5:29.20 | 59505 | 84199
4 | 18:42.50 | 0:32.67 | 84200 | 86666
5 | 19:15.42 | 3:01.10 | 86667 | 100251
6 | 22:16.52 | 5:49.05 | 100252 | 126431
7 | 28:05.57 | 3:07.45 | 126432 | 140501
8 | 31:13.27 | 0:38.18 | 140502 | 143369
9 | 31:51.45 | 3:53.00 | 143370 | 160844
10 | 35:44.45 | 1:45.22 | 160845 | 168741
11 | 37:29.67 | 3:31.43 | 168742 | 184609
12 | 41:01.35 | 3:47.05 | 184610 | 201639
13 | 44:48.40 | 5:18.70 | 201640 | 225559
14 | 50:07.35 | 2:37.67 | 225560 | 237401


Track 1

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\01 - Dan Dare.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 93.4 %
Extraction speed 4.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 46909E05
Copy CRC 46909E05
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [2B0D467A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\02 - Yebo!.wav

Peak level 98.2 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 298613B8
Copy CRC 298613B8
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [BE95E2AC] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\03 - Catwalk.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.73

Peak level 98.2 %
Extraction speed 5.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 46C2D68D
Copy CRC 46C2D68D
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [A11BBE1C] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\04 - Promenade 1.wav

Peak level 47.4 %
Extraction speed 1.4 X
Track quality 99.6 %
Test CRC 093D35EF
Copy CRC 093D35EF
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [262B103A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\05 - Dilemma.wav

Peak level 86.9 %
Extraction speed 5.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4A77DB4F
Copy CRC 4A77DB4F
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [63C87C57] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\06 - Island.wav

Peak level 98.2 %
Extraction speed 5.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FA6E9086
Copy CRC FA6E9086
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [915C1D66] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\07 - Chain Gang.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 5.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 62F683E6
Copy CRC 62F683E6
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [BB282643] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\08 - Promenade 2.wav

Peak level 75.3 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C88AB0A3
Copy CRC C88AB0A3
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [1E2F428D] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\09 - Back To Back.wav

Peak level 93.9 %
Extraction speed 6.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F3735F95
Copy CRC F3735F95
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [DD4627C3] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\10 - Flashback.wav

Peak level 82.2 %
Extraction speed 5.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EF175B34
Copy CRC EF175B34
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [343C60A8] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\11 - Spit.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 6.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC AE6AAF64
Copy CRC AE6AAF64
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [9539D0B4] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 12

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\12 - Robinson Crusoe.wav

Peak level 78.0 %
Extraction speed 5.2 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC D2CDEB90
Copy CRC D2CDEB90
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [F2CD7461] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 13

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\13 - James Bond Theme.wav

Peak level 90.3 %
Extraction speed 7.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F3B8CEC7
Copy CRC F3B8CEC7
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [AE0B571B] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 14

Filename K:\EACrips\The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste\14 - Finale.wav

Peak level 55.4 %
Extraction speed 6.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 7E3C37E4
Copy CRC 7E3C37E4
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [293C2F72] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum 8050AAA5BDB812373F482DA381C87A2B681234787DA4D6E813CE9CDEFD2F99F9 ====


The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste (1989) {Polydor Japan 1st Press POOP 20285}

The Art Of Noise - Below The Waste (1989) {Polydor Japan 1st Press POOP 20285}


All thanks goes to the original releaser!