(Who’s Afraid Of) The Art Of Noise
Having borrowed their name from writings of the Italian futurists of the early 20th century, Art Of Noise (AON) were founded by electronics specialists and musicians J. J. Jeczalik and Gary Langan, composer Anne Dudley (by now an Academy Award winner), publicist Paul Morley and producer Trevor Horn, the latter being behind songs like „Video Killed The Radio Star“ and giving life to most of the big 80s bands. While all five were initially listed as members (though they never showed their faced in the band context) Horn was only producing while Morley provided the obscure image of a non-band. The other three made the music, which was nothing that had been heard before. Using mostly samples (digital sampling technology was pretty new back in the new born eighties), they turned engineer sounds and slamming car doors into heavily stomping beats. Among the mind blowing creations of their first album were such as „Beat Box“, „Close (to the edit)“ and „Moments in Love“. Even their work after they left the non-musician baggage remains unchallenged as pioneering, having influenced electronic music for ages and thrives being sampled by many artists, most prominent were The Prodigy.