Anne Dudley, Gary Langan, and Paul Morley were members of producer
Trevor Horn's in-house studio band in the early '80s before they formed
Art of Noise, a techno-pop group whose music was an amalgam of studio
gimmickry, tape splicing, and synthesized beats. The Art of Noise took
material from a variety of sources: hip-hop, rock, jazz, R&B,
traditional pop, found sounds, and noise all worked their way into the
group's distinctly post-modern soundscapes. Dudley was the center of
the group, having arranged and produced material for Frankie Goes to
Hollywood, ABC, and Paul McCartney before forming the Art of Noise. The
trio signed with Trevor Horn's ZTT label, releasing their first EP,
Into Battle with the Art of Noise, in 1983. The following year, the
group released the full-length (Who's Afraid Of?) The Art of Noise!,
which featured the hit single "Close (To the Edit)."
After "Close (To the Edit)," the group parted ways with Horn and ZTT,
releasing In Visible Silence in 1986; the album included the U.K. Top
Ten hit "Peter Gunn," which featured Duane Eddy on guitar. Re-works of
the Art of Noise, an album of remixes and live tracks, was released
that same year. In No Sense? Nonsense!, released in 1987, saw the band
experimenting with orchestras and choirs, as well as horns and rock
bands. The next year, the Art of Noise released a greatest-hits
collection, The Best of the Art of Noise, which featured their
collaboration with Tom Jones on Prince's "Kiss."
Below the Waste (1990) captured the band experimenting with world
music; it received a lukewarm critical and commercial reception. The
following year, a low-key remix album directed by Killing Joke's Youth
called The Ambient Collection appeared. Later in the year, the Art of
Noise broke up. Dudley eventually worked with Killing Joke's Jaz
Coleman and Phil Collins. Horn and Dudley reunited in 1999 for a new
album, The Seduction of Claude Debussy.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All-Music Guide
The place for Art of Noise neophytes to start, Daft collects Who's
Afraid of the Art of Noise and Into Battle With the Art of Noise, along
with two reworkings of "Moments in Love" from the original U.K. release
of that song, to make a fantastic hour's worth of music. If anything, a
single or two aside, Daft beats out the official Best Of compilation by
a mile. Having aged superbly with time, AON's early works sound all the
more advanced and of-the-moment, a testament especially to Trevor
Horn's excellent production and Anne Dudley's gripping arrangements.
Further entertainment comes from the liner notes, which aren't merely
state-of-the-art 1984 album design but an apparently barbed attack on
the further incarnation of the band from one Otto Flake. The exact
seriousness of this is up to the reader. As for the "Moments in Love"
versions, both are gentler and elegant than the already lush original,
and none the worse for that, though "(Three Fingers Of) Love" does have
rather disconcerting sound effects added to it.
Ned Raggett, All-Music Guide
Between 1983 and 1984, the Art Of Noise was everything its moniker
suggested -- a unit that assimilated rock, jazz, hip-hop, found sounds
and noise into unique, undefined whole. During this peak, two-year
tenure on the ZTT label, AON released some of the most startling and
experimental singles in pop music history. The 16-track compilation
Daft is a snapshot of the troupe at its zenith. Containing selections
(singles and album tracks) from the crucial recordings Who's Afraid Of
The Art Of Noise, Moments In Love and Into Battle, the collection jolts
from serene and blissful ("Moments In Love") to groove-inflicted and
funky ("Beat Box") to downright demented ("The Army Now"). But each
audio diversion was a brilliant idea, effectively influencing the
direction of every genre it mimicked. Daft may represent only a small
fraction of the group's history, but it recaps the years for which the
band will be remembered.
M. Tye Comer - Feb 01, 1999 CMJ New Music Report Issue: 603