The Art of Noise Remixes – Moments in Love and Close to The Edit

The Art of Noise have always been a band I have loved since the first time I heard “Close to the Edit” back in 1984 aged 13. Well apart from the Prince thing with Tom Jones which is terrible. I played the debut LP “Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise” to death at the time and have two copies on vinyl with different cover art and track listings.

I was intrigued by the mix of samples, news clips and melodies. It was unlike anything else I had ever heard at the time and in reality it was ground breaking in its use of the Fairlight Sampler, cut and paste techniques and Paul Morley’s situationist/futurist adverts, texts and graphics. A whole new world to get lost inside. Head spinning stuff for a young lad used to listening to Paul Young records.

I have seen it quoted fairly frequently that they are the most sampled act of all time, I personally would have thought it would be James Brown, but much like the “fact” that Blue Monday by New Order is the biggest selling 12” single of all time it’s impossible to really know.

What is clear is that the band were a big influence of electronic music, the evolution of the use of the sample and hip-hop generally. The bands tracks have been remixed and reworked in multiple formats and oddly they whole project started after a remix of the Yes Track “Owner of Lonely Heart” by two recording engineers Gary Langan and JJ Jeczalik. The Red and Blue mix of track used a number of samples of Yes that would be reused on the tracks produced by The Art of Noise.



Of the remixes of the bands tracks (official and unofficial) I love the following reworking of Moments in Love.




The Rhythm Scholar mix of Close to Edit is also great, great Paul Morley sample and I can even live with the Tom Jones vocal clip!