The 1986 Listening Post - Art of Noise - InVisible Silence

Art of Noise - InVisible Silence

#145/1310

April 14 1986

Art of Noise

InVisible Silence

Genre: Post-Rock

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Paranoimia 

The surprise of the debut is gone. So, now they are just practitioners of a genre that they helped to define. I’m not saying that to imply it’s a bad thing. It’s just not as vital. And yet, there’s great stuff here but the weirdness seems to be for weirdness’s sake. I don’t know if this is as much a dorm room spinner as it is a club record and I didn’t feel that way about the first one. Also, while “Peter Gunn Theme” sounds awesome, much of that is because it’s just basically an awesome song to begin with, and “Camilla” is a retread of “Moments in Love” to the point where I just want to put the original on. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=837TiJqou_M&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVDbbHiFemm2-5ULALyqcZgY

The 1984 Listening Post - The Art of Noise - (Who's Afraid of) The Art of Noise

The Art of Noise - (Who's Afraid of) The Art of Noise

#157

June

Art of Noise

Whose Afraid of the Art of Noise

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

A Time for Fear (Who’s Afraid)

Beat Box (Diversion 1)

Moments in Love

Remember that video? We were all so entranced. The cutting. The style. The imagery. The little girl, the sparking tools. That was but the surface. I don’t know why or how this album came into existence but it’s so delicious in the ways that KMFDM and Swans are not. 

Is it fair to call it Industrial Pop? Friendly Noise? 

Whereas so much of that music seems to have all the joy sucked out of it in favor of kill rooms, AoN seem to be making the soundtrack for the mystery that leads to the killer’s apprehension. 

Every bit of this record would work in a 2019 television commercial. Why? Because it influenced every bit of electronica that came after. 

An extraordinary piece, I wonder what “Moments in Love” would sound lie with Bryan Ferry singing something ala “Avalon” over it. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/whos-afraid-of-the-art-of-noise-remastered/1364593455