COVER OF THE WEEK

# 19 is "Below The Waste" from Art Of Noise.
So if we're to feature one of the more original groups of the early 80s, why pick its weakest album?
Because "Cover of the week" is more about the cover than the music.

The British group Art Of Noise consisted of Anne Dudley, Gary Langan, and Paul Morley - all members of successful producer and ex-member of both Yes and
Buggles Trevor Horn's in-house studio team in the early '80s - plus J.J. Jeczalik.
Using sythesizers, studio trickery and elemental sampling tecniques, they created sounds more than songs and sounded very, very futuristic with their debut in 1983.

Going from irreverent, experimental and playful to repetative and somewhat detatched over the cause of the next eight years, Art Of Noise disbanded in 1991.
They were back together again for the 1999 one-off CD "The Seduction of Claude Debussy" adding ex-10cc members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme (see Cover of the week #13) to the lineup.

The picture on Below The Waste shows a pair of oddly designed speakers against a grey and strict background. I think the cover captures some of that familiar-but-still-strange feel that listening to the groups early music could give you.

You can hear a couple of tracks from the 1989 CD on RadioDupree this week, but the best place to start exploring the group musically is through the compilation of early singles and tracks called "Daft".

N.S.