ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

THE ART OF NOISE
The Art Of Noise Drum And Bass Collection

CHINA

When The Art Of Noise were invented in 1983, their sampladelic crunchbeat was so, like, out there that America thought they must have been a bunch of black teenagers instead of some middle-aged honky studio hermits, as was the case.

Thirteen years on, AONs contribution to hip hop, ambient and techno — both as inspiration and as ready-to-go sample library — is so fundamental that its hard to begrudge them a slice of the drum n bass pie.

After an Orb-administered ambient remix album and a techno makeover from the likes of Graham Massey and the Prodge, this third mixathon leaves little remaining of the original tracks. But then its no bad thing when ‘Kiss and ‘Peter Gunn are unrecognisable. Doc Scott gives ‘Something Always Happens a tekstep sheen, Lemon D menaces ‘Eye Of The Needle effectively and PFMs ‘Opus For 4' is just lovely. The drawback is that only the post-ZTT Art Of Noise tracks are available, so theres no Photek take on ‘Moments In Love, or T-Power doing ‘Beatbox. Pity.

☆☆☆

Sound bite: “Whos afraid of the drum and bass?”