J.J. Jeczalik speaks!
January 11, 2023 9:54 PM Subscribe
The collective that contains Art Of Noise have been trying to be more visible recently. Mystery man computer programmer J.J. Jeczalik has popped up in several podcasts recently: From June 2022, SOS pocast [55m], Dec 2022, Synthetic Dreams podcast [44m], Pro Synth Network LIVE! [2h25m, interview begins at around 40m15s] , and Electronic Cafe with a two part interview that totals ~90m
Two bonus tracks: DJ Food had been hired twice by AON to rework their material into a show-introducing musical set. There are Blessed Are The Noisemakers: Before Behind and Beyond Art Of Noise [1h35], and Blessed Are The Noisemakers (Diversion 2) [1h35m].
Two bonus tracks: DJ Food had been hired twice by AON to rework their material into a show-introducing musical set. There are Blessed Are The Noisemakers: Before Behind and Beyond Art Of Noise [1h35], and Blessed Are The Noisemakers (Diversion 2) [1h35m].
Zang Tuum Tumb!
posted by chavenet at 1:41 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 1:41 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Neat! I haven't thought about AON in years. I don't love everything they've done, but it is always interesting. Looking forward to hearing these.
posted by eotvos at 3:53 AM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by eotvos at 3:53 AM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
"I don't love everything they've done, but it is always interesting."
Same. I think this is, in part, because the lineup has changed a lot but kept the name. Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise is one of my favorites, and I think Trevor Horn's influence had a lot to do with that. According to Wikipedia there were some acrimonious splits and then reformations, which means the output is a bit uneven. Not bad but definitely very different.
Not unique to AON, of course. See also Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, etc. There should be a truth in advertising clause when a band's membership changes substantially.
posted by jzb at 8:52 AM on January 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Same. I think this is, in part, because the lineup has changed a lot but kept the name. Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise is one of my favorites, and I think Trevor Horn's influence had a lot to do with that. According to Wikipedia there were some acrimonious splits and then reformations, which means the output is a bit uneven. Not bad but definitely very different.
Not unique to AON, of course. See also Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, etc. There should be a truth in advertising clause when a band's membership changes substantially.
posted by jzb at 8:52 AM on January 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm only familiar with the one album I have: 1988's Best of the Art of Noise. No idea how I discovered it but I've listened to it one million times.
posted by neuron at 8:58 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by neuron at 8:58 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Art of Noise are an indelible mark upon my musical exploration.
Only linking to this because of it's cultural nexus
Paranoimia
posted by djseafood at 9:10 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Only linking to this because of it's cultural nexus
Paranoimia
posted by djseafood at 9:10 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I loved Max Headroom when I was a kid and one day I was at the Oshawa Centre with my parents, where the Zellers (proto-Wal-Mart, Canadian edition) for whatever reason sold records, and I saw Max Headroom on this single and bought it.
My parents only listened to the CBC (NPR/BBC One, roughly -- all talk, music was only classical or jazz) from dawn til dusk. I'd sometimes catch snatches of music at friends' houses or on the radio at restaurants or in cars. My solo musical purchases to date had been cassettes of Phil Collins' No Jacket Required, Huey Lewis and the News' Sports, and a K-Tel compilation called Heart of Rock because it had "99 Red Balloons" on it.
I brought it home, opened up my parents' turntable -- which had only previously been graced by the Limeliters and the Kingston Trio -- and put on this track.
And my 13-year-old brain
fucking
melted.
I didn't really know what synthesizers were, or sampling. And now there was Max Headroom and he was talking but it didn't make a lot of sense but it was also kind of funny and there is something that is kind of music but also sounds? And it had like a danceable groove but it was also really strange and the title itself didn't make any sense and what is happening?!?
And I wanted more of it. I wanted all of it. I wanted my brain to be pushed in these weird directions.
That day, and that single, changed my entire life: I started going to real record shops for the first time, to buy every Art of Noise album I could find at first, but then transitioning quickly to Skinny Puppy, then Ministry, and then spending my late teens and 20s immersed in industrial music (while still making time for TMBG and Crowded House).
The Art of Noise changed my entire life. I still think they were decades ahead of their time, and you can flip back to "Who's Afraid?" and see a rough map of an entire genre of music yet to come.
I've been weirdly uncurious about them in my 30s and 40s, possibly because I'm subconsciously terrified of diminishing returns or that they've milkshake ducked. The last go-round with AoN for me was the Seduction of Claude Debussy, which was... a good note to exit and not check up on them again on, I guess.
Super curious about these interviews, though. Anxious, but interested. Thanks for sharing this.
posted by Shepherd at 9:26 AM on January 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
My parents only listened to the CBC (NPR/BBC One, roughly -- all talk, music was only classical or jazz) from dawn til dusk. I'd sometimes catch snatches of music at friends' houses or on the radio at restaurants or in cars. My solo musical purchases to date had been cassettes of Phil Collins' No Jacket Required, Huey Lewis and the News' Sports, and a K-Tel compilation called Heart of Rock because it had "99 Red Balloons" on it.
I brought it home, opened up my parents' turntable -- which had only previously been graced by the Limeliters and the Kingston Trio -- and put on this track.
And my 13-year-old brain
fucking
melted.
I didn't really know what synthesizers were, or sampling. And now there was Max Headroom and he was talking but it didn't make a lot of sense but it was also kind of funny and there is something that is kind of music but also sounds? And it had like a danceable groove but it was also really strange and the title itself didn't make any sense and what is happening?!?
And I wanted more of it. I wanted all of it. I wanted my brain to be pushed in these weird directions.
That day, and that single, changed my entire life: I started going to real record shops for the first time, to buy every Art of Noise album I could find at first, but then transitioning quickly to Skinny Puppy, then Ministry, and then spending my late teens and 20s immersed in industrial music (while still making time for TMBG and Crowded House).
The Art of Noise changed my entire life. I still think they were decades ahead of their time, and you can flip back to "Who's Afraid?" and see a rough map of an entire genre of music yet to come.
I've been weirdly uncurious about them in my 30s and 40s, possibly because I'm subconsciously terrified of diminishing returns or that they've milkshake ducked. The last go-round with AoN for me was the Seduction of Claude Debussy, which was... a good note to exit and not check up on them again on, I guess.
Super curious about these interviews, though. Anxious, but interested. Thanks for sharing this.
posted by Shepherd at 9:26 AM on January 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
Their first post-Trevor Horn album, In Visible Silence, is their best, IMHO.
posted by vibrotronica at 9:37 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by vibrotronica at 9:37 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
As the Electric Cafe interview makes clear, Jeczalik basically was the early 80s Fairlight sound.
Whereas most of his clients wanted to tuck the Fairlight artfully away among the proper instruments, Moments In Love and Close (To the Edit) presented it, if not unadorned, then certainly in your face.
One thing I think is interesting about the Art of Noise (essentially the ZTT house band) is that it combined Anne Dudley (who is fully trained-up classical arranger, starting with Horn arranging the orchestral parts for Lexicon of Love) and Jeczalik, who's basically not a musician at all with Gary Langan to mediate as engineer. And Paul Morley, of course.
posted by Grangousier at 11:05 AM on January 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Whereas most of his clients wanted to tuck the Fairlight artfully away among the proper instruments, Moments In Love and Close (To the Edit) presented it, if not unadorned, then certainly in your face.
One thing I think is interesting about the Art of Noise (essentially the ZTT house band) is that it combined Anne Dudley (who is fully trained-up classical arranger, starting with Horn arranging the orchestral parts for Lexicon of Love) and Jeczalik, who's basically not a musician at all with Gary Langan to mediate as engineer. And Paul Morley, of course.
posted by Grangousier at 11:05 AM on January 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I was quite fond of the album he did in the nineties as Art of Silence (with the now rather quaint title of artofsilence.co.uk).
Here's 4:34 am.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:51 AM on January 12, 2023
Here's 4:34 am.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:51 AM on January 12, 2023
Shepherd > And my 13-year-old brain
fucking
melted.
Yeah, pretty much. I think the Noise was the gateway into electronic music for a lot of people. It's hard to emphasize how different this stuff sounded to everything else out there; it was weird and angular and broke rules you didn't even know existed. It was as much of a middle finger to existing conventions as rock and roll was. And either you hated it, or you needed more.
posted by egypturnash at 2:19 PM on January 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
fucking
melted.
Yeah, pretty much. I think the Noise was the gateway into electronic music for a lot of people. It's hard to emphasize how different this stuff sounded to everything else out there; it was weird and angular and broke rules you didn't even know existed. It was as much of a middle finger to existing conventions as rock and roll was. And either you hated it, or you needed more.
posted by egypturnash at 2:19 PM on January 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I had no idea at the time how crucial Anne Dudley was to their sound but as I got older and learned more about her, I was really glad this formative part of my musical education was not All Dudes. I've been glad to see their various components in motion for a while and am delighted to see this post.
Gonna go listen to my old Art of Noise CDs now.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 2:24 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Gonna go listen to my old Art of Noise CDs now.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 2:24 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Gary Langan - the reverb-meister - defined the sound of AoN. Without heavy reverb, the early Fairlights sound truly terrible. And Gary is extraordinarily good at reverb work.
Let us also not forget that the daring off-beat timing of Alan White's drum sample on Beatbox was not due to advanced rhythmic awareness on AoN's part. No, it was all down to JJ's self-admitted complete lack of rhythm and lucky (bad) timing cuing up the Pro Walkman of Alan's playing with just the right amount of wrong to fit in the Fairlight's two second sample buffer.
Anne Dudley remains completely amazing. Her acoustic AoN reinterpretation album on prepared piano a few years ago is glorious.
posted by scruss at 7:38 PM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Let us also not forget that the daring off-beat timing of Alan White's drum sample on Beatbox was not due to advanced rhythmic awareness on AoN's part. No, it was all down to JJ's self-admitted complete lack of rhythm and lucky (bad) timing cuing up the Pro Walkman of Alan's playing with just the right amount of wrong to fit in the Fairlight's two second sample buffer.
Anne Dudley remains completely amazing. Her acoustic AoN reinterpretation album on prepared piano a few years ago is glorious.
posted by scruss at 7:38 PM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
“ Her acoustic AoN reinterpretation album”
OMG. Somehow I missed this entirely. Thank you. Listening now, it’s glorious.
posted by jzb at 1:19 PM on January 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
OMG. Somehow I missed this entirely. Thank you. Listening now, it’s glorious.
posted by jzb at 1:19 PM on January 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
You're welcome, jzb. If the last (hidden, ish) track doesn't make you tear up a bit, I don't know what would
posted by scruss at 12:44 PM on January 15, 2023
posted by scruss at 12:44 PM on January 15, 2023
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