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ART OF NOISE
The Seduction of Claude Debussy (ZTT Records)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
The first new work in years from Art Of Noise brings together Trevor Horn and Lol Creme for an ambitious modernization of music by the 19th century French composer Claude Debussey, credited by many as the father of modern music. A longtime dream of Trevor Horn who also produced, the album took 3 years to record. It's beautifully layered and deep and maybe a little too ambitiously modern in spots, but this is an important piece of work nonetheless.
Seduction starts out great. The opening track, Il Pleur (It's Raining), features deeply resonant narration by... Richard Burton!? No. You'd swear it's him, but actually it's John Hurt who describes the circumstances of Debussey's death--in Paris, raining and under German bombardment--which the music goes on to portray beautifully in piano trills for rain, occasional synthesizer thuds for the shelling and mournful French lyrics sung by Sally Bradshaw and Fiona Copeland. The track truly is seductive and the next couple cuts rival its beauty with similar arrangements.
A lot of drum and bass music "starts out great but goes nowhere," says Horn. Art Of Noise doesn't make that mistake, but as you go deeper into the album, their drum programming does get a little to frantic for the subject matter I think. Later, in Rapt In The Evening and again in Metaforce, rap lyrics by Rakim start to annoy me. Thankfully the album returns to John Hurt's narration for The Holy Egoism Of Genius, where he's aided by more strings and a jazzier bass line, then a couple cuts later Rakim is back with an even more aggressive rap in Metaphor On The Floor. (And that's a disco's floor, not a car's 4-on-the-floor, by the way. Somehow I think these English guys made the pun inadvertently.) Anyway Rakim's rapid fire rapping of lines like "Make me ever dynamic in the evening air," talking about Beaudelaire (I'm sure he's read Beaudelaire aren't you?) and making sure to mention Art Of Noise by name in his lyrics, well, for me it just goes way over the top. Alors! Debussey roulant tres vite dans son grave, ne c'est pas?
They should have saved Metaphor for a club only release; it's terribly out of place here. Approximate Mood Swing Number 2 follows, again returning the album to the earlier feel and then John Hurt returns briefly before a lovely minimalist instrumental that closes out the album.
Classical music fans will probably sneer at this work, just as they did 25 years ago composer Isao Tomita made another electronic update of Debussey, Snowflakes Are Dancing. It still ranks alongside Wendy Carlos's Switched On Bach as one of the best pure electronic music albums of all time. The Seduction of Claude Debussey is far from pure electronic music but it does come close to Snowflake's stature. Too bad I feel like programming out a couple cuts when I listen to it; other than those, it's truly fantastic music.
© 1999 - Rusty Pipes