Higher bitrates here

Art of Noise were definite pioneers. If you are just looking for individual tracks, the files here on "Daft" are encoded at a higher bitrate (i.e. sound better and louder) than the same tracks on "Whose afraid of . . .". And all 3 versions of "Moments in Love" are worth it in my book. Classic classic track!

Attention Neophytes

This really isn't my type of music. I guess I like more 'pop' in my 'techno'. But I would like to point out that 'Beat Box' is absolutely BRILLIANT! 'Moments In Love' and 'Close To The Edit' are also highly listenable. If you are looking for AON's "hits", be sure to grab these three.

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This is the entire album "Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise", plus some extra mixes of "Moments in Love" and some slightly more rudimentary (interestingly so) work from the "Into Battle" EP. I got into Art of Noise at the same time as early 90s industrial music. The found sound approach is charmingly ham-fisted (it *is* sample-based music about sampling), and often yields creative results.

The place for Art of Noise neophytes to start, Daft collects (Who’s Afraid Of?) The Art of Noise! and Into Battle with the Art of Noise, along with two reworkings of “Moments in Love” from the original U.K. release of that song, to make a fantastic hour’s worth of music. If anything, a single or two aside, Daft beats out the official Best Of compilation by a mile. Having aged superbly with time, AON’s early works sound all the more advanced and of the moment, a testament especially to Trevor Horn’s excellent production and Anne Dudley’s gripping arrangements. Further entertainment comes from the liner notes, which aren’t merely state-of-the-art 1984 album design but an apparently barbed attack on the further incarnation of the band from one Otto Flake. The exact seriousness of this is up to the reader. As for the “Moments in Love” versions, both are gentler and more elegant than the already lush original, and none the worse for that, though “(Three Fingers Of) Love” does have rather disconcerting sound effects added to it. – Ned Raggett