''Below the Waste'' is Art of Noise's fourth full-length original album and their last album for

China Records China Records was a record label founded 1 October 1984 by Derek Green. Its top-selling artists were Art of Noise, Morcheeba and the Levellers. In 1986 and 1987, China Records releases were manufactured and marketed worldwide by Chrysalis R ...

before

Anne Dudley Anne Jennifer Dudley (née Beckingham; born 7 May 1956) is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genr ...

re-formed the group with

ZTT ZTT Records is a British record label founded in 1983 by record producer Trevor Horn, Horn's wife and businesswoman Jill Sinclair, and ''NME, New Musical Express'' (NME) journalist Paul Morley. The label's name was also stylised as ZANG TUMB TUUM ...

Trevor Horn Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best known for his production work in the 1980s, and for being one half of the new wave band The Buggles (wit ...

and

Paul Morley Paul Robert Morley is an English music journalist. He wrote for the ''New Musical Express'' from 1977 to 1983 and has since written for a wide range of publications as well as writing his own books. He was a co-founder of the record label ZTT Re ...

for 1999's '' The Seduction of Claude Debussy''. The album saw the group experimenting with world music, collaborating with South African Zulu group

Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens (also known as Mahlathini Nezintombi Zomgqashiyo and Mahlathini and the Girls of Mgqashiyo) were a South African ''mbaqanga'' Supergroup (music), supergroup made up of the three musical acts linked together by ...

, who provide a heavy layer of mostly non-English-language vocals on three tracks ("Yebo!", "Chain Gang" and "Spit"). The album was produced by Anne Dudley, Ted Hayton and J.J. Jeczalik. The album represents the diverging interests of the two remaining members of the original group,

and J.J. Jeczalik. Dudley's influence is evident in the album's ambient interludes of melodic,

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

pieces, while Jeczalik's influence can be heard in the album's dub tracks and harder, rock-edged pieces. The latter songs also feature arrangements more typical of the band's earlier material, utilising sampling techniques, lengthy fade-outs, a diverse mixture of classical instruments, guitar riffs and percussion typical of industrial music. Like its predecessor, '' In No Sense? Nonsense!'', the album also features cover versions of previously recorded themes composed for television and film, namely "

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...

" (originally the theme to the 1964 television programme ''

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' ( es, Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe; also released as ''Adventures of Robinson Crusoe'') is a 1954 adventure film directed by Luis Buñuel, based on the 1719 novel of the same name by Daniel Defoe. It stars Dan O'Herlihy as ...

'') and "

James Bond Theme The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme music of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since '' Dr. No'', released in 1962. Composed by Monty Norman (with arrangements for film provided by John Bar ...

" which was submitted for the soundtrack of the 1989

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film ''

Licence to Kill ''Licence to Kill'' is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond. It sees Bond suspended from MI6 as he pursues t ...

'' and subsequently rejected by the film's producers.. The "Emphasis Speakers" on the album cover were designed by Morten Villiers Warren for B&W. The orchestra was led by John Bradbury. Although the album was praised for its collaboration with Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, the reviews for the album were mostly negative, with

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

music reviewer Dean Carlson calling the album a "misfire" and compared it to "world mall-music".

Track listing

# "Dan Dare" (Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik) – 6:01 # "Yebo!" (Dudley, Jeczalik,

West Nkosi West Nkosi (born Mkhubatseli West Nkosi, 1940 – 8 October 1998) was a South African music producer, saxophonist and songwriter. Nkosi was born in Nelspruit, South Africa. He was an original member of the Makgona Tsohle Band which backed Mahla ...

) – 7:11 # "Catwalk" (Dudley, Jeczalik, Ted Hayton) – 5:29 # "Promenade 1" (Dudley) – 0:32 # "Dilemma" (Jeczalik, Hayton) – 3:00 # "Island" (Dudley, Jeczalik) – 5:49 # "Chain Gang" (Jeczalik, Nkosi) – 3:07 # "Promenade 2" (Dudley) – 0:38 # "Back to Back" (Jeczalik) – 3:53 # "Flashback" (Dudley) – 1:45 # "Spit" (Dudley, Jeczalik) – 3:31 # "Robinson Crusoe" (Gian Piero Reverberi,

Robert Mellin Israel Melnikoff (September 22, 1902 – July 10, 1994), known professionally as Robert Mellin, was a Russian Empire-born American composer and lyricist and music publisher. Born in Kyiv and raised in Chicago, where his first job was music plug ...

, Georges Van Parys) – 3:47 # "

" (

Monty Norman Monty Norman (''né'' Noserovitch; 4 April 1928 – 11 July 2022) was a British composer, musician and singer. A contributor to West End musicals in the 1950s and 1960s, he is best known for composing the " James Bond Theme", first heard in t ...

) – 5:18 # "Finale" (Dudley) – 2:38 LP releases exclude tracks 12 and 13; initial US CD and cassette releases categorize these songs as bonus tracks.

Personnel

*Anne Dudley,

Frank Ricotti Frank Ricotti (born 31 January 1949) is an English jazz vibraphonist and percussionist. Early life and education Ricotti was born in London, England. His father was a drummer. Bill Ashton, founder of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NY ...

, Hilda Tloubatla, J.J. Jeczalik, Keith Beauvais,

Luis Jardim Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, Mildred Mangxola, Nobesuthu Mbadu, Simon Mahlathini Nkabinde, Simon Morton, Ted Hayton, West Nkosi *

– vocals on "Yebo!", "Chain Gang" and "Spit" *John Bradbury – orchestra leader

External links

* *

References

Art of Noise albums 1989 albums China Records albums Polydor Records albums Albums recorded at AIR Studios {{1980s-electronic-album-stub