DISQUS

Popdose: White Label Wednesday: Art of Noise, “Close (to the Edit)”

  • Malchus · 5 months ago
    I never knew that Alan White's drums were the backbone to this song! It makes sense since Horn had been a member of Yes and he co-produced "90125". I now wonder if the title of this song isn't giving a slight nod to the epic Yes number, "Close to the Edge."
  • DavidMedsker · 5 months ago
    Yep, that's exactly what the title is referencing.
  • MatthewF · 5 months ago
    I always thought that the first Art of Noise record was mostly samples from the Yes album he did.
  • DavidMedsker · 5 months ago
    Forgot to mention, the "dum" vocal that they sample here is apparently from "Leave It."
  • Simon Blackadder · 5 months ago
    Brilliant! Thanks for posting this. You echo much of what I thought when I began listening to them in '83! No one else seemed to "get" them but the breakdancers (of which I was definitely not one!).

    Thanks again,
    s!
  • Christina Viering · 5 months ago
    Interesting.
  • Christina Viering · 5 months ago
    Cool!
  • eddie_w · 5 months ago
    Always liked both this song and "Beat Box" (and "Leave It" too, by the way).

    I had to go on a hunt years ago for a CD version (to replace my old cassette) of the "blue cover" Best of album because it was out of print and the in-print one (with a pink cover) didn't include "Close (to the Edit)" like the blue cover one did. Never understood that.
  • DavidMedsker · 5 months ago
    Yeah, that blue cover version was hands down the better comp. Not sure what happened there, unless ZTT decided not to allow them to use the songs from that first album.
  • Ted · 5 months ago
    These are great! I have the first two versions, but not the other ones. So, thanks for rounding out my collection, David.
  • kingofgrief · 5 months ago
    I didn't have the last three! By coincidence, I was browsing a candy store on my lunch break today and heard this song on their satellite radio...sandwiched in between "What You Need" and "Pictures of You". The station was First Wave, natch.
  • Data · 3 months ago
    Maybe depends on who you ask, but I've heard that this was much more the work of J. J. Jeczalik and Greg Langan, than it was Trevor Horn. Everybody tends to assume that it was mostly a Horn project, because it was ZTT, and has *that* sound -- but that's no surprise, as Langan was Horn's engineer!

    Jeczalik retired from the biz in the late nineties or so. Certainly some bad blood too, though; Jeczalik and Langan at one time considered that AON had been kind of stolen from them.

    I'm pretty sure that Jeczalik is in the Close To The Edit video -- I think he's the guy in the white glasses.
  • Data · 3 months ago
    Oops, meant *Gary* Langan in that last comment!