Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 1987
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Length
16 tracks
In No Sense? Nonsense! was the third full-length album by Art of Noise, recorded in 1987 and released in September of that year. By the time of its recording, the group had been reduced to a duo, with engineer Gary Langan leaving the previous year—Langan's mix engineering duties were taken over by Bob Kraushaar and Ted Hayton for this album, but the music was produced entirely by Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik. The album saw the group expanding its sound to include rock and orchestral instrumentation, in addition to its trademark sampling.
Many of the album's tracks are seamlessly segued; ambient soundscapes blend into percussive rhythms, dramatic buildups, melodic string arrangements, and vocal choruses and chants. The sounds of various forms of transport are a recurrent theme. Musical motifs from "Dragnet," "Galleons of Stone," and "Ode to Don Jose" recur throughout the album.
Some cassette versions of this album have the same program recorded on both sides. The LP version has "Ode to Don Jose" before "A Day at the Races", whereas the CD has them in the opposite order. Some CD copies append the last minute of audio from "E.F.L." onto the end of "Ode to Don Jose".
"Ransom on the Sand" is sampled in "Melt," the fourth track of Leftfield's 1995 release Leftism.
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In No Sense? Nonsense! contains some of the Art of Noise's most compelling work. With this album, Anne Dudley and company expanded their new wave experiments to include more instrumental firepower. In addition to full rock band production (including electric guitars, drums, and synthesizers), this record makes use of brass band, orchestral, and choral music. The result is about as rich and complex as they ever got. In No Sense? Nonsense! is probably best known as the album that included their take on the theme from the '50s cop show Dragnet, used in the 1987 film version that starred Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks. That track is certainly the most accessible on the record, but it somehow seems a little too punchy for the primary ambient pop surroundings. It might fit better on a different album. This record is more notable for tracks like "How Rapid?" and "Opus for Four" that engage in fanciful genre blending. At times, the sound almost begins to anticipate later ambient dance artists like Enigma and DJ Shadow. But the Art of Noise are aptly named and consequently limited. Their artful noise collage lacks the visceral impact afforded by those later bands. In No Sense? is more often interesting than beautiful.
Track Listing
01 - "Galleons of Stone" (Jeczalik)
02 - "Dragnet" (Schumann)
03 - "Fin Du Temps" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
04 - "How Rapid?" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
05 - "Opus for Four" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
06 - "Debut" (Dudley)
07 - "E.F.L." (Dudley/Jeczalik)
08 - "A Day at the Races" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
09 - "Ode To Don Jose" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
10 - "Counterpoint" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
11 - "Roundabout 727" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
12 - "Ransom on the Sand" (Jeczalik)
13 - "Roller 1" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
14 - "Nothing Was Going to Stop Them Then, Anyway" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
15 - "Crusoe" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
16 - "One Earth" (Dudley/Jeczalik)
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