VIDEO VAULT THURSDAY!
(because exclamation points make all the difference)

So, I’m trying to get into the habit of doing things regularly but, it requires discipline. The same principles that need to be applied to my quest to exercise and lose a little weight.

Anyway... so, I have a couple of videos I’ve already squirreled away for future VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS and this one in particular is an interesting marriage.

The band whose video it is, is The Art of Noise.

I’m not really quite sure what about the Art of Noise exactly it was that clicked with me. The cover of the Peter Gunn theme resonated at a time when I spent much of my day behind the wheel of a car – coincidentally the Peter Gunn theme was the background music for another favorite of mine, Spy Hunter.

Anyway, were not talking about the Peter Gunn theme this week, instead we’re talking about another Art of Noise tune, Paranomia:


What makes this video so special isn’t so much the video itself – rather it’s the combination of the song and who they sampled for the song.

Max Headroom, I guess looking back is very much a trite fixture of the eighties but, if you were around back then you can understand how radical the whole concept of Max Headroom was.

Max Headroom is the name of a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his surreal wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. The character was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton and performed by Matt Frewer. Max Headroom was featured in a music video program, a feature film, a dramatic television series and television commercials.

This whole period doesn’t seem that long ago even though it’s two decades past now! Thing is, we are talking about a time when home computers were the exception rather than the rule and this ‘lo-tech’ simulation of ‘hi-tech’ reallly was cutting edge.
This is the extended mix, apparently made using effects from Video Toaster. Again, it’s not overwhelming now but, at the time it was playing around and seeing what these new tools could do.

Video Vault Thursdays!

This week’s a trip into the video vault gives us a chance to check out one of my all time favorite tunes. It’s a bit unusual for its time and even for today because it doesn’t easily fit into one particular genre of music although I imagine it might be considered techno in a way. Prodigy would later go on and sample it for their hit Firestarter.

I’ve put two versions of the video up. Thing is with this particular song, there were a couple of versions of the track at the time so I’m not really sure which is the ‘official’ video. I like the first one myself and I think it’s the one.


Here’s the other:



I’m a big fan of The Art of Noise and have been for a long time. They were way ahead of their time in the use of sampling that has become so prevalent in music today (possibly a bad thing?).

the Art of Noise was initially packaged as a faceless anti- or non-group, blurring the distinction between the art and its creators. The band is noted for their innovative use of electronics and computers in pop music and particularly for innovative use of sampling. The name of the group alludes to the essay The Art of Noises by noted futurist Luigi Russolo.

However, my sense is that since they were originators (or early adoptees) of the technique, they had a better sense of how to use it.