Echoes Podcast: Maps Counter Electronic Melodies and The Art of Noise 40th Anniversary.

The Echoes Podcast features two electronic artists, one from the future past and one from the present future, with James Chapman of Maps and The Art of Noise, celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise! released in June, 1984.

The artist known as MAPS has been making exquisitely crafted dreampop music for most of this century. MAPS is James Chapman and we heard from him recently regarding his production of Emma Anderson’s Pearlies album. While many artists went introspective during pandemic lockdown, James Chapman decided to synthesize joy on the all-instrumental electronic album, Counter Melodies.

James Chapman:  I actually started working on those tracks during the first lockdown, so kind of 2020 and obviously it was a really depressing time. And I think I wanted to do something really uplifting and upbeat, just as a kind of antidote, really.

We talk to James Chapman about Counter Melodies and more in the Echoes Podcast.

Hear James Chapman in our Emma Anderson feature.

In June of 1984 an album came out that seemed to turn music on its head. It was by a fairly anonymous trio called The Art of Noise. That name came from the 1918 Futurist Manifesto by Luigi Russolo, “The Art of Noises.”  They were among the first to employ the Fairlight CMI synthesizer which also included one of the first samplers and that last invention is what created their sound. Programmer J. J. Jeczalik, engineer Gary Langan and keyboard player and arranger Anne Dudley were part of Trevor Horn’s production team.  They were responsible for the sound design on albums by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC, Malcom McLaren and most presciently, the song “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes. Joined by Horn and Paul Morley, in June of 1984 they released their debut album, Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise.

They created an audio riot of sound. Licks stolen from records, noises in the environment, technology and car engines were all part of their sound, using these noises as music.  It was an update of musique concrete of the 1940s and 50s and composers like Pierre Henry and Piere Schaefer. They just married them to funky dance beats.  Ironically, a band that codified the initial concepts of sampling, were themselves sampled many times. Their prettiest song, “Moments in Love” turns up in movies and TV and is still being sampled by the likes of Charlie XCX, J Dilla and Drake.  Other tracks like “Beat Box” and “Close (to the Edit)” were sampled by Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy and many more.

I didn’t want to leave 2024 without celebrating this release so we played a suite of their music on Echoes, but for the podcast, I’m digging back to a segment of the radio series Totally Wired and a 1988 segment on the group where I talked with Anne Dudley and JJ. Jeczalik, who, as you’ll hear in this feature, gave me an odd pronunciation of his name.