Escape from Noise [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

Negativland

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 30, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1987
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Seeland Records
• ASIN: B00003L9DS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #207,480 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Reissue of 1987 classic from the masters of audio media manipulation. Their best selling release ever, it includes such Negativland anthems as 'Christianity Is Stupd', 'Car Bombs', 'Time Zones' and others on this silver platter. 18 tracks total. 1999 release.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pranksters!, January 18, 2002

By	Evan A Genest (Hsinchu Taiwan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

You may or may not laugh at a man with a bullhorn, advising you that ¡§Communism Is Good! Communism is good!¡¨. I laughed pretty hard.

The jokes here are subtle and sort of accidental, relying on surprising edits and strange juxtapositionings. Negativland takes found sound and splices it together. The result is not exactly pure bliss. I would say this album is, by turns, tedious, surprising, amusing, confusing, senseless, coherent, and clever.

A child sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow but with the hiccups. A punk folksinger plays a song with a one word, charmless chorus ¡§CARBOMB!¡¨ screamed at the top of his lungs. A cold-war era segment of a call in radio show gets paranoid about Russia, pointing out that it has 13 time zones. A very slick voice over introduces a song which has been perfectly engineered to be a hit, pre-formulated for instant success across a wide range of demographics (and what a song it is!). There's a commercial for a beautiful suburb you can move to that's full of sycamores and...handguns.

I wish I could know where the sounds come from. They record random broadcasts from CB, AM and short wave for starters but there are also home recordings from what seem to be strangers. Do they buy these at garage sales? Who knows, maybe someone you know is on this album!

Their cut and paste effect reminds me of a friend who sometimes takes letters I send her and composes a reply entirely from the phrases of my own letter. Back comes my own letter, recognizable in parts, but totally put through a blender. Why do this? Why create a work of art that's just a mangling of someone elses words? Because the result is a surprising and strange poem, occasionally clever and beautiful, but often even better, meaningless and beautiful.

This is not a music album, though it does contain some music. It is a sound collage that bears repeated listening. Recommended if you like the Firesign Theater radio drama LPs.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sardonic sonic sculptors at their peak, May 1, 2004

By	D. VESSELL "aka David Vesel" (Arnold, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you've ever heard of Negativland, it's probably either because of the brilliant but ill-begotten (and legally destructive) "U2" single from 1991, or this album, their best selling and easily their most accessible. Eschewing some of the long-form works that dominate many of their previous and subsequent releases, this album probably has more song-length tracks than any other Negativland collection. Only the wonderfully ethereal "Time Zones" tops 5 minutes in length, and a couple clock in under 2. Among the gems in this collection are the opening "Announcement" (a wonderful jab at the concept of pop radio marketing), the surreal "Yellow Black and Rectangular", the irreverent "Playboy Channel", the audacious punk-rock romp "Car Bomb", and the aforementioned "Time Zones", which puts a sliced-and-diced call-in radio show discussion about the Soviet Union to brilliant effect.

Some albums are better (most notably A Big 10-8 Place), some are more precise in their satire, but none reach the level of accessibility that Escape From Noise accomplishes. Be sure to buy the 1997 Seeland reissue, not the 1987 issue from their estranged record label SST.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IS THERE ANY ESCAPE!?!, November 14, 2000

By A Customer

This album is sure to impress. It's very non-traditional, so don't expect too many melodies to stick in your head after several listens. (Except maybe the Nesbitt's Lime Soda song.) Negativland uses interesting sounds and samples in strange and fantastic ways. Often humourous, often loud, always something new. Escape from convention!