In No Sense? Nonsense!


In No Sense? Nonsense! is the third full-length album by Art of Noise, released in 1987 by China Records.

Background and recording

By the time of its recording, the group had been reduced to a duo, with the engineer Gary Langan leaving the previous year; Langan's mix engineering work was taken over by Bob Kraushaar and Ted Hayton for this album, but the music was produced entirely by Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik. With this album, the group expanded 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, clarinet ensemble 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. In addition, "Roundabout 727" samples "A Nation Rejects", a B-side from the In Visible Silence album.

Release

The original LP and cassette releases end side A with "E.F.L." and resume with "Ode to Don Jose" on side B. For the CD pressings that followed, "Don Jose" and its following track, "A Day at the Races", were swapped. To compensate for the change, the field recording from the end of "Don Jose" were appended to "E.F.L." instead. Some cassette pressings of this album have the same program recorded on both sides, due to the advantages of C90 tape and the desire to keep the album as one continuous piece.
On 2 November 2018, the album was re-released in a new, expanded "deluxe" format alongside 20+ remixes, 12-inch versions and expanded versions of the original tracks on the album, including many tracks which didn't make the original album first time around. Some of these were originally featured in the band's track "Acton Art", which formed part of the B side package of the single and 12-inch versions of the band's track "Dragnet".
"Ransom on the Sand" is sampled in "Melt", the fourth track of Leftfield's 1995 album Leftism.

Track listing

All tracks written by Anne Dudley and J. J. Jeczalik, except where noted.
Side one
  1. "Galleons of Stone"
  2. "Dragnet"
  3. "Fin Du Temps"
  4. "How Rapid?"
  5. "Opus for Four"
  6. "Debut"
  7. "E.F.L."
Side two
  1. "Ode to Don Jose"
  2. "A Day at the Races"
  3. "Counterpoint"
  4. "Roundabout 727"
  5. "Ransom on the Sand"
  6. "Roller 1"
  7. "Nothing Was Going to Stop Them Then, Anyway"
  8. "Crusoe"
  9. "One Earth"

Personnel

Credits adapted from LP liner notes, except where noted.
Additional musicians
Choristers on "How Rapid?" and "Nothing Was Going to Stop Them Then, Anyway"
  • Benjamin Adderley, Francis Ambrose, Douglas Bowen, Keith Burrowes, Alexander Costello, Benjamin Dixon, Jonathon Edge, Benjamin Greatorex, Simon Harris, Robert Howe, Adrian Hum, David James-Roll, Matthew Meynell, Timothy Morgan, Daniel Parker, Alastair Stout, Alistair Taylor, Ian Weide
Lay clerks on "How Rapid?" and "Nothing Was Going to Stop Them Then, Anyway"
  • Tim Barthope
  • Harold Lindsay
  • Peter North
  • David Watt
  • Richard Clover
  • Paul Smith
Orchestra on "Debut"
Technical