Following on from the fantastic Be Bop Deluxe box sets…
Esoteric Recordings and Cherry Red Records have announced that the Red Noise box set “Art/Empire/Industry” is due to be released in August.
Pre-orders are now being taken for what promises to be yet another sensational deluxe box set.
Sound-On-Sound was Bill Nelson‘s first album to be issued subsequent to the dissolution of Be Bop Deluxe. The album would prove to be his final for EMI.
Sound-On-Sound represents a major departure from Nelson‘s previous work, combining the urgency of New Wave music with the layering of synthesisers that would come to define the Synth Pop sounds of 1979-83. Consequently, the album is virtually absent of guitar solos, and the songs are delivered in a frantic, accelerated pace compared to most of Nelson‘s past work.
Most of the tracks on Sound-On-Sound feature the nucleus of Nelson, Clark and Ford (as described for the Furniture Music single) with Ian Nelson playing saxophones and/or synthesisers on 10 of the 12 tracks. Dave Mattacks from Fairport Convention played drums on only four tracks.
Sound-on-Sound was initially issued by Harvest on vinyl (complete with lyrics on the inner sleeve) and cassette, and peaked at No. 33 in the UK album chart. The album failed to sustain the level of interest associated with Be Bop Deluxe, and when EMI underwent a major re-structure in late 1979, Bill Nelson‘s Red Noise were dropped. Sound-On-Sound was deleted (along with the Be Bop Deluxe catalogue) sometime around 1980/81.
In April 2017 Cherry Red and Esoteric Recordings, who, since 2011, have done so much to raise the profile of Bill Nelson‘s solo recordings from the period 1980 to 2002, acquired the rights to release the Be Bop Deluxe and Red Noise material issued between 1973 and 1979.
On 26 August 2022, after all the Be Bop Deluxe albums had been given a deluxe box set release, it was now the turn of the Red Noise material. Due to licensing restrictions, the box set couldn’t be called Sound-On-Sound, but was instead given the title “Art/Empire/Industry.” The Deluxe Edition comprised of:
a freshly remastered version of the original album.
• a 2022 remix of the full album.
• includes a previously unreleased concert recorded in Leicester in February 1979.
• a previously unreleased track entitled “My Light” recorded for the Sound-On-Sound sessions.
• 4 recordings from a 1979 BBC Friday Rock Show session.
• a CD of previously unreleased Bill Nelson demos for the Sound-On Sound sessions.
• the original album presented in a 5.1 mix.
• previously unreleased promotional video of ‘Revolt Into Style’.
• three tracks performed by Red Noise on BBC TV’s ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’.
The box set includes a lavishly-illustrated book with extensive essay by Bill Nelson and a foreword by Steven Wilson, a facsimile tour programme, poster and four postcards.
A 2CD edition of the album is also being released at the same time as the Deluxe Edition.
Bill‘s thoughts:
“The main inspirations were dystopian science fiction novels from the likes of George Orwell (and E.M. Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’, written in 1909 and frighteningly prophetic of the internet). Also images from Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ and the ideas encapsulated in Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’. But there’s also a future-kitsch element to the Red Noise album’s stylings, a sense of irony and a slight tongue-in-cheek quality that suggests humorous absurdity. Although the songs portray a future with sinister overtones, the album attempts to have fun with these concepts, almost as if the citizens who inhabit the future-world the album portrays are too wrapped up in its electric distractions to register the negative effect it is having on their cultural values. Or something like that!“
“Punk wasn’t the reason I disbanded Be Bop Deluxe, just frustration with the ‘straightjacket’ I felt we’d been fitted with by the industry and our success. The band’s commercial machine was on an ever increasing upward path when I switched it off. I’d actually tried to pull the plug much earlier, before the Drastic Plastic album was recorded, but had been persuaded by the band’s management to hold on a bit longer. Had I gotten my way, the Drastic Plastic material would have been recorded as the first Red Noise album. Instead, I adapted it for the final Be Bop album.“
“I don’t separate Be Bop era from Red Noise Era from whatever. It’s a constantly flowing river heading out into an ocean of whatever is left when I’m gone. What appears to be different sections or parts appears so only if you view them from close up, from a particular point of bias. If you stand back and take in the entire work, you’ll see it as a unity, a single expression of ‘being’, a single, unwavering, personal voice. And it’s ALL relevant to the story I’m telling. No single part is any less or more important than another.“
“I chose the album title, Sound-On-Sound, as a reference to early multi-track recording techniques, as pioneered by the great Les Paul.“
“The little ‘notice’ on the vinyl version about playing the album loud and ‘motorised in sequence’ etc, etc, was written by me, tongue firmly in cheek…
On the original back cover, an “Important Notice” stated: “This record has been styled with today’s hi-fi in mind. For optimum results it should be played at high volume in a room with no views other than those afforded by the use of subliminal image video apparatus. Dancing is allowed though electrical stimulation of the nervous system is unnecessary. The music has been motorized in sequence to conserve real time. File under Absolute A-Go-Go.“
Pre-orders are open here: https://www.billnelson.com/sound-on-sound
Tracklist:
Disc One:
01) Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric)
02) For Young Moderns
03) Stop/Go/Stop
04) Furniture Music
05) Radar In My Heart
06) Stay Young
07) Out Of Touch
08) A Better Home In The Phantom Zone
09) Substitute Flesh
10) The Atom Age
11) Art/Empire/Industry
12) Revolt Into Style Bonus tracks
13) Wonder Toys That Last Forever
14) Acquitted by Mirrors (B-side Of ‘Furniture Music’ EP)
15) Stay Young (BBC Session 17.02.1979)
16) Furniture Music (BBC Session 17.02.1979)
17) Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric) (BBC Session 17.02.1979)
18) Out Of Touch (BBC Session 17.02.1979)
Disc Two:
Live At The De Montfort Hall, Leicester 1979
01) Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric)
02) For Young Moderns
03) Furniture Music
04) Out Of Touch
05) Stop/Go/Stop
06) Atom Age
07) Possession
08) Superenigmatix
09) Substitute Flesh
10) A Better Home In The Phantom Zone
11) Radar in My Heart
12) Art/Empire/Industry
13) Revolt Into Style
14) Stay Young
15) For Young Moderns (Encore)
Disc Three:
01) Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric) (New Stereo Mix)
02) For Young Moderns (New Stereo Mix)
03) Stop/Go/Stop (New Stereo Mix)
04) Furniture Music (New Stereo Mix)
05) Radar In My Heart (New Stereo Mix)
06) Stay Young (New Stereo Mix)
07) Out Of Touch (New Stereo Mix)
08) A Better Home In The Phantom Zone (New Stereo Mix)
09) Substitute Flesh (New Stereo Mix)
10) The Atom Age (New Stereo Mix)
11) Art/Empire/Industry (New Stereo Mix)
12) Revolt Into Style (New Stereo Mix)
13) Wonder Toys That Last Forever (New Stereo Mix)
14) Acquitted By Mirrors (New Stereo Mix)
15) My Light (Previously Unreleased – Recorded For The ‘Sound On Sound’ Sessions) (New Stereo Mix)
16) Instantly Yours (New Stereo Mix)
17) Ideal Homes (New Stereo Mix)
18) Disposable (New Stereo Mix)
Disc Four:
01) Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric) (5.1 mix)
02) For Young Moderns (5.1 mix)
03) Stop/Go/Stop (5.1 mix)
04) Furniture Music (5.1 mix)
05) Radar In My Heart (5.1 mix)
06) Stay Young (5.1 mix)
07) Out Of Touch (5.1 mix)
08) A Better Home In The Phantom Zone (5.1 mix)
09) Substitute Flesh (5.1 mix)
10) The Atom Age (5.1 mix)
11) Art/Empire/Industry (5.1 mix)
12) Revolt Into Style (5.1 mix)
Disc Five:
01) Wonder Toys That Last Forever (5.1 mix)
02) Acquitted By Mirrors (5.1 mix)
03) My Light (5.1 mix) (Recorded For The ‘Sound On Sound’ Sessions)
04) Instantly Yours (5.1 mix)
05) Ideal Homes (5.1 mix)
06) Disposable (5.1 mix)
Video Content:
01) Revolt into Style (Promotional video 1979)
02) Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric) (BBC TV Old Grey Whistle Test – 1979)
03) Furniture Music (BBC TV Old Grey Whistle Test 1979)
04) Stay Young (BBC TV Old Grey Whistle Test 1979)
Disc Six:
Bill Nelson Red Noise Demos 1978 – Previously Unreleased
01) Acquitted By Mirrors (Demo)
02) For Young Moderns (Demo)
03) Stop/Go/Stop (Demo)
04) Furniture Music (Demo)
05) Radar In My Heart (Demo)
06) Stay Young (Demo)
07) Out Of Touch (Demo)
08) A Better Home In The Phantom Zone (Demo)
09) Substitute Flesh (Demo)
10) The Atom Age (Demo)
11) Revolt Into Style (Demo)
12) Waiting For The Night (Demo)
13) My Light (Demo)