Escape from Noise | ||||
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Studio album by Negativland | ||||
Released | 1987 (original) 1999 (reissue) |
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Genre |
Avant garde Experimental Sound collage |
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Length | 42:12 | |||
Label |
SST/Seeland Records (original) Seeland (1999 "un-remixed" reissue) |
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Producer | Negativland | |||
Negativland chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Rolling Stone | [1] |
Escape from Noise is a 1987 studio album/concept album by Negativland. It marked the band's first release on an established independent record label, SST Records. On this album, they continued to develop their experimental style. The group also incorporated elements of pop music with shorter tracks and more conventional melodies. "Christianity Is Stupid", a track featuring samples from the propaganda movie If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?, layered over a buzzing and droning hard rock groove, proved to be an enduring signature song. The band and the release gained widespread attention due to a press release falsely implying that murderer David Brom had listened to the song before killing his family members.
The original album came with a yellow bumper sticker with black letters reading "Car Bomb", and a booklet outlining the history of the band, along with photos of band members and reviews of previous releases. In the booklet, Crosley Bendix (Don Joyce) describes how Negativland's studio/apartment and recording equipment were destroyed in a two-alarm fire discovered by Negativland member Mark Hosler at 11:50 pm late on "Friday the 13th of February, 1987". The fire started in Smart Laundry, a dry cleaning business located at street level below Negativland's apartment, 10028 San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, California. When he saw flames leaping up past their kitchen window, Hosler yelled to his friend Tera Freedman in the next room to call 9-1-1 to notify the fire department. Hosler and Freedman collected the finished master tapes and artwork for Escape from Noise and quickly left the building, just as fire crews arrived. Cleaning solvents in the laundry accelerated the fire and caused extensive damage to the building before fire crews gained control. Afterward, the band grimly assessed the total destruction of the recording equipment and the materials from previous releases. Together, they traveled to Los Angeles to meet with SST executives and "reaffirm their album commitment".