What's That Noise?

English electronic producers in the 90s I am retroactively begging you to practice some restraint in your album lengths. I was enjoying this album a pretty good amount ("Stop This Crazy Thing" is awesome!), then I looked at the runtime and realized that, after listening for half an hour, I still had 40 minutes left to go! Point deducted for being too long, which is a shame because it's otherwise quite good.

What's that noise? Oh, it's this shite House album!

This absolutely slapped. It hearkens back to everything that made me respect and fall in love with electronic music when I first listened to The Avalanches, and also calls to mind Paul's Boutique. I can see the massive influence this had, and it makes me wanna get up and wiggle.

Synthetic and silly and tedious and way, way too long. Wow, do all the sound bytes make this sound dated and the utter opposite of timeless. "Party and bullshit" -- very much the emphasis is on the latter. This Fall fan will pretend not to have heard Mark E. Smith. More dumb than dope.

Great listen. Found on youtube. This was a true all time classic. Lisa - what a great artist. Not listed on Deezer, or on Youtube Music. Shame on all. Thank you for remembering this here!

Dope. Get it on YouTube definitely worth it

This album is a 1995 24-Hour Fitness Spin Class jammed into a box.

Brilliant house music. There was always something different about Coldcut - the variety of genres, the wittiness in the samples, a playfulness and genuine musicianship. So much House was formulaic and predictable. Coldcut were anything but. We need this on streaming services and soon!

Already a fan of Coldcut although I must admit I hadn't listened to this one until now due to it's lack of being readily availability. Great mix of vocal and instrumental tracks which would become the style of many of their albums to come. High energy and a blast to listen to. Although it must be said that the first track, "People Hold On" does sound noticeably different to the rest of the album but is still a great song none-the-less Stand out tracks: - My Telephone - Stop This Crazy Thing - No Connection

Good question, what IS that noise? It turns out it was a truly unremarkable house music album.

Whenever I see "British Electronic Music Group" on here (so basically every other day for the last 3 years) I always cross my fingers. Sometimes it's great, and sometimes it's awful. Today was great!

Very nostalgic - contains songs that were regulars on pop radio right on the cusp of when I stopped listening. The acid house peace'n'luv stuff sounds pretty stupid and naive 35 years later as we stand on the brink of another ugly Trump travesty, but I might enjoy the dulcet tones of Lisa Stansfield and Yazz as they push me into the ovens.

The album asks a good question, though an even better one might be what's so special about that noise? Boring, cheesy 80's hip hop / house combo. Splicing together a bunch of samples does not a good album make. My Telephone wasn't bad and I guess there were some other decent moments. Too few and far between though.

What’s that noise, you ask? Oh, just another load of trip hop electronica shit. Yeah, we’re moving on.

I do not need another DJ album mixing and sampling sounds. There is a place for it but not on this list. I don't mind it occasionally but I don't need a 50 minute album of it. Still better than some of the albums on this list.

Couldn't bring myself to listen to it all. Really not my thing. Has some decent tunes, but also some really obnoxious ones.

What was that noise? God this gets tiresome after about 1 song and I have no clue how I made it through the rest of this. 2/10

Yeah this was not something I enjoyed having to find. When I found it I didn’t enjoy listening to it. It was just noise noise noise. Cannot recommend. No thank you!

This whole album is a disjointed, noisy mess. And it's not even an original mess. It's a trash pile made out of other peoples' work. This wasn't worth the time it took to hunt the album down.

I think the name of this album works both for people that like it, and those that despise it. Unfortunately, I'm much closer to that latter group. It was just a bunch of noise that I couldn't fins a key into. It seemed very chaotic and random, just for the sake of chaos and randomness. I didn't have any fun listening to this album and honestly, I would just rather forget about it.

Disgusting techno-crap

What a surprisingly great album. Golden age of hip hop. Fantastic production. A treat from start to finish. Will be adding this to my library for sure.

This is a great record. Would be great at parties to show you are OG. Too bad it's not on Spotify. Had to go to YouTube.

Wow. 1001 albums featured a house collection that doesn't make me want to stab myself in the eardrums. I can actually put this one on and, you know, *listen* to it.

Pretty cool and interesting album all things considered but I would definitely not be in a rush to listen to it again. It was kind of a lot. Favourite song Stop This Crazy Thing. (Also future me rereading these reviews listen to the first minute of the album again just do it)

The kind of thing you'd probably like if you like that kind of thing.

This lovingly-machined, possibly revolutionary, party music can, on the wrong sort of day - like now - have the secondary function of being a biting Dadaist taunt.

Interesting album, better than fat boy slim, like the first song and "stop this crazy thing" but the rest was meh. also not even on spotify - 2/5.

2 Generic 90s techno. I don't know why the hell this is on the list.

Unremarkable. Had a bit of zip here and there, but really, what's it doing on this list?

I think the main source for this album being a YouTube account with a Wide Yoshi profile picture says pretty much everything you need to know about it. Weird dancetronica, come on Rob after this many "tronica" albums you need to submit yourself for psychiatric evaluation. It's not the worst one he put on this list, but it is still a rough listen.

Far too springy (and messy) for me.

wtf did i just listen to... this was just a complete nothing of an album. UHHHH 5.7/10

I'm cool with house music but I don't think this is worth much of a listen. Rough around the edges with certain elements that don't pan out that well.

Long, dumb, repetitive and just absolutely awful. Took me 2 attempts but I did make it through, not sure why.

Tried to listen, not my jam, sorry kids

Better than some bland dance music...but just barely. 1.5/5

April 1989! No Coldcut… no Paul’s Boutique? Could that be a thing? 🤔 Start of a genre? Sampling Pioneers? 4.5

Really cool album, though it was hard to find a full listing through official videos. It blended a lot of samples into the house genre in a way that was likely novel for its 1989 release, where it doesn't feel as standard as most house music I have listened to. Loads of fun

This is as much fun as is possible to cram into an electronica album

THIS ALBUM WAS HARD!!! I was totally expecting it to be complete trash. I’m shocked, I’m shook and I’m shaking ass!!

LOVE!! Why isn't this on Spotify???

super cool, pity it's not on streaming

Note: This album isn't on Spotify. A vibe as soon as it starts. I'm not a person that usually wants to dance, but this is doing it for me.

Great to listen to, but had to head to youtube as it wasn't on Spotify

Honestly, I loved this. So damn fun! Always keeping you on your toes. Is it stealing to mash up others work? Who cares! Especially if you’re creating something that excites like this does. What a sound for 1989.

Never heard this, it was wonderful.

Fun album. cool. I like it.

Dit album heeft lang in mijn playlist gestaan. Ik zag het altijd wat als een quilty pleasure. Met een euro-dance nummertje hier, een gesampelde telefoon daar en af en toe een heel kinderachtig melodietje. En toch…Ze weten het allemaal prima te laten klinken. En buiten die hele opvallende delen komt er een prima stukje Acid voorbij en dan weer een fijn stukje hiphop. Het zijn allemaal ‘Beats and Peaces’, maar het vormt toch een geheel. En als je daarmee zoveel kanten op kan en het allemaal en uniek en toegankelijk weet te maken, dan verdien je gewoon 5 sterren.

Big beats are the best, get high all the time. Is this album too long? If you include the remixes, yeah, it is. But I don't really count them, they can definitely be skipped (a 10 minute remix of a song we already heard is grim). I still managed to give it 3 listens and it still kept my attention. Fuck this album was good, I've heard People Hold On before, but that was my extent of experience with Coldcut. It's a shame this album isn't on Spotify. Guess I'll have to buy the vinyl. There's no chance electronic music of this age - when drum machines were really only starting to come out and electronic was only just being defined - could ever not show it's age, but you have to respect your elders in this case. You wouldn't have people gurning their face off on MDMA on Coolangatta Beach listening to Fisher's shit ghost-produced house (ironically with pop samples from around this time) without the precursor records like these. The synths are sloppy, the samples are dated, and the bass and drums sound like they're straight out of a 1990's aerobic workout-at-home VHS tape that your mum used to work out to so she could keep fit for the neighbour she was cheating on your father with. But, I fucking love all of that. It's cheesy in the best way. I loved this thing, and yes my bias is showing here, because I love old house music and trip hop. Easy 5.

"Are you gonna dance or what?" Sadly I mostly listen to these at work otherwise I would be. Maybe I'll crack off a quite 2-step when nobody's looking though. Just as a quite aside before getting into the album. Doing this list is what motivated me to stop being a broke piece of shit and actually stick to a spotify premium subscription. and yet less than 40 albums in I manage to get an album which isn't even on the platform. And that part's a real shame too, because I really loved this album. The collection of different elements from the synth, drum machines and different vocalists between tracks keep things very fun and fresh. The only song that I think left a bad impression was In Deep, where I was able to enjoy parts of it but was distracted by the drunkard that came in the booth and started sticking his tongue out right into the microphone. Thankfully he got it out of his system and security were able to escort him out of the studio before the next track was being done. I imagine this had to be pretty influential at its time, I recognize a lot of these samples that were used in other electronic music later on (Theme From "Reportage" was sed as the opening for an old Japanese prank show a while ago). I'm glad our first electronic album for this list was something so funky. Now I suppose I'll just have to see if I can still put local files onto my spotfiy somehow.. Highlights People Hold On, My Telephone, Theme from "Reportage", Stop This Crazy Thing, Smoke Dis One

Absolutely funky, cannot believe this album is from 1989 feels extremely ahead of its time. Hard to put into words exactly how I feel about this album but it’s like the music equivalent of patchwork rug that smells like incense. Both sides as good as eachother, this album is absolutely going to be getting a lot of spins from me and it’s a crime that this isn’t on Spotify, copyright be damned. Favourite tracks here are People Hold On, Which Doctor, No Connection.

Well, there definitely were some moments that made me wonder what, in fact, that noise was. Very experimental but I thoroughly enjoyed it, the perfect thing to keep the vibes up as I collapse after work but not too stressful despite its eccentricity. Just very engrossing music, a journey into sound or whatever that guy was saying holds very true! Plus a super wholesome youtube comment section, so that's always a bonus :)

Totally all over the place but I loved it

I really missed the boat on this at the time but listening back now I recognise a lot of the tracks and this was there for others to follow. Not really my thing but it's a definite genre and this is one of the top albums in that genre.

This is fun and it feels really ahead of its time. It's also going right into my list of favorite albums from this list that I hadn't even heard of before.

What a banger, with some absoulute classics. I know it's all samples but cut and mashed into a new and fresh sounds (well suppose it's not new no more).

Couldn't find this album on my streaming service so I picked the oldest one available (Philosophy from 1993). I like it a lot. Dreamer so far is my favorite. Also, is the most recent track I've heard. I like the "modern" jazzy flow.

Revolutionary album at the time it came out. I was amazed after listening to this for the first time in nearly 40 years how commercial sounding this is by today's standards.

Mahtava house-lätty! Kiva ettei tanssimusan kulta-aikaa ole listalta täysin unohdettu. Paljon on moni artisti mm. Avalanches tälle velkaa. People Hold On, My Telephone, Stop This Crazy Thing ja No Connection todella priimaa edelleen. Muuten ehkä vähän epätasainen. Sanotaan 4,5/5, joka pyöristyy ylös, koska genresympatiat.

So dissapointed that this isn't on my streaming services but so glad I was able to listen to it because it's right up my alley and so good I'm finding it hard to pick a favourite track. As soon as Smoke Dis One kicks in I'm hooked and Stop This Crazy Thing ramps up the vibe, Not Paid Enough is so much fun but I couldn't find a list of all the samples. Which Doctor? and My Telephone are great and Fat (Party And Bullshit) keeps the party going.

Oddly, I have never heard of this artist, or this album, yet practically every track on this album is familiar and - more importantly - good.

FUNKY SO GOOD

I had not previously heard of Coldcut, but this album was fantastic. Clearly very groundbreaking, hard to imagine that this came out in the mid-80s. Will definitely check out their other stuff.

Not my fav genre but reminded me of DJ Shadow. Then I realized this predates Shadow by several years and realized what a groundbreaking album this truly is.

What an AWESOME album! Never heard of this but it had everything I love. Hip Hop, Samples, Synth, Dance, Creativity and Bizarreness… loved this album. Going to mix it into the rotation for sure! This is my first 5/5 rating on here. Going to find more about this band for sure!

dance club vibes; loved it

Wall to wall bangers. You could have told me that No Connection was on RENAISSANCE and I would have believed you. Favorite track was definitely Stop This Crazy Thing

Why had I not ever heard of this? I mean, it seems like something that I would have listened to in 1989. I totally felt this jam!

I don't know what I expected but it sure wasn't this. What a party! Danceable and fun. Delightful.

Super fun, great for focusing at work.

Good but in a weird way

A truly charming and experimental album. It’s clear that this is a pioneering record, full of playful exploration. Wildly funky and still catchy.

What a gem!

Fun, groovy, a little dated. Streams only on YouTube so I will probably never listen to it again.

Really enjoy (I'm) In Deep. Simple enough song structure, but the weird compressed vocal track is interesting as are the shifting loops and sporadic elements. Also loving My Telephone -- has no right to be as good as it is given the subject matter of telephone addiction. Out of the gate I was suspect, but by Which Doctor! I am absolutely vibing with this record. Feels distinctly 80s, but with quality production. Just when I thought I couldn't enjoy this album more, that fucking sample of Tarzan on Stop This Crazy Thing haha. Wild and wonderful. Not Paid Enough is a nice extended cut that shuffles about over a hip-hop beat. Feels like a spiratual predecessor to the likes of Madlib and J-Dilla. I for one am glad that this was on the list because otherwise I would likely never have found it with it not being on Spotify. I'll say that I didn't love everything in here -- the first two tracks I could leave -- but the middle of the album gets much more experimental and interesting. While I get arguments of this feeling cluttered or random, I felt like all of the sounds and samples were well blended and worked towards a common cause. Worth another listen for sure. Low 4 for me.

loved track 8. no connection. loved it on a whole, its so random and unique and helped me focus when studying (with a cheeky head bop here and there)

Too long but fun. I was grooving to a lot of this.

You know, this was a groove. I enjoyed working to it. Fav: "Stop this Crazy Thing" both versions.

Not heard this Coldcut album before, really enjoyable listen, would definitely seek a physical copy, ⭐⭐⭐⭐, note only available currently to stream via YouTube https://youtu.be/tgYhZ5Ennig?si=Npzb0XtEM3Vi-LxK

How cold can coldcuts get? Pretty cold. Whats That Noise? is a sick album. It's a top shelf blend of acid house and DIY hiphop, cutting some unhinged samples (probably why it isn't on streaming) with dirty dance music and some really surprising vocals. Stop This Crazy Thing and Smoke Dis One are undoubtedly highlights, but there's fun to be had all through. It overstays its welcome just a little, and it's slightly of its time, but that doesnt matter: that time was evidently awesome and so is this.

Echt veel leuker dan ik had verwacht. Begint met een beetje oude maar goede house, wat leuke hiphop stukjes ertussen. Not Paid Enough gebruikt zelfs een sample van Don't Look Any Further.

I quite enjoyed this. It's very danceable, and varied enough to hold interest while being consistent enough to have an identifiable vibe that sticks around throughout. It seems not to exist on Deezer so I had to listen on YouTube, which means I'll almost certainly never listen to this again. Which is a shame, because as I said it's pretty good

Wish this one was on a streaming service so I could listen to it easier.

Day457 - not at all what i was expecting but ginger said give it four stars cause it brought back dancing days

Honestly, pretty cool album. This is why I enjoy this list despite the excessive amount of mediocrity you occasionally find something like this that isn't being covered like everything else. Had to listen on Youtube since it's not on Spotify but I added a couple tracks to my Party Playlist on YT.

What's That Noise is the debut album from Coldcut, a British duo that pioneered sampling and looping in club music. Their first singles got some attention, and their debut full length album was a defining work for London's DJ club scene. This is a great collection of dance tracks that sounds surprising current for a thirty-five year old album.

Really like this style of music. Listened to the U.S. version as uploaded by a kind soul on YouTube. My favorite track was "Smoke Dis One" (hell yeah Queen Latifah!), but honestly the whole thing put me in a pretty good mood!

What's That Noise is pretty wild. Crazy use of space, weird sounds and cuts. I enjoy them pulling sounds that weren't just from soul/Funk but from dialogue also. It's kinda wild that these Brits were pulling samples that Prince Paul or Public Enemy or Tupac/Johnny J were pulling for their beats. Overall I enjoyed this a lot, the only knock I'd give this is over some of the old timey rap, but still mid to high 4's.

Can't believe a computer programmer and ex-art teacher from England made some shit like this in the 80's. The beats and samples are so good. The rapping sounds dated, but what do you expect from 1989. This is a great hidden gem - 4.5 stars

Probably revolutionary for its time. I don't hate it.

This album wasn’t available to listen to on Spotify so I listened to ‘Some Like It Cold’ (1989) I enjoyed that album

I like this style of music for a bit. It's interesting how you can create complete new songs and meanings from cutting and pasting

4/5

Whoa!!! I'm glad we're back partying because jesus christ... I cannot believe this is here on 1001 albums in the sea of mediocre men with a guitar and a drama of destroying art and music!! From start to finish, this is genuinely a fun record with immaculate vibes. I also love the art cover that looks like it was made on Paint then important to Photoshop. Every instrumental on each song was wonderful, delicious and an ascension spiritually. I liked that it explored a night of partying, how we start with such an expensive eargasm, attractive and exciting and we descend through the night into a bit of filth, a bit of paint and colour and then a final ending that's just 🤘🏻🎀💖 Fave Songs: - People Hold On - In Deep (this was such a funny random sound but it ended so good) - Which! Doctor - No Connection (tune) - Smoke Dis One - Beats & Pieces - Stop This Crazy Thing (Headmaster Mix)

What a treat! I can’t believe this came out in 1989. It is clearly highly influential on what would come in dance music - breakbeat, bigbeat, and samples that are legendary. Who knew “party and bullshit” goes back at least this far? Similar to the Avalanches’ later samplecore, but with a solid danceable throughline and much catchier treatment.

This was a great throwback to when I used to listen to DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist with Product Placement and Brain freeze. They were regularly spun on my CD player whilst doing my paper round. Arguably, those were better constructed than this. Finding a copy to listen to was also a challenge!!

Leur musique m'est tellement familière sans que je la connaisse du tout ; ils ont certainement influencé les débuts du hip hio, été des pionniers du genre. Leurs pièces sont entraînantes, pop et accessibles tout en étant très construites

Cool find!

Just straight up great sampling and dance music that makes you wanna bust out some moves right then and there. It's a diverse array of songs too, which helps to give it some staying power. Genuinely enjoyed it.