Escape from Noise is the fourth studio album by Negativland. It marked the band's first release on an established independent record label, SST Records. The album continued to develop the band's experimental style, though it also featured shorter, more melodic songs than their previous material. The track "Christianity Is Stupid", a track featuring samples of evangelist Estus Pirkle from his film If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?, proved to be an enduring signature song. Negativland gained media attention a year later after issuing a press release falsely implying that murderer David Brom had been motivated by the song; this would inspire their subsequent album Helter Stupid.[8]
Release
The original release of Escape from Noise 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.[9] In the booklet, Crosley Bendix (Don Joyce) describes how the band's apartment and studio space were destroyed by a two-alarm fire on the night of "Friday the 13th of February, 1987".[10]
The fire started in Smart Laundry, a dry cleaning business located at street level below Negativland's apartment at 10028 San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, California. When he saw flames leaping up past their kitchen window, band member Mark Hosler yelled to his friend Tera Freedman in the next room to call 9-1-1. 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 before traveling to Los Angeles to meet with SST executives and "reaffirm their album commitment".[10]
In 1999, Seeland Records reissued the album in a new "un-remixed" edition, adding no bonus tracks and moving the text on the front cover to the booklet. A sticker was placed on the album, saying:
An old album from Negativland: Digitally exacto-remastered 331⁄3rpm compact disc re-issue of Negativland's classic 1987 LP with no added bonus tracks of any kind!
Don't let the new cover design fool you – your audiophile friends might think that such classics as "Car Bomb" and "Christianity Is Stupid" sound crisper and cleaner on this newly un-remixed edition, but they're dead wrong! And even though there are no longer eleven time zones in the Soviet Union (and no Soviet Union, either) this re-release sounds exactly the same as the original. The only thing different is the sticker you are reading right now.
The original LP is still in print on SST Records.[citation needed]
In 1988, the group released a press release suggesting that the song "Christianity Is Stupid" was connected to murders by David Brom, and that the group was forced to cancel a planned tour in support of Escape from Noise. However, there were no connections with the murders, and the tour was cancelled only due to shortage of funds and free time. Their next album, Helter Stupid, made use of the event by sampling news reports on the case.
Track listing
All music is composed by Negativland (Mark Hosler, Don Joyce, Chris Grigg, David Wills, and Richard Lyons).
A hidden track follows "Endscape". It is performed on the No Other Possibility video compilation as "Fire Song".
On the 1999 CD release, "Announcement" is split into a 0:13 Track 1 and a 1:39 pregap to Track 2.
Personnel
Negativland
Mark Hosler: singing, synthesizers, guitars, voice tapes, percussions, rhythm loops, bomb parts, David manipulation, tiny metal banjo, recorder, many other noises, mix
Don Joyce: yelling, talking tapes, electric tympani, synthesizer, lyrics, singing, Booper bee, bomb parts and assembly, noises everywhere, mix
Chris Grigg: drums, synthesizer, singing, computer & software, field recordings, mix
David Wills: talking, shortwave, family tape, bomb parts, regular Booper
Richard Lyons: singing, lyrics, voice
Additional personnel
Ian Allen: Helicopter (on "Sycamore"), Rhythm Loop (on "Car Bomb"), Bell (on "Time Zones")
^"Escape From Noise". Negativworldwidewebland. Background Info. Retrieved July 22, 2010. The LP edition was originally issued by SST Records with a 20-page booklet featuring article reprints, reviews and photographs from 1979 to 1987 (the printing negatives for the book are now lost) and a yellow "Car Bomb" bumper sticker.
^ abBendix, Crosley. "Is It Over Yet?" Twenty-page booklet from album, pages 1–2. Rec Rec Music, SST Records.
