So you want another music recommendation? How about The Seduction of Claude Debussy. I loaned this CD to a friend three years ago, and then his car was broken into and the CD was never returned. I recently bought a new copy, and have fallen in love all over again. Here’s the review that originally ran in Lotus in 1999:

ART OF NOISE the seduction of claude debussy / Universal / US
the seduction of claude debussy is one of the best produced noises that has ever caressed my ears. This luscious concept album is based on the life and works of Claude Debussy, who — as explained in “il pleuer” — was “not only the greatest French composer who ever lived, he is considered the revolutionary who set 20th Century music on its way.” A deserving subject of a complex, dreamy, and astonishing album. The songs guide the listener across a spectrum of drum ‘n’ bass, hip-hop, and pop-influenced songs, many incorporating DeBussy’s emotional piano lines. Tracks feature everything from loungey saxophone to a 100-piece orchestra. There’s vocals both operatic and soulful by Sally Bradshaw and Donna Lewis, rhymes by Rakim, and John Hurt’s magnificent spoken word.

One track that captures it all is “the holy egoism of genius.” Starting with one of those emotive Debussy piano lines, the song kicks into a tight up-tempo groove, the beats lifting and soaring. After a few minutes of bliss, our welcome narrator John Hurt breaks it down: “DeBussy understood that a work of art, or an effort to create beauty, was always regarded by some people as a personal attack.” Then aahhhh…in comes the funkiest two-note bass line you’ve ever heard, and more of that piano. Then enter the string section (wait, now they’re playing backwards!) and the listener is wholly engulfed by the experience of noise. I’m still trying to find my way out of the headspace this phenomenal album has put me in. Then again, maybe I like it here. Thank you, Art of Noise. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!