Below the Waste is Art of Noise's fourth full-length original album and their last album for China Records

China Records

China Records was a record label founded October 1, 1984 by Derek Green. Its top-selling artists were Art of Noise, Morcheeba and The Levellers....

 before Anne Dudley

Anne Dudley

Anne Dudley is an English composer and pop musician, and was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in both the classical and pop genres. She is perhaps best known, however, as one of the core members of the synthpop band Art of Noise and also as a film...

 reformed with ZTT's Trevor Horn

Trevor Horn

Trevor Charles Horn CBE is an English pop music record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring in north-east England....

 and Paul Morley

Paul Morley

Paul Morley is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications...

 for 1999's The Seduction of Claude Debussy

The Seduction of Claude Debussy

The Seduction of Claude Debussy is a 1999 concept album by Art of Noise, featuring a line-up of Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley, Paul Morley, and Lol Creme. Also appearing on the album are John Hurt, soprano Sally Bradshaw, Rakim, and Donna Lewis...

.

The album saw the group experimenting with world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

, collaborating with South African Zulu

Zulu music

The Zulu are a South African ethnic group. Many Zulu musicians have become a major part of South African music. A number of Zulu-folk derived styles have also become well-known across South Africa and abroad.-Mbube and Isicathamiya:...

 group Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens

Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens

Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens was a South African mbaqanga supergroup composed of:...

, who provide a heavy layer of mostly non-English-language vocals on three tracks (Yebo, Chain Gang and Spit). The album was produced by Anne Dudley, Ted Hayton and J.J. Jeczalik.

The album represents the diverging interests of the two remaining members of the original group, Anne Dudley

Anne Dudley

Anne Dudley is an English composer and pop musician, and was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in both the classical and pop genres. She is perhaps best known, however, as one of the core members of the synthpop band Art of Noise and also as a film...

 and J.J. Jeczalik

J.J. Jeczalik

Jonathan Edward Stephen Jeczalik [pronounced 'Yencharlik'], better known as J. J. Jeczalik, is a retired electronic musician, and co-founder of the former electronic music group, Art of Noise. Jeczalik also worked as a record producer and musician on a number of the Pet Shop Boys early recordings...

. Dudley's influence is evident in the album's ambient

Ambient music

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

 interludes of melodic, orchestral pieces, while Jeczalik's influence can be heard in the album's dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

 tracks and harder, rock-edged pieces. The latter songs also feature arrangements more typical of the band's earlier material, utilising sampling

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 techniques, lengthy fade-outs, a diverse mixture of classical instruments, guitar riffs and percussion typical of industrial music

Industrial music

Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...

.

Like its predecessor, In No Sense? Nonsense!

In No Sense? Nonsense!

In No Sense? Nonsense! was the third full-length album by Art of Noise. By the time of its recording, the group had been reduced to a duo, with engineer Gary Langan leaving the previous year—Langan's mix engineering duties were taken over by Bob Kraushaar and Ted Hayton for this album, but the...

, the album also features cover versions of previously recorded themes composed for television and film, namely "Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...

" (originally the theme to the 1964 television programme The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe) and "James Bond Theme

James Bond Theme

The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No. The piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in almost every James Bond film....

" which was submitted for the soundtrack of the 1989 James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film License To Kill and subsequently rejected by the film's producers.

The "Emphasis Speakers" on the album cover

Album cover

An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...

 were designed by Morton V. Warren for B&W

Bowers & Wilkins

Bowers & Wilkins is a British loudspeaker company that produces mid-range through reference quality hi-fi and home theater speakers. The company name is often abbreviated to just B&W.Joe Atkins is current owner and chairman...

. The orchestra was led by John Bradbury.

Track listing

1. "Dan Dare" (A. Dudley/J. Jeczalik)
2. "Yebo" (A. Dudley/J. Jeczalik/W. Nkosi)
3. "Catwalk" (A. Dudley/J. Jeczalik/T. Hayton)
4. "Promenade 1" (A. Dudley)
5. "Dilemma" (J. Jeczalik/T. Hayton)
6. "Island" (A. Dudley/J. Jeczalik)
7. "Chain Gang" (J. Jeczalik/W. Nkosi)
8. "Promenade 2" (A. Dudley)
9. "Back To Back" (J. Jeczalik)
10. "Flashback" (A. Dudley)
11. "Spit" (A. Dudley/J. Jeczalik)
12. "Robinson Crusoe" (Reverberi/Mellin/Parys)
13. "James Bond Theme
    James Bond Theme
    The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No. The piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in almost every James Bond film....
    
    " (Norman)
14. "Finale" (A. Dudley)