Coldcut ‎– What's That Noise?

This is an excellent album that features a variety of styles and highlights some early techno sounds. I have the one (there were different versions) with the original "Smoke 1", not the Queen Latifah version which was OK. I kind of like the original a bit better. My favorite track is "I'm In Deep" which has a nice early analog synthy techno sound. The bassline sounds like it could have been a Roland SH 101. I personally think this is a great album! That's open to much debate but it was in fact "Ahead Of Our Time" by a few years. When this was released I was still jammin' out to heavy metal music and techno was a few years off yet! Check it out and see what you think.

People Hold is the usual version. Superior pop-house of the time with fine vocal from Stansfield before she went 'classy'.

Fat (Party & Bullshit) is one of thsoe great tracks that defies easy categorisation. Farting analogue bassline, horn stabs conga heavy breaks.

I'm In Deep is a funny one. A bit of a dirge at times it's not as 'up' as the rest of the album and sits oddly here. Acidic bassline, the Fall's Mark E Smith singing down a telephone-ah.

No Conncetion is the most straightforward track on the album. Basically deep house or early trance (proper trance like your mum used to like though not Ian Van Dahl) in feel.

Stop This Crazy Thing. Junior Reid, gorilla backing vocals, that analogue bass paping away, Ska brass section and drums and a great summer hit.

My Telephone is bit of a concept track where previos cut-ups have been scatalogical in approach this was about those damn phones ringing all the time an dthis was befor the rise of mobiles! Perhaps they just had loads of telephoney sample lyiong around. Nicely keyed ring tones and what have you, vocals quite nice but didn't deserve a single release.

Theme From Reportage was , as the tiitle hints, the theme to Reportage which was an investagative news piece as part of BBC2 DEF II youth TV slot. I like this. Short and sweet. Nice analogue bass again and loads of "Don't touch that dial" and "Is anybody out there" type samples.

Which Doctor? - This is a sort of spooky hodge podge of samples and breaks with synth FX piano notes here and there. It's a very What's that Noise sort of track.

Smoke 1 was later re-used as the backing for Find A Way feat Queen Latifah. A hip-hop backing track it is really. 100 BPM funky break, nice sub bass.

Doctorin' The House (Say R Mix). This is far superior to the Acid Shut Up mix from the remix 12". No samples to speak of this complete rethink is more a pop-house version.

What's that noise features tribal rhythms and chants and ha s sort of world music feel whilst staying part of the album and undeniably Coldcut.

Overall the album is a complete mixed bag of styles and ideas but it still holds together pretty well. It has a couple of hits and guest vocals and has stood the test of time pretty well. Nearly every track has little voice samples and Fx between them to glue them together and they are one of the reasons I love the album although in many way it would have been better with Beats and Pieces on it instead of on the bonus 12". The CD corrected this though. This is for me The Coldcut album.