Art of Noise “How To Kill” from 1984’s Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?

The Art of Noise (the band) were born out of a group of engineers working on Yes’s 90125 who got frustrated with the perfection demanded by said group. J.J. Jeczalik, Gary Langan, and Anne Dudley started messing around with the, then, brand new sampling synthesizer called the Fairlight. They made a lot of weird loops, sounds, and song snippets in between work. ZTT records’ Paul Morley became interested in this idea of marketing such an anti-group, as did producer (and former Yes frontman) Trevor Horn. A year later, this debut album appeared. Every track was different, ranging from novelty pop to odd and harrowing soundscapes.

For every “Close (To The Edit)” or “Moments In Love”, there was a darker counterpart. “A Time For Fear” was one. And this track, “How To Kill”, was another.

As part of the final trio of short tracks, “How To Kill” was sandwiched in between. In regards to IDM, it was the most accidentally ahead-of-its-time track on the album, especially in regards to the ambient chords and industrial sounding samples.

The samples may sound absurd and funny to most, especially today, but there’s a layer of sadness in this track that’s really hard to crack.

When I was 12, I made the mistake of listening to this track right after my family’s dog had to be put to sleep. “How To Kill” clarified too well what “putting to sleep” was like, and I started freaking out and bawling — the first time I ever cried over a dead pet. I’ll never forget it.